I am well aware of possible future metering problems for certain Leica owners.A distributor in my country has advertized "last" batch PX625's (Vartas)@$6- approx.each. He advised he has many. Excepting any legal queries, and new battery developments what is the current availability of PX625's worldwide?

-- Mr. Sheridan Zantis (albada60@hotmail.com), August 31, 2001

Answers

In the US they've been unavailable (except for "gray" importation) for quite a while. The question is, what kind of shelf-life do they have? It would be silly to buy and hoard them and have them die unopened in the packaging.

-- Jay (infinitydt@aol.com), August 31, 2001.

I believe that Varta discontinued production in December of 2000. According to Varta, putting them in the refrigerator will result in a depletion rate of 2%/year. They warn NOT to put them in the freezer.

Since I've had Varta's in my cameras for well over a year w/o any problems, I'm assuming that my stash will last a while in the refrigerator.

-- Bud (budcook@attglobal.net), August 31, 2001.

Actually Varta's website now suggests that the last batch of PX625 were produced in 1998. It might be a typo as other sources indicate 1999. I had a batch of National MR-9 (same battery as PX625). They lasted 6 years in storage (I had to discard 2 battries unopened). A much better long term solution is the MR-9 battery adapter.

-- Sivalingam Rameish (rameish@pacific.net.sg), October 02, 2001.