Batteries, batteries, batteries.

I did a lot of reading about batteries before I purchased my camera and despite establishing which battery I had to buy for my QL17 there remained a lot of confusion about how Today's Alkaline batteries effect meter readings.


Back in the '60s when the Canonet was first launched the standard battery was a mercuric oxide cell, a battery containing Mercury. In recent years these Mercury batteries have been banned in much of Europe and North America, the result was confusion over what to replace the outlawed batteries with. The answer was an Alkaline cell.

However, the new Alkaline cells have a changed voltage compared to their Mercury counterpart, in the QL17's case 1.5V compared to 1.35V. So how does this affect the meter readings? In my own experience I have seen little change. I have done numerous tests to compare the readings of my 20D, AE-1 and QL17, the first two of which produce excellent exposures. While the meter readings of each camera didn't always match they were all within 1 stop, enough for me to trust the QL17's judgement.

I can't guarantee that everyone will experience the same results but I can say that if you want a new battery for your QL17 then you'll need a 1.5V L1560.