Rollei 35 battery

Ben johns

Ben johns

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Just bought a rollei 35 listed as broken for £50. Made in Germany with original case and flash. The shutter wouldn’t fire or cock. I played around with it then I heard a click and now it works! Must have release something.
Anyway I have no battery. I know it needs 1.3v to get proper exposure but I just want to get one that fits to test to see if it even works so I don’t mind using a 1.5 I just don’t know what size to get. I think it might be the px625a?
 
Ben johns said:
Just bought a rollei 35 listed as broken for £50. Made in Germany with original case and flash. The shutter wouldn’t fire or cock. I played around with it then I heard a click and now it works! Must have release something.
Anyway I have no battery. I know it needs 1.3v to get proper exposure but I just want to get one that fits to test to see if it even works so I don’t mind using a 1.5 I just don’t know what size to get. I think it might be the px625a?
Click to expand...
https://www.butkus.org/chinon/rollei/rollei_35s/rollei_35s.htm shows a px625 - can sometimes use an LR44 with a spacer round it - have to look at connectors carefully to make sure of polarity and how to insulate. A zinc/air hearing aid battery can give a closer voltage to the banned mercury cell. The actual circuit used will determine if the voltage is critical.
 
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As an aside (I have one somewhere), if I remember rightly you should only advance the film and consequently cock the shutter when the lens is fully extended.
 
^^^^^^^^^^^^

That is correct. (y)
 
Also - I had the same problem as you had - when I got the shutter working the speeds were massively inaccurate, especially slow speeds. I got the camera CLA,d and works beauty now :)
 
...and me, not used it for years...:(
 
The MR-9 adapter from the Small Battery Co is the way to go...

https://www.smallbattery.company.org.uk/sbc_mr9_adapter.htm

When I tried an SR44 in my Rollei 35S, I got all sorts of weird readings. An ASA setting that gave me a good reading in one subject lighting , gave something incorrect in another. I had read about the internals of the camera and found that there are two adjustments inside - one for the overall setting, and one for the slope or curve of the setting. In other words, you can adjust for the voltage of the battery, and then adjust out the tendency for the reading's accuracy to change as the amount of light changes. In the end, I never bothered and just used the camera with no battery. Then, I decided to splurge on the MR-9 anyway and found that it basically does what is says on the tin - set ASA and point camera at subject, and the readings are correct (ie, match other meters). It was pricey, but it was painless and it works.

A note on batteries...

The MR-9 comes with a 386 battery. This is supplied because it gives a package that's close to the original thickness of the original PX625. However, an SR44 will also fit, albeit with a bit more height. It so happens that the battery compartment in the Rollei 35 is fine with the increased height - it seems to screw down normally, and there is still room for the film cassette to fit with no snagging or friction. I think the upshot is that the SR44 has a lot more capacity than a 386 (about twice the height), so should last longer.

Don't use alkaline LR44s - as the power depletes, the voltage drops. The Silver Oxide SR44 maintains its voltage until it's close to drained. I don't know whether this matters in the MR-9 adapter, but I'm pretty sure an LR44 can drop below 1.35V before it's drained, which I think would mean the adapter's output voltage would also drop. (I don't think it can magic up more voltage, but if it can, it's probably at the cost of using more current, meaning the battery will start to drain faster.)
 
Nomad Z said:
The MR-9 adapter from the Small Battery Co is the way to go...

https://www.smallbattery.company.org.uk/sbc_mr9_adapter.htm

When I tried an SR44 in my Rollei 35S, I got all sorts of weird readings. An ASA setting that gave me a good reading in one subject lighting , gave something incorrect in another. I had read about the internals of the camera and found that there are two adjustments inside - one for the overall setting, and one for the slope or curve of the setting. In other words, you can adjust for the voltage of the battery, and then adjust out the tendency for the reading's accuracy to change as the amount of light changes. In the end, I never bothered and just used the camera with no battery. Then, I decided to splurge on the MR-9 anyway and found that it basically does what is says on the tin - set ASA and point camera at subject, and the readings are correct (ie, match other meters). It was pricey, but it was painless and it works.

A note on batteries...

The MR-9 comes with a 386 battery. This is supplied because it gives a package that's close to the original thickness of the original PX625. However, an SR44 will also fit, albeit with a bit more height. It so happens that the battery compartment in the Rollei 35 is fine with the increased height - it seems to screw down normally, and there is still room for the film cassette to fit with no snagging or friction. I think the upshot is that the SR44 has a lot more capacity than a 386 (about twice the height), so should last longer.

Don't use alkaline LR44s - as the power depletes, the voltage drops. The Silver Oxide SR44 maintains its voltage until it's close to drained. I don't know whether this matters in the MR-9 adapter, but I'm pretty sure an LR44 can drop below 1.35V before it's drained, which I think would mean the adapter's output voltage would also drop. (I don't think it can magic up more voltage, but if it can, it's probably at the cost of using more current, meaning the battery will start to drain faster.)
Click to expand...

Well I don't anything about the Rollei but would a hearing aid battery work they are about 1.3v.....there are two sizes you can buy with different diameters.
 
excalibur2 said:
Well I don't anything about the Rollei but would a hearing aid battery work they are about 1.3v.....there are two sizes you can buy with different diameters.
Click to expand...

It might be okay provided it fits.

I don't recall what readings I was getting with just an SR44 (which can just about fit in the Rollei without an adapter), but they were out by enough for me to consider it pointless (I didn't take notes, but would guess by at least a couple of stops error between light and dark subjects). That's with a nominal voltage difference of +0.2V. Assuming it behaves similarly with lower voltage (-0.05V for a 1.3V battery), I'd imagine there would still be an error as subject lighting changes, but probably not so much. Probably good enough for negative film, but perhaps still a bit dodgy for slide film.

The difference the MR-9 makes is that it seems to be easily accurate enough for slide film (ie, good correlation with hand held meters for varying subject lighting). It's dear at £30, but ultimately costs about the same as a roll of slide film plus dev/mount/scan.
 
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