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Steve T.
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, June 28, 2006 - 07:52 pm: | 
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Hello out there!
Picked up a nice looking old Konica Autoreflex T, one of the earlier ones with the oddball 57mm 1.4 lens.
Been investigating battery solutions.
This camera takes two stacked 1.35 volt mercury cells of course. Will the zinc air cells work OK even though they will need to be stacked? I ask because of the air holes in the batteries, need for ventilation, etc. One site said the .05 difference in voltage won't make a difference. I do understand the zinc air cells don't last long, but at least they are cheap.
I can get zinc air cell 675 replacements for under .70 cents a piece, but you have to buy a packeage of 16 or something, to get that price. |
Ben
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, June 28, 2006 - 09:18 pm: |
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Can't answer your question, but you did remind me that I picked up a 16 pack of 675s from a Radio Shack that was going out of business for $7($.44 each). If you have a Radio Shack near you that's closing, it might be worth your time to check them out. By the way, this was at the one in Versailles, KY. |
Weber
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, June 29, 2006 - 12:01 am: |
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I actually tried it out on the Konica Autoreflex T, it didn't work. After less than a minute, the batteries died due to suffocation. The innermost battery would go first, then the outer one. Drilling a 1/16" breathing hole into the cover was not sufficient to remedy this, and I was reluctant to make the hole any bigger. Some folks try to make a go of it by deforming the batteries so that don't mate so tightly, and so some more air can reach the inner cell. Overall, it's not a very satisfactory approach. |
charlie
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, June 29, 2006 - 06:04 am: |
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I have stacked zinc air batteries successfully several times in Oly 35ED's and EC's. If you put them in a tube the tube may have been too snug. Maybe if you left the cover a little loose it would help. Or maybe the current draw for the Konica is too high for those batteries. I don't think stacking is necessarily the problem. |
Steve T.
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, June 29, 2006 - 06:06 am: |
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Well, that's not good news.
What's the alternative then? Buying TWO of those adapters that reduce the voltage of the widely available 1.55 Volt cells? That starts getting expensive.
It would be far cheaper just to use the camera without batteries and living without the meter.
I guess there's a reason these old cameras go cheap. I got mine for just over $20, including the lens, accessory cold shoe and leather case, and it's in really good shape. I got it out of a pawn shop. They obviously thought it wasn't worth much. |
Steve T.
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, June 29, 2006 - 06:19 am: |
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Charlie,
You posted at the same time I was typing.
Without ever trying it, I'm guessing that at least, the batteries won't operate at peak efficiency due to not enough ventalation, but I don't know for sure.
Weber says it just won't work.
Maybe it's worth trying, seeing if something could be worked out.
The good thing is the batteries are cheap. |
M Currie
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, June 29, 2006 - 09:27 am: |
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I use hearing-aid batteries routinely in an Autoreflex T3, which takes a pair of 675's with no sleeve or O-rings. It works fine, and the lack of ventilation has never caused any problem. The batteries last about 3 months except when it accidentally turns itself on (hair trigger switch). The hearing-aid batteries are a little higher voltage than 1.35, so for accurate exposure I offset the ASA dial by 2/3 of a stop. The T3, at least, has little tolerance for odd voltages, and as I understand it is not readily recalibrated as some other designs are. I've been using this camera for several years this way, and it's quite practical. I buy the batteries in 6 or 8 packs. It doesn't add up to all that much per year this way. |
John
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, June 29, 2006 - 09:34 am: |
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I was wondering about creating a 2.7 V voltage regulator using surface mount parts and putting it into a package the size of a 675 battery. In this case, you'd use a higher voltage battery to get the required 2.7 V.
Theortically, it should work but I've never used these tiny components before. |
David Ritchie
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, June 29, 2006 - 02:04 pm: |
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I have a suggestion that I may get around to trying one day, but here it is for someone who might want to give it a try. Some of you have speculated that the zinc batteries are starved for air when they are stacked, so how about cutting a small piece of aluminum screen just large enough to place between the batteries. This should allow air to get to the holes in the battery. One problem may be that the stack then becomes too thick to fit into the camera. Another may be that a drop of cement may be needed to prevent the screen from shifting and causing a short.If anyone tries it, I would like to hear. |
Doug Wilson
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, June 29, 2006 - 04:14 pm: |
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What if you sliced some grooves in the mating surfaces of the two batteries with a utility knife? The one groove on the positive should intersect the holes, then line it up with a groove centered on the negative side of the second battery... |
rick
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, June 29, 2006 - 04:35 pm: |
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I wouldn't worry about ventilation: Look at the size of the holes in the ZA cells. I have never had a situation where there was not enough air available to feed these tiny holes, including stacking them 4 high. In fact, many people suggest sealing up some of the holes to reduce air flow and thereby increase battery life (I don't do that myself, I get at least 6 months out of them as it is and that seems adequate) |
Haig Hovaness
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, June 30, 2006 - 06:57 pm: |
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Your best bet is to recalibrate the camera for SR44 silver cells. It is a relatively easy adjustment if you know how to get the top off the camera. If you are not willing to do that any repair shop can do it for a modest fee. |
Steve T.
