Donald Qualls
Subscriber
Not long ago, I replaced the battery in my Nikkormat FT2 because the meter was seemingly not working, so it has a new silver oxide cell installed (as of about July of this year, and the camera has barely had the meter turned on in that time).
I've noticed, though, that the meter is reading MANY stops high. I've checked that the aperture ring was turned to wide open immediately after mounting the lens, the film speed setting is correct (EI 50, using up some "defective" Macophot I got cheap/free several years ago and took out of the freezer early this year) and the in-viewfinder shutter speed display matches what's set on the lens mount. With the shutter at 1/500 and the aperture at f/5.6, indoors, the meter needle goes "+" as soon as I move the advance lever to activate the meter.
I know this meter was working correctly for (at least most of) the life of the first battery cell I put in the camera, which was a zinc-air hearing aid battery (I didn't know at that time that alkaline or silver oxide would work correctly in this model).
Am I doing something wrong, or do I need to get under the hood?
I've noticed, though, that the meter is reading MANY stops high. I've checked that the aperture ring was turned to wide open immediately after mounting the lens, the film speed setting is correct (EI 50, using up some "defective" Macophot I got cheap/free several years ago and took out of the freezer early this year) and the in-viewfinder shutter speed display matches what's set on the lens mount. With the shutter at 1/500 and the aperture at f/5.6, indoors, the meter needle goes "+" as soon as I move the advance lever to activate the meter.
I know this meter was working correctly for (at least most of) the life of the first battery cell I put in the camera, which was a zinc-air hearing aid battery (I didn't know at that time that alkaline or silver oxide would work correctly in this model).
Am I doing something wrong, or do I need to get under the hood?