Battery for a Minolta SRT 101

I just recently acquired a beautiful Minolta SRT 101 that appears to be in

mint condition. The original battery to power the meter was a PX625 mercury. I

understand that they are no longer available in the U.S. Is there a

replacement battery made for this camera without having to buy any kind of an

adapter? What are my options?

John P.

Weincell if the camera is voltage sensitive. Or a regular hearing aid battery with a ring around it so that it sits tight in battery chamber. I am not familiar with SRT101, but this is how it generally works.

avoid the wein cell's they work fine but are pricey

and last no longer than hearing aid cells.

besides-- where can you find a camera store where they would know what you are asking for.?

 

trick: there are 4 dents ( tiny holes) in a hearing aid cell.

block 2 with crazy glue or nail polish.

 

a hearing aid draws a larger amount of power than a "match pointer"

camera. so it does noty need the 4 holes to draw power ( moisture in the air activates the hearing aid cells)

 

the hearing aid cells, even when the tape tab is left on, will die in a year or so. so buy the 6 pack not the 12 pack.

 

when the cell dies the meter will read REALLY low, and it's obvious you cannot expect to take photos at these strange settings.

 

remember "sunny 16" Bright day film speed=shutter spees at f/16.

if it's way off or the meter reads less the cell is almost dead./

 

these cells, like the mercury cell reach end-of-life and quicly

go dead.

 

an ALKALINE cell, touted as an "exact replacement"

has a sloping discherge and rarely is correect.

Hi, dear John. I own several cameras that request the banned PX625 mercury batteries. I solve this problem by MR9 adapter, that have a built in micro electronical circuit, that reduce the 1,5 voltage of the normal silver oxyde batteries to the original 1,35 voltage of the PX625 batteries. For me is the better solution.

Ciao.

Its really best to not use the meter in old cameras. Why mess with batteries not meant for use in the camera? The meters are probably not accurate or reliable any more anyway. I'd buy a good hand-held meter and use that for all your cameras. That way you can use incident light readings as well as reflected light readings and get much more reliable exposures.

I have to disagree with David M above. It may depend on how handy you are, and how valuable the camera is, and also how much you intend to use it, but most of these old cameras can be either recalibrated or offset to meter with newer batteries, and if the SRT-101 is in good condition there's no reason it shouldn't meter as well as it did when it was new. A meter that uses a single PX625 may require very little offsetting of the ASA dial to work correctly with newer batteries. Aside from all this, sometimes it's just nice to have a camera that is all working as it should.

 

I have never dealt with one of these, but I'm under the impression that Minolta SRT's are not terribly hard to recalibrate. It might be worth digging into the web to see if there are do-it-yourself instructions, or contacting a good camera repair place if the camera is something you expect to use regularly, and see how difficult it would be simply to readjust it for silver oxide or (less good but really not so bad...)alkaline batteries. Silver Oxides are pretty hard to find, and may have to be mail ordered, but they last for a very long time and stay accurate. ON the other hand, alkalines, despite their bad reputation, will stay pretty good for a reasonable time, and are cheap and easy to replace.

 

My main cameras (as opposed to all the other clunkers I run a film through and then put away) are a pair of Nikon Photomic FTn's with meters recalibrated for silver-oxides, and they work very well, even after 30-odd years. As with any older system, these meters are not as pin-point accurate or as intelligent as the latest stuff, and require the user to exercise some judgment on top of the reading, but that seems a poor reason to abandon them altogether. Similarly, my Rollei 35 was recalibrated by my local shop before they sold it to me, and runs happily on a silver-oxide battery. I don't think that meter was ever more than a "ball-park" estimator to begin with, but it now does it with available batteries.

 

My advice would be to put an alkaline in it, and if it seems to work well, compare the readings to those of another, known good meter, and use the ASA dial to compensate for the voltage. Write the offset on a little label and keep it with the camera. If you get really attached to the camera and use it a lot, you can then get it readjusted.

I have several cameras which take the banned mercury batteries. I shoot Fuji 400 ISO print film. I just stick an alkaline in and go. There is plenty of latitude in print film and I can see no real difference in 8x10 cropped images as far as exposure is concerned than my Nikon F5 with its very sophisticated metering. As someone commented, if the metering is really way off from sunny 16, it is immediately apparent. Dave

I should add that one of the cameras in which I use an alkaline is a Minolta SRT 200 Dave

Dear David M., i use the TTL meter in my Leica M5 and CL, or in my Nikkormat FT3, Nikon F2A and F2AS, or in my Canon F-1 Old (the last series) and in my FTb QL or Canonet G-III QL17, without any problem.

Ciao.

Hi John,

I own a Minolta SRT 102 ( have had it over 30 yrs) it's been a great camera! I use the regular 625A batteries in mine. They work just fine.

<p>SRT101 using a 625 alkaline battery I noticed a brighter picture. Adjusted my ASA a little and everything is fine. Battery is cheap, just swap when suspicious, pictures are fine.</p>

<p>i just recently bought a black minolta srt101 and used an alkaline battery the first time. the problem with alkaline as apposed to mercury is that alkaline will slowly decline in power as you use it and murcury maintans its power and then loses power all at once so you know when to get a new one. although murcury batteries are not available in the U.S. you can buy zinc/air batteries at your local photo store that work at the same consistancy as a mercury battery but they have a slightly shorter life. </p>