Re: [Leica] Light meters

["Robert G. Stevens" <robsteve@istar.ca>]

John:

I just got an old dead gossen meter that uses a selenium cell.  I took it
apart and wiggled the selenium plate around and it made good contact and
came back to life.  It seems the selenium cells do not have wires soldered
to them, but sit in a spring loaded carrier that presses some wire
connections against it.  From my experience, I assume this contact between
the cell and the wires gets dirty and my moving the cell around in the
holder cleaned the contacts. Your handling of you meter may have done the
same thing.


Regards,

Robert



At 04:56 PM 2/16/99 -0800, you wrote:
>I was recently given an old British made Sangamo Western "Western Master V"
>light meter complete with incident light cone. It was completely dead. It
>had previously been stored at room temperature unused for almost 30 years.
>Depressing the needle release button did not cause the needle to move off
>zero. A photo repair lab told me that the light cell "was exhausted" and
>that the meter should be junked. 
>
>After sitting around with its new owener for six months at room temperature
>the meter has come back to life. The meter readings are virtually identical
>to those shown on my Lunasix 3.
>
>Are there any words of advice on whether this Western Master V needs to
>visit another repair technician or whether it could be on its last gasp of
>life before really becoming exhausted?
>
>jh
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