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- Plastic Cameras
Zinc-air batteries have a pretty good shelf life as long as the oxygen-tight seal is intact. You can reseal a battery by taping over the vent holes with tape when not in use.
They don't last very long, them zinc cells from what I understand.
They don't last very long, them zinc cells from what I understand.
The ones made for hearing aids, a few weeks to months, but they are very, very cheap with a simple metal adapter. The Wein cell is proprietary, with fewer air holes, and lasts far longer. I've used one Wein cell for over a year. At less than $7 from Amazon (in the US, granted) that's not bad at all. I have a voltage regulating adapter on the way from Japan to just start using silver-oxide batteries, which long term will be even cheaper.
I never let the fact that something that originally used Mercury cells stop me from buying it. I've had very good luck with the Wein cells and aspersions cast on them aside, the cost is not bad at all for me.
I have one of those adapters, never really did the job for me. YMMV with these things. I just went with metering by eye and gave up on adaption.
I have no need, and am far too critical (some - ok, a lot of friends - would say persnickity) to rely on guesswork. I can't speak about the adapter until I get it, but I'm pretty happy with Wein cells and, for that matter, have handheld meters that use modern batteries. I've always carried my Luna Pro SBC with my Yashicamat 124 for example, even though my Yashica meter does actually work. I use a spot meter for large format. The closest I come to guess work is to set a manual camera for prevailing conditions so I can shoot without additional metering as long as lighting is pretty consistent or "add a stop because that's kind of shady" which I suppose is "by eye" but it's always based on starting with a meter reading for me. As you say, YMMV. If the adapter doesn't work, I'm actually happy with the Wein cells.
You do have to be careful though. The "diode" adapter I found on Amazon had reviews saying, and photos to confirm, that it was really just a piece of metal falsely advertised. The Kanto adapters from Japan appear to be the real deal.
A $7 battery that usually lasts me at least a year is fine though. When I tried to post the link it didn't work for some reason, but Weincell at $6.98 with free Prime shipping from Amazon.
lens seem very clean, so maybe a shutter problem or maybe hood should be used, but that would negate the idea of using a small camera
If it doesn't work with a battery, you can still use it without full manual! I got mine even cheaper, I think around 40CAD. Still have to change some light seals, but everything works fine. I like that it shows the focus distance (through icons) in the viewfinder.I just purchased a Demi 17 off Ebay. It was only 59 bucks US with shipping included. I took a risk as they couldn't test it without a battery.
Pen D/D2/D3 works without the battery and looks less boring. D3 even has a f/1.7 lens like Demi EE17. Although much like EED, it shows nothing in the viewfinder.I had bought at the same time as the Demi EE17 a Pen EED, which looks more boring, shows nothing in the viewfinder and didn't work without battery...
if you are worried about the batteries or a cla John hermonsonn works on them and does exquisite work.
I got my Demi EE17 today. It was sold as "for parts or repair" because they didn't know how to test it. Well it turns out the thing doesn't work, so the gamble I took didn't pay off this time. The shutter seems stuck open partially, and I can't get the winder knob to actually wind. Its stuck too. So it looks like this camera will need a CLA after all. No big deal, as I still have my FT camera for half frame use. Is there something I can check before I eventually send it off for repair?
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