Plenty of my favorite "Classic" cameras 📷 use mercury batteries. And these supply a slightly different voltage then almost any battery commonly available today.
I ran into the battery issue with my Nikon Ftn Photomic 35mm SLR circa 1971: the meter prism finder was indeed originally issued with the mercury batteries but the camera came with 'modern' silver-oxide equivalent batteries installed and they did work..although I found slight exposure error when compared with test shots taken with my other 35mm SLR cameras under same lighting conditions/same ASA/ISO setting. I got around that by 'fudging' the ASA/ISO setting to yield equivalent exposure BUT found that 'fix' is not linear across the entire meter coupling range. I did find 'modern battery adaptors' called an MR-9 which have step-down circuitry in them to step-down the voltage to the correct voltage level when using modern 1.5 volt silver-oxide batteries. Ordered them the other day we'll see how they work. I also have a NIkkormat FT-2 which works just fine with modern batteries.
@@PG_Narkles Yes: I found step-down battery adapters that allow for use of modern equivalent silver oxide batteries. Unfortunately I don't have the info handy at the moment. I had to purchase two insert adapters..one for each battery they simply slip into the battery compartment. You insert the battery into the adapter, then insert the adapter/battery combo into the battery compartment. For the F two are needed. Was rather pricey for two adaptors but works fine. Light meter is now accurate throughout it's range. Beats the heck out of having to have the meter head adjusted for use of modern batteries. I find the info for the adapters I'll post.
Any old SLR that has A "Match Needle" light meter has lens opening and shutter speeds that the shooter manually sets so you can still guess settings for exposure or you could use A separate hand-held meter.
After watching your last video, I retrieved my old Pentax and took the 2 batteries out as I thought they may have corroded. Fortunately, they were only dead (:->
ive just bought a Praktica LTL and opon seing your video i opend the battery thing and there was a very old one inside and that little think that you;re pushing up at 8:02 mins just fell off, it was really old and horrible i'm guessing the batteries aint gonna work. could u tell me, pls, if the camera will still work without batteries? tks!
Plenty of my favorite "Classic" cameras 📷 use mercury batteries. And these supply a slightly different voltage then almost any battery commonly available today.
I ran into the battery issue with my Nikon Ftn Photomic 35mm SLR circa 1971: the meter prism finder was indeed originally issued with the mercury batteries but the camera came with 'modern' silver-oxide equivalent batteries installed and they did work..although I found slight exposure error when compared with test shots taken with my other 35mm SLR cameras under same lighting conditions/same ASA/ISO setting. I got around that by 'fudging' the ASA/ISO setting to yield equivalent exposure BUT found that 'fix' is not linear across the entire meter coupling range. I did find 'modern battery adaptors' called an MR-9 which have step-down circuitry in them to step-down the voltage to the correct voltage level when using modern 1.5 volt silver-oxide batteries. Ordered them the other day we'll see how they work. I also have a NIkkormat FT-2 which works just fine with modern batteries.
Did you have any luck with the step-down adapter?
@@PG_Narkles Yes: I found step-down battery adapters that allow for use of modern equivalent silver oxide batteries. Unfortunately I don't have the info handy at the moment. I had to purchase two insert adapters..one for each battery they simply slip into the battery compartment. You insert the battery into the adapter, then insert the adapter/battery combo into the battery compartment. For the F two are needed. Was rather pricey for two adaptors but works fine. Light meter is now accurate throughout it's range. Beats the heck out of having to have the meter head adjusted for use of modern batteries. I find the info for the adapters I'll post.
Any old SLR that has A "Match Needle" light meter has lens opening and shutter speeds that the shooter manually sets so you can still guess settings for exposure or you could use A separate hand-held meter.
After watching your last video, I retrieved my old Pentax and took the 2 batteries out as I thought they may have corroded. Fortunately, they were only dead (:->
ive just bought a Praktica LTL and opon seing your video i opend the battery thing and there was a very old one inside and that little think that you;re pushing up at 8:02 mins just fell off, it was really old and horrible
i'm guessing the batteries aint gonna work. could u tell me, pls, if the camera will still work without batteries?
tks!
Hello! I have the same camera and was wondering how you open the cameras battery compartment
Wait I figured it out thanks !
hey i have a Minolta and i can't open it either. what did you do?
I used a US quarter turning it counter clock-wise to remove the battery cover. It works great for me.
@@terrywitkowski6937 how did you remove it
Great but DONT hold the battery like you do with one finger on the + and one on the - (Minus)..