Gossen Luna-Pro

[dehk]

Just go to walgreens and get a pack of 625 Zinc air, they were buy 1 get free last week.
And you will need 2 twistie/bread ties, and make 2 circles.
Put the bread ties around the outside and put the 625 inside. done.

[MattKing]

"Luna Pro SBC" is the name used to market that meter in the USA. In the rest of the world, including Canada, it was known as the Profisix.

I have both the adapters that use the silver oxide cells (with diode) which are more expensive, but give long battery life and Jon Goodman's hearing aid battery adapters. Both types work really well.

If, like me, you like to buy and use a variety of old cameras, expect to require a few .

[Wade D]

Good info about the various adapters and batteries. I just bought a Gossen Super Pilot cheaply. I believe it uses the same battery.
Would those same methods work for a Minolta SRT? I've been using my 101b's and 201 without a battery. It would be great to have a working meter in camera as well as the separate hand held meter.
Perhaps the Gossen will be more accurate than the SRT's would be.

[MattKing]

The adapters work in any camera or meter I have tried that were designed for the 625 battery.

Some of the home-made solutions need to be tweaked a bit, because some equipment makes contact with the batteries at different locations on the batteries, so the physical configuration matters.

[nightbringer]

Good info about the various adapters and batteries. I just bought a Gossen Super Pilot cheaply. I believe it uses the same battery.
Would those same methods work for a Minolta SRT? I've been using my 101b's and 201 without a battery. It would be great to have a working meter in camera as well as the separate hand held meter.
Perhaps the Gossen will be more accurate than the SRT's would be.

I'm not sure how much help this would be, but I once fired up an old Minolta X300 and had to put in new batteries to get it working - I think it was those same kind of batteries, the meter was working fine (although I may be wrong as I was only starting out in photography at the time).

[Chan Tran]

Having recently picked up the above-mentioned meter to use for landscapes (something my Minolta IVF doesn't do well ... or it might be my mediocre metering technique) and as a back-up meter, I got a pair of Duracell 625 batteries to put in it, but they are 1.5V instead of the 1.35 that the Gossen is set for.

So therefore, comparing the meter with some of my others, and in-camera meters, I find that it's usually at least 1 to 1-2/3 stops off from the other meters, which meter accurately. Is there a way to recalibrate the Gossen or otherwise get it to play nice with the 1.5V batteries without having to open it up and doing some soldering or sending it off?

I wonder what makes you think the Luna Pro would make it better for landscape than the Minolta IVF?

[wiltw]

This is an adapter solution for any device that once took the PX625 mercuric oxide cell (and a number of other form factor adapter solutions)...

http://www.criscam.com/mercury_battery_adapters.php

http://www.smallbattery.company.org....r9_adapter.htm for anyone in the UK

[nightbringer]

I wonder what makes you think the Luna Pro would make it better for landscape than the Minolta IVF?

My IVF only has the incident-metering attachment (the big white dome), and after trying to use it to do some landscapes (metering for the sky), I ended up with overexposed slides. It's great for portraits, not quite so for landscapes.

I'd also read that the Gossen series of lightmeters is also quite good - and I love the old style with the needle and the decoder rings

[Chan Tran]

My IVF only has the incident-metering attachment (the big white dome), and after trying to use it to do some landscapes (metering for the sky), I ended up with overexposed slides. It's great for portraits, not quite so for landscapes.

I'd also read that the Gossen series of lightmeters is also quite good - and I love the old style with the needle and the decoder rings

you can always remove the dome and attach the one with the hole in it for a 40 degree reflection measurement. There are also attachment to make it a 10 or 5 degree spot meter. The minolta IVF is a much superior meter than the luna pro in my opinion.

[Wade D]

I received my Super Pilot today. Meter and case are like new. It specifies a PX13 battery and with a little research found it to be the same as the 625. Lots of info out there:
http://www.smallbattery.company.org.uk/sbc_px625.htm
http://silverbased.org/zinc-mercury-replacement/
www.butkus.org/chinon/batt-adapt-us.pdf