Pentax KX battery cap cross compatibility

88E30M50 · May 6, 2024

Does anyone know what, if any, other battery caps might fit a Pentax KX? I have a KX that, while being well worn, works beautifully. I purchased this camera from the broken camera bin, with a missing battery cap, at a local shop and did a CLA on it. I borrowed the battery cap from my son's KX to check the meter and it works as it should. Now, I need to find a replacement for the battery cap to get this camera fully back in service again. I've checked the camera's here at the house and could find nothing that had the same threads as the Pentax KX does. I took the bottom plate up to the camera shop and checked other cameras in the broken bin to see if something had one that would fit I'd have gladly paid $10 for a whole broken camera if it would have yielded a usable battery compartment plug.

Pentax KX battery caps don't seem to exist in the wild right now and I hope that it's just because they are a common item from a camera that sold in higher numbers and tend to be labeled for whatever that camera might be

xkaes · May 6, 2024

I assume that any Pentax K camera will use the same cap -- KM, K2, K1000, etc. Try this place:

https://www.camera-traders.com/products/battery-compartment-cover?variant=36285777412250

Chan Tran · May 6, 2024

If you can't find one check with Photrio member KerrKid. He has a KX that doesn't work and he may want to sell you the battery cap. I hope he doesn't get mad at me for telling you this.

88E30M50 · May 7, 2024

Thanks guys. I'll try to reach out to KerrKid. The K1000, Spotmatic has a different battery cover. I think the manufacturers used different batter cover threads to keep owners from installing the wrong batteries or something. They seem to make them slightly different on a camera by camera basis at times.

Mamiya_Repair · May 8, 2024

A direct replacement for the battery cap would be the cap from K2, KM or MX as these all take two batteries and have a plastic retainer for the batteries built into the cap. While you can use the cap from an ME, ME Super, Program Plus or Super Program, these cameras have a reducing bushing in the battery compartment to make the batteries stay in one place and don't have a cap with a retainer (although you can use these caps if you are careful in positioning the batteries)

88E30M50 · May 8, 2024

That's exactly the information I was hoping to find. Thank you!

ic-racer · May 8, 2024

One of my Rollei SL35 came without a battery cap. Those are kind of hard to find. What I did was to locate a referece for battery type. The thought is a camera with the same battery might have a similar cap. Then I scoured Ebay for one of these caps. Eventually one came up for just a few dollars and free shipping.

88E30M50 · May 9, 2024

ic-racer said:
One of my Rollei SL35 came without a battery cap. Those are kind of hard to find. What I did was to locate a referece for battery type. The thought is a camera with the same battery might have a similar cap. Then I scoured Ebay for one of these caps. Eventually one came up for just a few dollars and free shipping.

View attachment 370049

A lot of work went into that list. It reminds me of some work that I did back in the 1990s. Back then, there was a problem in the nuclear industry regarding the identification of hardware. When a power plant in the US was down for maintenance, often a new bolt would be needed and the company would have to have the manufacturer send one from the factory. Time was critical during outages and at times, they would fly a private jet to the manufacturer to have the bolt flown back to the power plant as fast as possible. The thing was, they already had that same bolt in the power plants inventory of nuclear grade hardware, but it was under a different component manufacturer's part number. The program I wrote allowed them to inspect and assign standard nomenclature to the hardware inventory to be able to identify approved items already on hand.

Maybe I have to dust that old program off for camera battery caps.

runswithsizzers · May 9, 2024

Right now, I see used Pentax battery caps being offered on eBay in the $20-50(US) range. Seems like making and selling new (reproduction) battery caps might be an opportunity for an enterprising machinist?

However, as long as they can be bought for $12 CAD from Camera Traders (link in post #2), a machinist could hardly compete at that price.

It's difficult to predict how supply and demand will affect prices for used film cameras in the future, but I hope it will be worth someone's time to make replacement parts for some of these 1970-1980s film cameras so we may enjoy using them for another decade or two.

BTW, I think the Pentax battery caps sometimes get stuck, making removal difficult. Before reinstalling one, I usually put a very light smear of grease on the threads, and avoid overtightening!

Mamiya_Repair · May 10, 2024

88E30M50 said:
A lot of work went into that list. It reminds me of some work that I did back in the 1990s. Back then, there was a problem in the nuclear industry regarding the identification of hardware. When a power plant in the US was down for maintenance, often a new bolt would be needed and the company would have to have the manufacturer send one from the factory. Time was critical during outages and at times, they would fly a private jet to the manufacturer to have the bolt flown back to the power plant as fast as possible. The thing was, they already had that same bolt in the power plants inventory of nuclear grade hardware, but it was under a different component manufacturer's part number. The program I wrote allowed them to inspect and assign standard nomenclature to the hardware inventory to be able to identify approved items already on hand.

Maybe I have to dust that old program off for camera battery caps.

If you are looking for list of battery types for cameras, all the big battery manufacturers put out a cross reference guide to camera/battery type. These are available from time to time on ebay. However, any lists of this type have limited value as there were a number of variables in battery caps: inner build, thread size, cap size and contact type. That is why I had over 200 SKU's of different battery covers at one time. You really need to have each battery cap in hand for an inspection to make sure that it will fit.

88E30M50 · May 12, 2024

Thanks for that info. I'll try to find the source document for saving to my archive of stuff I need to save.

88E30M50 · May 14, 2024

The battery cap arrived and fits perfect. The KX is now fully operational again and the meter is spot on.

Thanks to all that helped with this.

Pentax KX battery cap cross compatibility

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