I have to do this with one Canon camera that takes these batteries -- the EF. All the others that take the old mercury battery, at least that I know of, pick up their + voltage from the compartment cap.
As others have stated, the Alkalines have a discharge curve that makes them unacceptable for meters without a bridge circuit. (...)
The FTb is a great old workhorse, but half the fun of getting to use one is its meter. It has match-needle metering, a method I've always preferred. Plus its metering pattern is what you'd describe nowadays as partial.
Still discussing about batteries? You guys realise most of our cameras use bridge circuits that are unaffected by voltage? For instance, my Praktica MTL50 does take at PX28, but when it arrived I didn't have the battery, so I used a stack of LR44s to test it. Little particular: I needed to fit FIVE batteries instead of four!
However the reading of the lightmeter was perfect and I could use the camera without problems.
Cuthbert,
I'm sorry but i'll have to disagree with you, despite mostly agreeing on everything.
Not all cameras have such "compensated" circuits. The question I addressed was related to the Nikkormat, and the Nikkormat uses a very very similar circuit to the one on the Photomics for the Nikon F. And such circuit is very, very sensitive to battery voltage (been there, have tried recalibrating that circuit, had to adapt zinc-air batteries at the end).
Sorry I miswrote: not all the cameras but a good number of them have a similar circuit, for my new FT3 it came with a battery but I don't know the voltage, I assume I'll find it out soon, for the Spotties and our Canon I'm pretty sure we can use alkalines without problem.
However, Miss Bernardine M Fendrick sent me a nice box from the past, October 1976 I assume.
Not all cameras have such "compensated" circuits. The question I addressed was related to the Nikkormat, and the Nikkormat uses a very very similar circuit to the one on the Photomics for the Nikon F. And such circuit is very, very sensitive to battery voltage (been there, have tried recalibrating that circuit, had to adapt zinc-air batteries at the end).
The Nikkormat FT3 uses a silver-oxide SR44 battery, just as the Nikkormat FT2- Those batteries are readily available, and supply a constant 1.55V. Putting an alkaline (LR44) cell on it, due to the nominal 1.5V voltage, will apparently give correct readings, but this is not sustainable over a long time nor at all conditions.
Regarding the pentax: Beautiful camera. I can't understand how Pentax changed its line from beautiful (Spotmatic) to ugly (K-line).
I'll check out what's inside my new old FT3, regarding the Spottie, I'm a great fan, now I have the three main "consumer's grade" (even if IMO they are built with pro quality) SLRs from the 70s: the SPF, the Ftbn and the FT3, and to be honest in terms of fit, finish and how it handles nothing is like a Spottie. The Nikkormat feels rough and brutal in comparison, the Ftbn is better, quieter but much bigger than the SPF, which has that beautiful (to me) shutter sound, I would dare to say it has some Leica quality.
I agree with your comparison of the Nikkormat versus FTb. I'm taking note for if i find a black spotmatic that winks my eye.
If you like great build quality take also a look at the Minolta SRT-101 and relatives, last time I handled one i liked the finish.
This Kiev 4A + Jupiter 8M arrived yesterday. I thought it was in good shape overall but flea-market grimy, top plate seemed to be sitting a bit askew, and the leatherette was peeling pretty badly. And so, a bit of disassembly, cleaning, de-gunking and re-adjustment later, I had this:
The seller included some pre-cut light trap material too--sweet! Got it installed and now I'm ready to load up and go picture-taking.
Just picked up a beautiful one owner Leica IIIc with 50 summitar [stuff deleted] Will be sending it off for a CLA.
My first camera was my grandfather's hand-me-down Spotmatic with 55/1.8 Super-Takumar! I loved that thing, and I think the stopped-down metering was actually a very good thing for me as a newbie, because right from the start I got a sense of how aperture and depth of field were related. Unfortunately something was wrong with that camera's shutter (banding) and repeated visits to the shop didn't fix it. Eventually they did something which caused the mirror to crack, and that was that.
Any plans to have the shutter curtains replaced while you're at it? I had it done on a couple of 3Fs and paid a hair under $300 for that plus CLA.
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