[Leica] Mercury battery solution for M5, Leicaflex, etc.??

[simonpj at mac.com (Simon PJ)]

Thanks for this information, Didier.

I vaguely remember a potential problem to do with the voltage stability of
alkaline batteries compared to the mercury batteries: that the mercury
batteries retain a relatively steady voltage until they fail, while the
alkaline batteries are constantly reducing in voltage. Presumably this is
something that the meter electronics have to be able to compensate for, and
may be a potential problem for the M5, Leicaflex, etc. in which the meter
circuits were designed to deal with a constant 1.35V

It's quite likely that I have remembered this wrongly, and invented the
problem!

Best,

Simon. 


On 7/10/05 12:40 pm, "Didier Ludwig" <rangefinder@screengang.com> wrote:

> Simon,
> 
> All "new" mercury batteries I had went down after a short time. The best 
> is to
> modify the camera's battery tray from 1.35V to 1.5V for the newer alkaline
> batteries (there are some in the PX625 size). The job is to solder a little
> electric resistance module that reduces the voltage for 0.15V. I had let 
> this
> done with a Konica Auto-S3 and a Rollei XF 35, for CHF20 ($16 or ?9) each
> camera. Before that I had used the 1.5V batteries and corrected it with the
> ISO setting (don't remember how much, I had compared it to my M6's
> lightmeter).
> 
> Weincell has alternative 1.35V mercury-free batteries, but they are quite
> expensive. 
> 
> Didier
> 
>> Is it still possible to get hold of 'fresh' mercury batteries for the
>> cameras?
>> Many thanks,
>> Simon.
>> Cambridge, UK.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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