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Re: [OM] 3v lithium battery in my OM4T

Subject: Re: [OM] 3v lithium battery in my OM4T
From: clintonr@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Fri, 12 Sep 2003 13:28:06 -0500
To expand, the problem with lithiums and alkalines is that they cannot endure 
the constant current drain of cameras like the OM-4, etc. _and_ the XA.  The 
XA's meter is always "on", after all, though with the barrier closed the 
current drain is very small.  Still, it's enough drain that alkalines and 
lithiums are not recommended.

My grossly over-simplified understanding of the problem is this:  Batteries 
produce current by virtue of a chemical reaction.  The nice thing about lithium 
and alkaline batteries is that they are very stable when not being used -- 
meaning they have a magnificent shelf life.  But when put under a constant 
load, even a relatively minute one, the chemical reaction is rapidly depleted.  
Silver oxide batteries are not as susceptible
to this problem.  So with a camera such as the OM-4 or XA that is never truly 
"off" (meaning that there is a constant current drain of as much as 20 micro 
amps or so), anything but silver oxides will go dead much too quickly.

Functionally, the problem with weak batteries in an OM-4 is that it will 
lock-up unpredictably.  The problem with a camera like the XA is that, while 
the camera may operate, the needle in the finder will not indicate properly.  
We see the same thing with OM-1's that have weak alkaline batteries -- the 
meter works, it's just off, sometimes a little, sometimes a lot.  So we suggest 
you replace alkaline batteries in your converted
OM-1 once a year, whether you think you need to or not.

Moose wrote:

> I'm not sure the lithium is such a bad choice for an XA, which has much
> different voltage/current demands than an OM. It's not than lithium
> batteries are bad, just that they are not suited for this particular use.


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