Great Battery Adapter for FTN

ColColt · Nov 30, 2015

I have three Photomic FTN's. I've used a variety of ways to get a good consistent meter reading without the old mercury batteries from just changing the ASA to Wein Cell batteries and this one adapter has been the best investment to date. It uses standard watch batteries(386) and the voltage regulator inside-not sure if it's a diode/resistor combo or microchip, changes the 1.55 v to an even 1.35v, just what the meter needs. It reads spot on with my luna pro sbc and F2A.

Most happy with this adapter and thought I'd share this link in the even someone has a camera/hand held meter that required a mercury battery. This is a good one.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/MR-9-Batter...083632?hash=item1e6b1d0830:g:hkIAAOxykMpTHFbQ

Ricardo Miranda · Dec 1, 2015

Zinc ZA675 do the same thing and only cost £1 a pack of 4. Oh, and they are "Kodak".

ColColt · Dec 1, 2015

Yep, there's more than one way to fix the mercury PX13/PX625 problem.

http://www.butkus.org/chinon/batt-adapt-us.pdf

leicarfcam · Dec 1, 2015

My preference which is cheap is to add schottky diodes inline and use silver oxide 357 batteries..

mrjr · Dec 1, 2015

I've slowly acquired more and more of these infernal beasts which demand PX625 or 1.4V power. So far, ZA675s have been my solution.

Imagine my delight when I found that my Bell & Howell (Canon) Dial 35-2 had little "fingers" in the battery compartment that held a 675-sized battery perfectly! Similar story with Konica Auto S3. No such luck with most others, sadly.

Paul Howell · Dec 1, 2015

I use Zink air hearing aid batteries without too much trouble. What I have noticed is a few of my cameras the battery compartment is so well sealed that that the Zink batteries run out of air and the voltage drops. This was very noticeable with my Miranda's, I drilled a couple of small holes in the battery cover which took care of the problem.

Xmas · Dec 1, 2015

mrjr said:
I've slowly acquired more and more of these infernal beasts which demand PX625 or 1.4V power. So far, ZA675s have been my solution.

Imagine my delight when I found that my Bell & Howell (Canon) Dial 35-2 had little "fingers" in the battery compartment that held a 675-sized battery perfectly! Similar story with Konica Auto S3. No such luck with most others, sadly.

A hardware store should have a pack of different sized plumbers o rings...

mrjr · Dec 1, 2015

Xmas said:
A hardware store should have a pack of different sized plumbers o rings...

Yeah. Need to raid my old paintball gear first to see if there are any appropriately-sized o-rings. But most likely a trip to the hardware store is in order.

leicarfcam · Dec 2, 2015

mrjr said:
Yeah. Need to raid my old paintball gear first to see if there are any appropriately-sized o-rings. But most likely a trip to the hardware store is in order.

You need a rubber "O" ring with a 5/8 inch outside diameter and a 7/16 inch inside diameter. A common size. But some cameras will not work with the "O" ring since the + edge of the battery comes into contact with a tab and not the battery cap such as plastic caps..

Xmas · Dec 2, 2015

Confirmed.

You then may be able to find or make up a spring clip or copper washer from copper stock in shape of horse shoe or spiral.

Much less convenient if you fumble and the battery and clip disappears into a storm drain. A pack of o rings in a small zip lock in gbag lasts a while.

I'd note while the hearing batteries last a long time in meter service (at 15C) they can and do weep from their breathing holes. The liquid stains but will wipe off and does not seem to corrode. But I remove mine at end of days shoot.

mgb74 · Dec 2, 2015

mrjr said:
Yeah. Need to raid my old paintball gear first to see if there are any appropriately-sized o-rings. But most likely a trip to the hardware store is in order.

#9 O-ring does the trick.

mrjr · Dec 2, 2015

leicarfcam said:
You need a rubber "O" ring with a 5/8 inch outside diameter and a 7/16 inch inside diameter. A common size. But some cameras will not work with the "O" ring since the + edge of the battery comes into contact with a tab and not the battery cap such as plastic caps..

mgb74 said:
#9 O-ring does the trick.

Good stuff. Thanks.

And thanks to the OP for posting that link (even though we derailed the thread). Those eBay adapters look to be cheaper than the Criscam ones.

Great Battery Adapter for FTN

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