Question about mercury battery---

[gender bombs]

Hi, I am thirteen years old and new to this forum. I am interested in purchasing a 35 mm film SLR. My grandfather let me borrow his 1975 Minolta SR-T 200, for practice, to see if I'd like using film. I took many pictures, then I realized that the battery had been dead, for god knows how long. So I am wondering, does it matter that there was no battery, will it affect my photos? Replies would be awesome. Thanks for your help.

 

[Mitica100]

Hi, I am thirteen years old and new to this forum. I am interested in purchasing a 35 mm film SLR. My grandfather let me borrow his 1975 Minolta SR-T 200, for practice, to see if I'd like using film. I took many pictures, then I realized that the battery had been dead, for god knows how long. So I am wondering, does it matter that there was no battery, will it affect my photos? Replies would be awesome. Thanks for your help.

Hi and welcome to TPF. As far as I recall, the Minolta SR-T 200 has a mercury battery for the sole purpose of indicating the proper exposure. Some cameras, like the Canon A series, depend on the battery to both meter for correct exposures and activate the shutter. Sooo... with that in mind, you might have some frames exposed ok, some not. Did you use an external meter? How did you expose, such as which shutter speed and aperture did you use?

To summarize this, yes, the pictures on that camera will be affected by the lack of a battery but they will be there, whether they're under, over or correctly exposed.

Don't be shy in posting questions here, we're here to talk about everything under the sun and especially photography.

 

[Kent Frost]

There are a couple of battery options you still have. Although they don't have a mercury battery anymore (being that since mercury is poisonous they've outlawed all mercury batts), you can get an alkaline stand-in which does not have the proper voltage, thus you would only have to compensate either half a stop or a full stop (can't remember which) to make up for the difference in battery power...

or they also make a zinc-air battery, which you have to peel a seal off of to blend the air with the zinc to get it to give a charge (weird, I know), but to my understanding it gives a more accurate voltage, and may last a little longer.

Look into Varta brand batteries. Some of the most durable batteries I've ever used.