Will a 35mm camera work if the batteries are dead?

Question

Will a 35mm camera work if the batteries are dead?

Answer 1

The older 100% manual cameras like the Minolta SRT-202 or Pentax K1000 or Canon FTb and any other pre-auto exposure (aperture preferred or shutter preferred) camera only needed the battery for the meter. Once electronically controlled shutters were introduced (Minolta XE-7, XG-9, Canon AE-1, etc.) cameras became more battery dependent. Most of them did have one manual shutter speed though.

Before cameras had built-in meters photographers either used a hand-held meter or depended on the "Sunny 16 Rule". It stated: "On a sunny day set your aperture to f16 and your shutter speed to 1/ASA." (ISO has long replaced ASA but they're the same thing). So if you were using ASA 400 you'd shoot at f16 @ 1/500 sec. (The older mechanical shutters were limited so you used the closest approximation. Electronically controlled shutters are "stepless" and capable of 1/359 sec. or 1/116 sec.)

Answer 2

if you have the cheapo all plastic one with the hand wind dial to move the film forward, yes, you don't need batteries.

any other camera will not work without batteries, because they move the film(if not digital), lens, and all that c**p.

  so most likely no, but you should have posted the brand/model in your question to know for sure.

again, most likely no. if there is a spot to put batteries, it will not work without them.

Answer 3

One of my most beloved 35mm cameras was my Nikon FM, a metal bodied interchangeable lens SLR.  It was NOT a cheap plastic point & shoot.  Like the Nikon F and F2 series, you could use it when the batteries died.  You had no metering, of course, but since (cough) professional cameras of that time were manual wind, the shutter, film advance and other features worked perfectly.

With autofocus, most SLR's went to motorized film advance, so you'd be stuck.  If the 35mm camera was a manual wind model, and one where you could set shutterspeeds and lens aperture, you're good to go.