Olympus XA batteries

The manuals for the XA-2 and XA-4 say that one can use either silver-oxide or alkaline batteries.

The manual for the XA says that it requires silver-oxide.


I guess the XA can take alkalines too. Or are the circuits different between both models?

I'm using alkalines (LR44) in my XA.

Either OK AgX. - David Lyga

As a curiosity and not just about the XA, but I was investigating this week LR44 and SR44 batteries for the OM-2N.
Prior to 1979, there was no mention of LR44 on Olympus manuals.
After that the manual for the OM10 refers it is ok to use LR44 or SR44 and the manual for the OM-2N explicitly refers only SR44 are to be used.
Regarding the XA the manual here says "Alkaline-manganese and lithium batteries may not be used": http://www.cameramanuals.org/pdf_files/olympus_xa.pdf
Personally, I use LR44 on the OM-2N and 10 and can't see any difference in the metering. At least, not for now.

Common silver oxide hearing aid batteries work fine in the XA. I am not aware of any warning or advisory published by Olympus about the use of any other type of button cell in the XA. I don't know about other XA variants as I have only ever used the XA.

Thank you Ricardo,

I looked at that short-manual before too, but somehow I overlooked that warning, only saw the hint at the battery types above at that page.

Thus seemingly Olympus indeed changed the circuits in this respect.

I recently ran a test roll through my Olympus XA that hasn't been shot in 25+ years. I had put LR44/A76 batts in it and I feel like it was overexposing everything. I'm going to try SR44 batteries in it and see if that solves the issue, then I can address my user related issues.

I've never used anything but LR44 in my XA and it works just fine.

ZENGHOST said:

I recently ran a test roll through my Olympus XA that hasn't been shot in 25+ years. I had put LR44/A76 batts in it and I feel like it was overexposing everything. I'm going to try SR44 batteries in it and see if that solves the issue, then I can address my user related issues.

Click to expand...

And what does that "feel" like? Did you check the negatives and they looked a bit dense, or you haven't checked them yet? You cannot know the actual results of exposure until you print them. After that, then decide what the solution should be.

Rick A said:

And what does that "feel" like? Did you check the negatives and they looked a bit dense, or you haven't checked them yet? You cannot know the actual results of exposure until you print them. After that, then decide what the solution should be.

Click to expand...

I apologize if I misspoke. I used the word "feel," since it was only my opinion and did not want to come off as stating as fact. I did not look at the negatives directly and I freely admit that I am still a novice at shooting with film and I mentioned that it was my first roll through that camera so I'm not yet familiar with all of it's nuances. I remember seeing my parents use it when I was a child, but I don't recall having ever shot with it. This particular roll was developed at the local Long's Drug Store/CVS (where I often develop my test color rolls) and I only got scans from the negatives and not prints. I mentioned it because I initially thought it was just user error attributed to my inexperience with film, but as I googled "olympus XA overexposing," (I don't want to link to other forums/sites) I saw threads on other sites where people mentioned similar experiences. Some of them attributed the "issue" to the type of battery used and I've seen mention with other cameras where using different types of batteries can cause the meter to be inaccurate. When I saw this thread regarding what kind of batteries can be used in the XA, I thought this information might be useful, since it would have been useful to me before I tried mine. My apologies for not clarifying my response properly and I hope my comment didn't inconvenience anyone.

Alkaline cells have a non-linear voltage/discharge curve, while silver oxide (and the older mercury cells) have an essentially constant voltage over their useful life. In order to use alkaline cells the camera must incorporate a bridge circuit to compensate for the changing voltage.

Never use alkaline cells in a camera unless the manual specifically says it is OK to use them. Otherwise the meter will not only be off, it will be off by different amounts over the life of the cell.

If it's quartz timed it probably doesn't matter if its silver or alkaline

"Never say Never".

I used XA as everyday camera for couple of years, going back to it soon for same purpose.
I purchased 100 of regular L44 for $25 on ebay two+ years ago.
I still have 90 or so left. :w00t:
I used them in Bessa R, Bessa L, OM10 and XA.
No problems AT ALL.
The only "problem" with LR44 - I wasn't able to drain them. I have them frozen with camera, but it was working after.
I just voluntary changed them after six months.

Cheers,
Ko.