Contax RX battery capacity

[Fred Aspen]

I just picked up a Contax RX without a manual. I can't find any manuals to download so I will ask the question here:

Can someone check their RX manual and tell me what is the specification for the number of rolls that can be shot on a 2CR5 battery? I suspect I have an unusual current drain when the camera is off as the batteries don't last very long.

Thanks!

-Fred

[Jaap]

Hoi Fred,
The battery of my RX last very long. I just discoverded that I also don,t have the manual. But it should last for at leats 40 films 36 exp. By the way it's one of the best MF slr ever made

[Distagon]

I have looked this up in the RX manual and it says:
"About 150 rolls of 24-exposure film with a new lithium battery (2CR5), at ordinary temperature, as tested according to Contax testing standard."

I agree, by the way, that the RX is just about the best SLR ever made, MF or AF!

[Alex]

No camera has ever fitted my hands so perfectly as the RX. I haven't handled every SLR, or even nearly every SLR, but I've handled a lot over the last forty years or so, and nothing comes close. I've been told that the RTS-III is in the same league, and am prepared to believe it on reputation, but my RTS is the I, and though I love it too, the RX is the 'if you could rescue only one object from a fire' one. Several score rolls of 36, and the battery is still bright and breezy. I do, however, always store the camera with the battery out, not because of possible drainage, but because a leaky battery destroyed my 167MT, and I never risk it now.

[Jaap]

Alex
You don,t need to put out the battery of the RX cause it's a lithium and it won,t leak. I also owned a RTS 3 it's indeed the same leak as the RX but i found it to heavy and bulky and prefer the RX
Jaap

[Alex]

Jaap,

Useful advice, thanks, I hadn't thought of that. I'd left the batteries in my 167 and on going to use it one day, found it dead. The battery chamber of the 167 has openings that lead straight in to the electronics, and that's the route the leakage from the batteries took. I had loaded Duracell batteries because of their reputation for robust manufacture. I sent the camera and batteries to Duracell, who honoured their warranty to replace any equipment damaged by leakage of their batteries, and they sent me a cheque (it took a few months) for the market value I'd given to the body. As you can imagine, it made me remove batteries from all pieces of photo kit that were not going to be used immediately. Useful tip about lithium cells, though.