My 2-cents worth: I bought a battered circa-1970 Nikon F, which isn't battery powered, and simply locked the shutter open. -- Joe --- On Wed, 12/24/08, Jerry Foote <jfoote@scopecraft.com> wrote: From: Jerry Foote <jfoote@scopecraft.com> Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Powering your camera with an external battery To: utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com Date: Wednesday, December 24, 2008, 1:59 PM Years ago when I was using a Fujica AX-1 camera with film I had the problem of the camera battery not producing enough power to work the shutter. This was especially bothersome at 4AM after carefully guiding a 30 minute exposure. My solution was to build a small "fake" battery that had two battery terminals which had soldered to each of them a wire. The camera battery was a 6V device so I fabricated a wood dowel the same length and diameter with thumb tacks on each end for the battery contacts. The other end of the wires I connected to a 6V lantern battery. When I would start a photography session I would simply remove the normal battery and replace it with the "fake" battery. The last exposure at early dawn still came out fine (guiding errors not withstanding). I'm sure glad CCD's came along as hypersensitizing Konica 3200 speed film and hand guiding for the long exposures was a real pain. Jerry Foote ScopeCraft, Inc. 4175 E. Red Cliffs Dr. Kanab, UT 84741 435-899-1255 jfoote@scopecraft.com _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://gallery.utahastronomy.com Visit the Wiki: http://www.utahastronomy.com