MR meter battery

[Susie]

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Hi Guys,

 

Sorry if this has been covered before, but I didn't see a similar topic on searching.

 

With the demise of mercury batteries what do peolpe use?  The 'equivalent' non-mercury batteries seem to be a slightly different voltage.  I see that a battery sized 'converter' is available at about £35 a time which uses small hearing aid batteries; anyone tried these?

 

I must admit I am a bit loath to spend out on two converters if I don't need to, or is it just a case of using the lower voltage equivalents and altering the ISO setting on the dial?

 

many thanks,

 

Susie

[Graham (G4FUJ)]

I fitted a convertor so that I could use lithium cells for the meter in my Rollei 35S.

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[a.noctilux]

Susie,

 

If you use negative film, with Leicameter MR, you may use current silver battery 1.5V with some sort of spacer to match the size.

That was my conclusion after trying all sort of adapters (diode, hearing aid bat., Wein-Cell).

 

The key is the flat head screw under the MR that must be tuned to "zero" without battery.

 

No need to change ASA setting, if the "zero" has been done.

Then compare the MR with another meter at various lighting, some was about 1/2 EV of discrepency from my two MR.

[Michael Geschlecht]

Susie,

 

If you use negative film, with Leicameter MR, you may use current silver battery 1.5V with some sort of spacer to match the size.

That was my conclusion after trying all sort of adapters (diode, hearing aid bat., Wein-Cell).

 

The key is the flat head screw under the MR that must be tuned to "zero" without battery.

 

No need to change ASA setting, if the "zero" has been done.

Then compare the MR with another meter at various lighting, some was about 1/2 EV of discrepency from my two MR.

 

Hello Everybody,

 

I do the same as A. Noctilux. I would add somethings to what he has written: Silver oxide batteries work better & last longer than alkaline batteries. Any of the 303 or 357, etc varieties work well for me.

 

I would add to that, that after "zeroing" the meter I then set the ASA/DIN scale to +1.5 DIN for ALL films: Transparency or negative. Black & white or color.

 

DIN is a very nice & very useful system for measuring film speed. It is a shame that it is not used that much today.

 

Example: An ISO 100/21 daylight transparency film has the dial on the meter set to 150/22.5. Altho I keep the dial on the back of the camera at 100/21, sunshine, so that it tells me what the film says on the box.

 

If I am using a film that has a different actual speed than the speed on the box I recalculate the speed to what it should be, add DIN 1.5 & then put that number on the meter dial. Still leaving the box speed & film type on the back dial, But that is a topic which has already been addressed in a number of other Threads.

 

I find that this way my meter matches other calibrated meters in measuring situations.

 

By the way, with the 1.5 volt battery instead of 1.35 volts: This means that when you push the battery test button it reads high on the battery condition indicator point.

 

Enjoy your meters.

 

Another "By the way": I do the same thing with my Minolta 101 (An early matrix metering camera.) with the same results.

 

Best Regards,

 

Michael

Edited February 16, 2018 by Michael Geschlecht