Just my luck. How 'bout Colombia? I am there quite often as-well. Never mind, I'll just check next trip. On Sun, Jun 6, 2010 at 8:31 PM, Allan Derickson <alland435@xxxxxxxxxxx>wrote: > I think they are outlawed in Canada now too. They used to be available > over the internet but I haven’t seen any sources for quite some time. I > purchased several around 2004 or 2005. > > > ------------------------------ > > *From:* rollei_list-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto: > rollei_list-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] *On Behalf Of *Peter Mattei > *Sent:* Sunday, June 06, 2010 8:29 PM > *To:* rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > *Subject:* [rollei_list] Re: Adventures with light meters > > > > Allan, you mentioned that you have a > "Canadian stash" of the old batteries...does that mean that they can still > be found up there??? I just returned from a week working in Toronto and > will probably be regularly up in Ontario for the duration of this contract. > Anybody know if the batteries are still for sale up there? > > On Sun, Jun 6, 2010 at 4:16 PM, Allan Derickson <alland435@xxxxxxxxxxx> > wrote: > > When I dusted off my old but only slightly used Rollei 3.5F all functions > seems to work properly except the light meter. I shrugged and put it off to > old age and figured I would just use a hand-held meter. After thinking > about it for awhile, however, it didn’t make much sense. The camera had not > seen much use and had been stored in a cool dark place so it didn’t seem > right that the selenium cell would have deteriorated. I nor anyone else had > ever done any service on this camera but reading my manual the meter is > user-serviceable to the extent of setting the zero and it shows how to > remove it. The zero was okay but I decided to take a look to see what I > could see. The back of the meter has two gold plated posts which fit into > sockets which also have gold plated contacts. I took a sharpened pencil > eraser and polished each one and cleaned them with alcohol for good > measure. I also removed the selenium cell itself which has two gold plated > contacts. I cleaned and polished these also. After putting everything back > together, guess what? It reads spot on with my faithful old Gossen Sixtar > (same as Super Pilot). > > > > As a side note, I’m done buying meters on Ebay. A couple months ago I > decided I should really start to learn and use the Zone System so I bought a > Minolta spotmeter F. It bears a sticker that it was calibrated in March of > this year by Quality Light-metric in Hollywood. After extensive testing I > find that it is a stop off. At least it seems to be consistent over the > range of light levels. I’ll keep it but put my own sticker on it to remind > myself to double the ISO value. Now my old Gossen uses those nasty mercury > cells and I’m down to my last couple of my Canadian stash. For the first > time in 40 years I dropped the darrn thing on concrete. It cracked the > plastic housing and the cds cell window. I figured well 40 years ain’t bad > and I sniped a Sekonic L-208 in the last seconds of an Ebay auction. It > just came and it’s two stops off in bright sunlight and pretty close in low > light. In other words, not linearly off. So it goes back. The Sixtar is > still working so I’ll use it til it expires. > > > > Live and learn. > > >