[Ken Ford]

I’m confused. The MV-1 manual makes reference to alkaline batteries being included, but the S76E battery listed in the manual is shown as being silver oxide in most places I’ve found. Which chemistry is preferred?

[Not a Number]

Silver oxide is preferred because the voltage remains more constant over most of the life of the battery, dropping off quickly towards the end. Silver oxide batteries tend to have better cold weather performance too, if that's important to your shooting situations. Silver oxide cells tend to be more expensive.

[Eyewanders]

Yup, silver oxide is a bit better for reasons above. But I'm cheap and a literal bag of alkaline sways me each time.

[disconnekt]

Silver Oxide is a bit more expensive than the Alkaline version, but they last longer.

[RKKS08]

My experience (many years with a Super A and a ME Super as backup) was:

Silver Oxide batteries lasted 3-6 years, and there seemed not to be much difference whether the camera was used during that time, or not. Whereas Alkaline ones started to create problems after 1-2 years, even if the camera was not used at all.

Of course, buying them in a small shop during a journey, you never knew how long these batteries were sitting there already.

[Ken Ford]

Thanks, everyone - I’ll look for the silver oxides, buy may need to settle on alkaline to test the camera.

[Ken Ford]

Found the silver oxides, glad to see everything seems to work.

[Eyewanders]

Found the silver oxides, glad to see everything seems to work.

I just picked up an MV-1 as an impulse buy on a good deal as a result of this thread. Thanks a lot.
Let us know how you get on with yours.

[Ken Ford]

I just picked up an MV-1 as an impulse buy on a good deal as a result of this thread. Thanks a lot.
Let us know how you get on with yours.

Will do! This was an impulse purchase, as was the MX I picked up a few months ago. I figured it would be a fun walk around camera to use with neg film.

[photoptimist]

Silver oxide batteries put out a steady 1.55 V for more than 90% of the life. Alkaline batteries start at only 1.5V, drop quickly to 1.4V and then steadily lose voltage as they are uused.

Different cameras have different metering circuit designs. Some circuit designs are very sensitive to voltage levels and require batteries like silver oxide that don't lose voltage as they age. They'll give inaccurate meter readings and incorrect exposures with alkaline batteries. Other circuit designs and cameras simply stop working if the voltage drops too low even if the battery still has lots of life left in it. They'll use only a fraction of the alkaline battery's capacity and you'll end up using a lot of alkaline batteries.

If you do try alkaline batteries, there are two tests to ensure they aren't any problems:

1) Check the accuracy of the exposure meter as the battery ages: Put fresh alkaline batteries in the camera and then compare the camera's meter readings to the meter readings of a known-good camera or light meter. Write down any discrepancies. Retest the meter periodically as the battery ages. If the discrepancy between the camera and the other meter don't change, you'll know that alkaline batteries aren't going to cause exposure problems.

2) Measure the voltage of the "dead" battery as soon as the camera shows a dead battery or stops working correctly: At the point in time that the alkaline batteries go dead, take them out and measure the voltage. If the voltage is 1V or below, then you know your getting the full use of the capacity of the battery. If the voltage is about 1.2, then you are wasting about half the total capacity of the battery. If the voltage of a "dead" battery is 1.4, then you are only using about 20% of the capacity of the battery and wasting about 80%.

Good luck and enjoy your camera!

[Eyewanders]

Will do! This was an impulse purchase, as was the MX I picked up a few months ago. I figured it would be a fun walk around camera to use with neg film.

I bet that it will. I'd looked at these before (as well as the MG for the same purpose) but never thought much about them. But about a year and a half ago my sister expressed an interest in trying out a film camera after watching me all these years and I said I lend her one of mine. But her birthday was near at hand so I found a reasonably cheap MX and shipped it off to Eric for the resuscitation. Came back perfect as usual. And she liked it but it was just too much for her - fully mechanical and manual.
I'm glad this thread popped up because I picked up an MV-1 to play with for a while and then swap out with her for the MX she just never uses. She was thrilled to learn I'd done this. Wins all around. I'll get to play with this one for a while and then get back a Eric CLA'd MX which I'll probably offer up for sale since I already have two others.

At any rate - I know the MV and MG models get quite a bit of disparaging remarks, but I genuinely think they are exactly what some people need. Just manipulating focus and aperture alone is enough of an operation for many starting out - and these are so cheap I find it hard not to recommend.

[Ken Ford]

I was one of those purely manual camera users that didn’t have much use for the MV and MV-1 back in the day, along with the other “new generation” automated cameras - even the ME series. We used to derisively refer to the MVs as “stoplight cameras.” The Nikon EM, AE-1 and a few others got lumped in to the same group. Now that I’m older (well, old) and mellower, I can see the value of a simple SLR for casual use.

---------- Post added 04-25-18 at 07:13 AM ----------

Silver oxide batteries put out a steady 1.55 V for more than 90% of the life. Alkaline batteries start at only 1.5V, drop quickly to 1.4V and then steadily lose voltage as they are uused.

Different cameras have different metering circuit designs. Some circuit designs are very sensitive to voltage levels and require batteries like silver oxide that don't lose voltage as they age. They'll give inaccurate meter readings and incorrect exposures with alkaline batteries. Other circuit designs and cameras simply stop working if the voltage drops too low even if the battery still has lots of life left in it. They'll use only a fraction of the alkaline battery's capacity and you'll end up using a lot of alkaline batteries.

If you do try alkaline batteries, there are two tests to ensure they aren't any problems:

1) Check the accuracy of the exposure meter as the battery ages: Put fresh alkaline batteries in the camera and then compare the camera's meter readings to the meter readings of a known-good camera or light meter. Write down any discrepancies. Retest the meter periodically as the battery ages. If the discrepancy between the camera and the other meter don't change, you'll know that alkaline batteries aren't going to cause exposure problems.

2) Measure the voltage of the "dead" battery as soon as the camera shows a dead battery or stops working correctly: At the point in time that the alkaline batteries go dead, take them out and measure the voltage. If the voltage is 1V or below, then you know your getting the full use of the capacity of the battery. If the voltage is about 1.2, then you are wasting about half the total capacity of the battery. If the voltage of a "dead" battery is 1.4, then you are only using about 20% of the capacity of the battery and wasting about 80%.

Good luck and enjoy your camera!

Thank you, I’m aware of the different cell characteristics - this was a question about a discrepancy in the manual about which chemistry battery should be used. It’s good to have this info in one place!

[timw4mail]

I was one of those purely manual camera users that didn’t have much use for the MV and MV-1 back in the day, along with the other “new generation” automated cameras - even the ME series. We used to derisively refer to the MVs as “stoplight cameras.” The Nikon EM, AE-1 and a few others got lumped in to the same group. Now that I’m older (well, old) and mellower, I can see the value of a simple SLR for casual use.

The Canon AE-1 can be used in manual mode, though. Wouldn't the AV-1 be more derided, as it basically only has Auto, flash-sync, and bulb?


By SNx at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, File:Canon AV-1 top web.jpg - Wikimedia Commons

[Ken Ford]

The Canon AE-1 can be used in manual mode, though. Wouldn't the AV-1 be more derided, as it basically only has Auto, flash-sync, and bulb?


By SNx at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, File:Canon AV-1 top web.jpg - Wikimedia Commons

Oh, it was...

[Not a Number]

Most of the cameras have voltage regulators in them so the differences alkaline and silver oxide doesn't matter.