soligor light meter battery?

[bob carlisle]

I recently purchased an older "Soligor" selector cds light meter. It came with no battery and I wondered if anybody out there might know what type and voltage of a battery I might need to see if this thing works??? It is for use with my newly acquired kodak 2-d 8x10 large format camera that my uncle found in his attic in ohio. great shape camera. Now I am searching for a used lens, film, etc to see if I can take some photos. Thanks, bob carlisle

[Jeff Wiseman]

Bob, I'm pretty sure it used a mercury PX13 or PX625. These are not available in the US anymore. There are three alternatives:

1. Alkaline replacement for the PX625, however since most of these old meters need the constant voltage of a mercury battery is not a good solution.

2. Wein cell Zinc-Air replacement for a PX625. Good replacement but short life and expensive.

3. There are a couple of different adapters that fake the output of a mercury battery. Not cheap and another thing to hassle with.

What I do is use Zinc-Air 675 batteries with a rubber o-ring to center them in the battery compartment. This works well UNLESS the battery contact is on the edge of the battery rather than the ends. The ZA 675's tend to have a short life but are VERY cheap.

[Jean-Louis Llech]

The Cds Soligor meter was originally alimented by mercury cells under a 1.35 voltage.
Mercury cells are no longer manufactured because of their toxicity and environmental aggressiveness.

So-called "replacement cells" are the silver-oxide S625PX and alkaline PX625A/LR9. The problem is that both types of battery produce a 1.55 voltage.
Consequently, on a meter who needs a 1.35 alimentation, these 1.5 battery may produce 1 to 2 stops exposure errors.

The MRB625 (Z625PX) is an air-zinc 1.35 volt mercury-free battery, and IMHO the only one who can replace mercury-oxide PX625 and PX13 batteries. Their average lifetime is rather long (1 to 5 years, according to the frequency of use of the meter).

On these air-zinc batteries, there is an adhesive tab to protect the battery from air-entrance. This tab must be removed prior to battery activation. So air enters into the cell and allows the chemical air-zinc reaction to start.
You must then wait about half an hour before the battery is ready for use.

Another advantage is that extra air-zinc batteries can be bought and stocked in a cool and dry place.
If the tab is left in place, you can preserve several ones for replacement during a few years.

Best regards
JLL

[Jeff Wiseman]

>The MRB625 (Z625PX) is an air-zinc 1.35 volt mercury-free battery, and IMHO the only one who can replace mercury-oxide PX625 and PX13 batteries. Their average lifetime is rather long (1 to 5 years, according to the frequency of use of the meter).<

I have never gotten more than 8 months from one of these Wein cells (MRB625) no matter how much or little the meter or camera is used. I find I get about 6 to 8 months from the ZA675 cells. I buy them in 6 packs at my local Walgreen's Pharmacy for $2.50 per 6 pack when they are on sale.

[Witold Grabiec]

This is based on my recent read on the subject in a Shutterbug.

I believe Bob Shell was the one who got involved in the Wein battery design, but regardless, the idea behind using the Air-Zincs is to COVER the air inlet when the battery is not in use (for extended period of time). The key problem is that once the air is introduced it will continue discharging the battery even if the device is sitting idle. Covering the air inlet will not suspend the discharge all together but it will (apparently) slow it down.

For more info go to:

http://www.weincell.com/

[bob carlisle]

Thanks all to your excellent info of knowledge about this meter. I have gotten the meter to work now with the 675 and o-ring trick. THANKS AGAIN FOR YOUR HELP AND INPUT. BOB CARLISLE

[Bill Jefferson]

Bob, I too was looking for a replacement battery and came across the following:

The modern substitute battery is a 1.5 volt PX635a.

An alternate method of obtaining the correct meter readings would to be adjust the film speed

take the ISO and divide by 5, multiply the result by 2, = adj. film speed

ex. (400/5) X 2= 160

setting up my meter with the following:

speed adj. ISO 160 64 100 40 50 20 64 25.6 800 320 3000 1200 This covera all Polaroid and Kodak Readyload film that I use.

[William Okopski]

This reply comes long after the fact, but since this thread came up in a search for PX625 battereis I figure that there are others out there who may benefit from it. I used PX625's in my Olympus OM1's and in several hand-held meters. Replacing them with zinc-air batteries every few months is not a cost-effective solution for me. Too many cameras getting too little use nowdays. There are trade-offs in any possible solution to this problem. The zinc-air batteries continue to drain whether used or not and are expensive, but they are the proper voltage for the job and they 'just die' at the end of their life. There are alkaline batteries in 1.5 volts rather than the the 1.35V needed, which may cause damage to the circuits. They will throw off the meters due to this improper voltage level and they 'taper off' at the end of their life which also leads to inaccuracy in the meters. The principle advantage with alkalines is their availability and that they are cheap. The third solution is silver oxide (S625's). They also 'just die' at the end of life, much like the original mercury batteries did. They are a bit more expensive than alkalines, but far less expensive than the zinc-air batteries annually. The drawback is, once again, the 1.55 volt output. The solution that I found that pretty well resolves the problem is to alter the circuitry of the device. It's actually very simple and there's even help for the faint-of-heart who would never think of cutting wires in their photo equipment. For those latter types there is a converter which steps down the voltage to a useful and safe level. Most of the on-line photo battery venues have the convertor listed and I'm not doing a commercial for them so I won't list their name. For the adventurous (?) types, the solution is very simple, buy a shottkey diode and put it in series with the battery lead. They are small enough to fit virtually anywhere, cheap enough to buy (even from Radio Shack!), and the whole operation only takes a few minutes to complete. The most likely possible mistake in completion is putting the diode in backwards. Solution: desolder it, and turn it around. The voltage drop across the diode will put the output of your silver-oxide battery at 1.3V, close enough to get the job done. Once completed, all you need worry about is changing out the batteries annually.