Five bucks - ouch! (CDN?) Not too familiar with the camera itself beyond
the Cameraquest site - Steve Gandy certainly likes Oly compacts. A hundred
dollar service for a 50-60 dollar camera seems excessive! As to the battery
- I'm familiar with the 625PX mercury alright - my leica CL uses one as
does an old Gossen Lunasix meter I own. Advice as follows -
If you find an old mercury 625, even in an old, busted camera, use it. They
last forever! I found a couple of new/old ones recently in the back room of
a friendly dealer.
Failing that, DO NOT USE THE ALKALINE version (625A) - EverReady sell one.
Unlike the mercury which maintained a steady voltage until just before
death, the alkalines have a steadily reducing voltage over their life which
means that they read high when new and low when old.
Excell sell a chinese Siver Dioxide version S625PX - this is quite good but
is 1.5V, not 1.35. I use and recommend it...
The voltage difference is a source of much argument - one solution is a
little adapter which takes an SR44 1.5V like a shell and drops the voltage
- costs about $25 US and is infinitely reuseable - pop the old battery out
and a new one in. I forget who makes it but it's something like KRIS
Technologies(?).
Another approach is to get the meter recalibrated. My local repairperson
thinks that this is seriously anally retentive - he claims the difference
is a third of a stop, anyone should be overexposing film by that much
anyway and, if you're so damn fussy, compensate with the ISO/ASA setting or
exposure compensation dial. Me? - I think that different cameras respond
differently and a test roll of film bracketing exposures from 1 stop over
to 1 under in thirds will give you the correct setting for your bargain.
Decayed foam is likely to be a bigger problem - find lots of hints here -
http://www.smu.edu/~rmonagha/bronfoam.html
http://www.smu.edu/~rmonagha/brongasket.html
Good luck! Any of this unclear? - email offlist!
Andrew
> Hope this is the correct list to ask this question....if not, please
>direct me in the right direction. For years I have had a fixed focus
>XA1, which I love. However, it is no good for focusing on objects closer
>than oh...six feet. So yesterday, at a garage sale, I grabbed a 35RC
>for five bucks. Looks to be in very good condition. I need information
>on using it, and also a battery that will work reasonably well. An
>outfit called Cameraquest in Thousand Oaks Calif offers to recalibrate it
>for a non mercury battery and do general clean up for $100. Any thoughts
>on them, or this work? Also, reportedly, it should work in a manual mode,
>with no battery installed, yet it does not seem to have shutter
>actuation. Any thoughts? Thanks for any help, and I hope to enjoy this
>little camera. Dave
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