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Re: [OM] Yet another OM-1n battery question

Subject: Re: [OM] Yet another OM-1n battery question
From: Garth Wood <garth@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2000 19:36:56 -0600
At 06:13 PM 4/12/00 -0400, Mike Swaim wrote:
>I appologize in advance if this topic has been beaten to death previously.
>I've attempted to search the archives for it with no luck, and I get error
>messages ("404 not found") when trying to access both the "Official" and
>"Unofficial"  Oly FAQs as well as when trying to see the "Olympus System
>Mod. and Maint. site. 

The following URL works well for me:

    http://brashear.phys.appstate.edu/lhawkins/photo/photo.shtml

which is Lee Hawkins' site.  (I haven't updated this URL link at the Unofficial 
Olympus Web Photo Gallery yet -- hey, there's always other priorities!)

>My question is this: It seems that Paul "The Olympus Guy" recommends one
>type of OM-1 battery adaptor, and Camtech seems to prefer something else.
>Well, the longtime camera repair guy that sold me my OM-1n claims that
>neither is necessary for the cameras he sells, because he says he modifies
>the meters to use the Varta V625 PX.

Uh, the Varta V625PX *is* the correct type of battery for the OM-1/1n (it's 
1.35v, mercury chemistry).  This battery has been discontinued by Varta (the 
last battery maker on Earth to make it, by the way) as of the end of 1999 due 
to EC environmental regulations which they complied with.  Stocks of this 
battery are still being sold at various shops (I can still get 'em at my local 
camera store, for example), but when they're gone, that's it.

I'm not sure whether you understood your tech correctly -- no mods are 
necessary to an OM-1/1n's meter when using the V625PX.  On the other hand, any 
other battery (even ones with the same physical form factor) are going to put 
out different voltages, which will screw up your metering (and *possibly* 
damage your meter) unless mods or adapters are used.

Camtech (as I understand it) does a direct circuit mod so that your meter 
operates correctly with 1.5v batteries.  This is convenient and non-fiddly.

The other option (championed by the OlyGuy?) is to use an adapter.  The 
advantages of the adapter are two, in my opinion: (1) they're portable (i.e., 
if you ever sell or are forced to junk your OM-1n, the battery adapter stays 
with you, whereas the mod dies or gets sold with the camera), and (2) the 
adapter uses "Silver 76s" (also known as SR44s), possibly the most ubiquitous 
1.5v silver-oxide button cell ever made, available damn near everywhere on the 
planet.  I don't know about Camtech's mod (though I suspect it's for the SR44 
as well).

Personally, I invested in one of the MR-9 adapters (from the C.R.I.S. Camera 
web site).

>I trust the guy who sold me this camera to do what he thinks is best, and
>trust that he would not purposely mislead me, but I'm not clear on whether
>the mod he mentions is correct in the longterm. Nor do I know specifically,
>what he does to the meters. Assuming that all he's doing is recalibrating
>them, will this battery hurt my meter in the long run?

Since he shouldn't be touching the meter's circuitry AT ALL if he's giving you 
a Varta V625PX, the answer is "no."  If he's recalibrating the meter for 
something else *without* adding at least some additional resistor or diode (or 
something else to do a voltage drop across), the answer is "I don't know, but I 
wouldn't trust it."

Good luck.

Garth




  
"A bad day doing photography is better
  than a good day doing just about 
  anything else."
  
The Unofficial Olympus Web Photo Gallery at:

    http://www.taiga.ca/~gallery/


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