I've got a Jessops lightmeter which uses px625 1.35 volts mercury batteries. I'm aware that there are battery adpters that can reduce the voltage, and alternative ones with the same voltage. What I would like to know, has anyone tried an alkaline 1.5 volts battery in this type of meter, and did it work?
I can now having tried the above battery im my light meter respond to my own posting:
The meter works with a higher voltage 1.5v alkaline battery, but it overexposes. The is no way off applying some compensating factor because it does not overexpose by the same factor: It can be as little as half a stop around an E.V value of 8, upto two stops for an E.V of 14.
If you can afford it Sekonic have recently reduced the price of their L-208 Twinmaster Flashmate meter. It is very compact, has reflective and incident metering, is tiny and comes with a hotshoe fitting so you can attach it to the top of your camera. All in a very useful day to day meter.