I recently got a Minox 35 GT of a bidding website. It was priced below market value from what I see online so I bought it. It was an impulse buy so it was after I got it and saw the battery was dead that I went researching about the battery.

Originally the Minox 35 GT uses PX27 style battery which has been banned for years now in the U.S. and in Europa. There isn’t a same sized replacement. There are a few solutions to this.

The most nicer one and also most expensive one is to buy the Minox 35 GT Power Pack. It is made by Minox to replace the battery chamber. You can put 4 LR44 type batteries in it. I wanted to order this from Adorama but they and other stores in the U.S. charge like 45 dollars just to ship that piece of plastic to the Netherlands, I mean I get books price and shipping together cheaper then that from Amazon…talk about being ripped off.

The next option will contain a few DIY but will cost way less. After some Googling I read that most users dismantle an old PX27 type battery and use the plastic in it as a case for the 4 LR44 type batteries. Now I’m a visual person I need pictures along with instructions and none of them provided clear instructions. So I took photos of my DIY to make it easier for others who might need a battery hack for their Minox.

The first photo shows the dismantled old PX27 battery. The plastic tube contained 4 mercury cells glued to each other each in a small aluminum encasing. Dispose the batteries correctly as they are hazardous. Next the idea is to fit 4 LR44 batteries in the plastic tube, respecting polarity so: -+-+-+-+.

In my case those batteries where to big for the plastic case. So plan B next: I got some isolation tape and taped the batteries together as seen on the second photo. Now just put the battery pack you just made in the battery chamber “-” down and “+” up and done.

Now to do a battery check, my camera doesn’t has any film in it yet as I want to be sure the battery works before wasting film. So advance the “film” and now look in the viewfinder and press the battery check button. The needle should drop and then jump to more then 1/125 as the manual says, but that is okay. This means your camera has power.

The old mercury batteries where of 5.6V and these 4 new batteries make a total of 6V but the camera can handle it. So there you go, basically all you need is isolation tape and 4 LR44 type batteries.

You can read more on the battery check and working of the camera with this Minox 35 GT online manual