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, July 01, 2006 - 06:32 am: |
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Well, here's my experience so far.
I put the new Zinc Air batteries in yesterday, and left the battery cover a little bit loose.
Seems to be working, so far. But my meter needle sometimes acts a bit erratically when the lens is set on "EE". But in the manual mode, it behaves normally.
I've never used an Autoreflex T. This is an aperture priority camera? In manual mode (lens set to an aperture rather than EE) you chage the shutter speed dial and the meter needle moves. Moving the aperture rings does nothing to the needle, since it meters at the widest aperture, right? This is opposite to most cameras I've used and will take some getting used to.
M Currie
If off-setting the ASA dial by 1/3 to compensate for the .10 greater voltage, which way do you go? Up or down?
How's the Nikon F doing?  |
rick
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, July 01, 2006 - 05:33 pm: |
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The Konicas are Shutter Priority: You set the shutter speed, the camera sets the aperture.... like most Canons, different from most everything else.
The erratic needle is more likely the result of the camera's age and condition than the batteries.
Overvoltage equals underexposure, so set the ASA one click lower to compensate (if it's really necessary) |
J. Hopper
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, July 08, 2006 - 07:35 pm: |
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I recently bought two Konica TC's which used the 1.35 volt mercury. I am using SR-44 silver batteries and I checked the meter against my FT-1 and it was the same. Since the SR-44 are smaller in diameter and also thinner, I made a sleeve out of 5/8" O.D. plastic pipe and used a brass washer for a spacer. even though some say it is not necessary. It works very well in the TC's. If need be, you can take the top off of the camera and adjust the variable resistor above the pentaprism until the meter matches a meter known to be correct. |
Don Nathan
Tinkerer
Username: Don_n
Post Number: 2
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, July 20, 2006 - 10:35 am: |
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I put 2-"675 Energizer" zinc air hearing aid batteries in my Autorelex T(2) and it works fine now. They have lasted for months and are not expensive. When comparing the meter readings with various other cameras, some are identical and others differ, but the practical results have been OK here. |
Matthew Currie
Tinkerer
Username: M_currie
Post Number: 2
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, July 20, 2006 - 06:39 pm: |
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thread drift for Steve T:
The F is on hold for the moment. I have everything but the self-timer and the 1/1000 working on the body, and the self timer has been sitting in a deep bath of Ronsonol for the last week or two. I'm away from home now, so I hope that when I get back I can blow it out and it will work without my having to disassemble it. It seems that one or two gear bearings have just enough junk in them to stall it, but it is very close. If the bath doesn't work, I'll have to take macro photos of the thing for the record, then take it apart. I'm a little afraid of the "sproing factor" on this one. I hate to spend a half hour on my knees looking for camera parts in the cracks of the floor.
Otherwise, except for a sluggish first curtain at 1/1000, it's looking good. I haven't quite figured out what to do about that, for fear of making something worse. I might just leave it alone and try firing it one or two thousand times in a row to see if it limbers up.
The meter head had a single rusted screw connection. It woke up calibrated for 1.5 volt cells, too!
Back on topic:
I offset 2/3 stops DOWN on my T3: for 100 film set it at 64, etc. If it seems to be underexposing routinely, add another third and go a whole stop down. The higher the voltage of the batteries, the more it will underexpose, and the further you must set it down to compensate.
I find the shutter priority quite easy to get used to, since you can just turn the shutter speed until the aperture you want appears on the meter, or if you really do prefer a shutter speed, you just take what comes. The other advantage, of course, is that the shutter is 100% mechanical, so the camera reverts to a fully functional manual camera when the batteries die. |
Eugen Mezei
Tinkerer
Username: Eugen_mezei
Post Number: 1
Registered: 08-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, August 06, 2006 - 05:55 am: |
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I have some quicksilver cells that I would be able to part from. (A good friend imported them for me from China, they are labeled Silva and I use them myself in different cameras that need the quicksilveroxyde batteries.)
Problem would be the shipping. I'm sitting in Germany.
Drop me a mail if interested. |
charles stobbs
Tinkerer
Username: Charlie
Post Number: 5
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, August 06, 2006 - 08:10 am: |
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When I stacked zinc/air batteries it was necessary to use a sleeve so they would fit properly in the cavities originally designed for mercury batteries. I used a desicant tube from a large aspirin bottle which is loose enough to allow air circulation. (Oly 35 ED and EC) In single cell useage (Canonets and Oly 35 DC's) the Canonet covers are not airtight and the Oly DC covers have small holes, apparently since new. |
Ben Hutcherson
Tinkerer
Username: Ben_hutcherson
Post Number: 4
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, August 06, 2006 - 10:49 am: |
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Just thought I'd throw a little bit more information onto this old thread since it was dragged to the top.
About two weeks ago, I bought a Canon FT that came with a booster. The booster was designed to use two stacked 625s. I used scotch tape to fix together a pair of 675s. Two weeks later, it still works great and is accurate. |
