Nikon F5 Rechargeable Battery

One of the projects I have spent a lot of time on was trying to implement a rechargeable battery for my Nikon F5. I bought this camera while traveling through Japan in 2021, stumbling upon a cool underground store with hundreds of old cameras. I wanted to buy a unique one, but I didn't know which one to choose. I hadn't done proper research and I was a little in a rush. I knew I wanted an analog camera with some modern conveniences and in the heat of the moment I chose this one.

In hindsight, maybe I should have chosen the Nikon F100, a smaller camera, convenient and still compatible with the lenses I already had. Still to this day I think the form factor is appealing.

The Japanese owners were really kind; they didn't speak a single word of English but we made ourselves understood. We were together reading the manual trying to test if all the modes were working properly. I think I paid around $250, including the kit lens.

Just after paying for the camera and signing a log of sold cameras that the nice owners had, I went to buy some batteries, because this beauty uses 8 AA batteries. I remember that they weren't that expensive there, but nowadays the prices of simple batteries make my photography hobby less desirable, not accounting for the price of films too. A good thing I did here was purchasing a roll of Fomapan with a manual film loader; that way I don't feel bad wasting some photos practicing and learning. I also got a full kit for processing film: a nice drum, some black bag for manually removing the film and loading, and some D76.

Learning how to expose films is also a nice experience. I am not an expert, but with the cheap bulk film it feels easier to make mistakes, and when you get good results it makes for a nice experience.

It didn't take long when I realized that maintaining 8 AA batteries was going to be a hassle. They didn't last really long and to be honest it was making me not use the camera that much.

So I had some Li-Ion batteries recovered from an old laptop battery. Most of the time some of the cells are bad and that makes the whole pack bad, but if you recover some of the matching set they are perfectly fine. So with that on hand I prepared to design a battery pack for my camera.

In reality the space inside is big but it's also not very consistent in dimensions. It was made to fit exactly 8 AA batteries, nothing more. But I only needed 3 x 18650 cells in series to reach the same voltage. I needed to fit a BMS and some way of charging and that should do it.

It took a long time. Iterating some 3D printing models and trying to make it fit inside the space, considering the electronics and contacts. Most of the prints really did not work and I was using my homemade 3D printer so it was not really fast or really nice work.

What I arrived at on my first attempt worked. But now in hindsight it was really dangerous, but it worked. I had spent so many iterations that when it really worked I was so satisfied that I stopped trying to perfect it.

All the details are in the original post on Thingiverse. I left it there in order to preserve my process and to appreciate the decisions I have made over time with the mistakes included. I think right now is ugly and dangerous but I was really proud when I made it.

I used some strips of copper sheet to make the wiring and use a common 12V 3A transformer to charge it. Now I know that with this voltage it was never really fully charged, but even that the duration of this battery is exceptional. It's really nice to not have to worry about how much is going to last and just play freely.

So recently I was thinking what to do with my life (I know, that's part of why I made this blog too). To get in touch with my many hobbies and going back to the stuff I like, like photography. I found the Nikon covered in dust in a corner of the room, the battery clearly discharged but even when trying to charge it still did not work. Right there I found my inspiration again (I also wanted to buy a spot welder so this was a really good excuse), to fix the battery and address all the things I didn't like about it.

It's funny when one revisits an old project, to look back at the decisions that were made and to question why some decisions were chosen. It also puts things in perspective; I found that some decisions now are easier to make. I have developed a deeper way of thinking when designing and implementing practical solutions. Now I am more focused on practicality and simplicity: fewer parts that are convenient to implement and use, cheap parts that are commercially available everywhere, with clear and straightforward instructions.

With that in mind (and with my spot welder in my hand) I started implementing a new solution. It was so much more straightforward, I think it took me around 3 days of work, a few hours a day. How was I so slow back there?

It worked. It worked so nicely, on the first try.

Building the ideas that came to my mind is so refreshing. Even more that finishing the project. The process, the line of thought, the challenge of approaching to a problem and to think of all the possibilities. To me, that's the most important part of life. The funny thing is that finishing a project is not that rewarding, it marks the end. But no worries, I am full of new projects and old projects to revisit. Maybe someday I'll write about when I built my own 3D printer back in 2018.

You can find the updated project in this post on Thingiverse as a new version of the older one. Basically is exactly the same but made it right, or a little righter?

Part of my journey here is to be more in contact with the community, that being in photography, pottery, 3d printing, electronics or any of the many things I like. So I am trying to share my projects with the community and to receive the feedback and learn from it. I know that I am not a particular social person, but this efforts are important to me. To show myself and to learn from the rest.

So when I first made my first model I shared it on a Photrio forum post, as a timid comment that later updated with the new version. This time around I also used reddit to share my new design. I find it so funny how the comments went crazy calling it a bomb. I never expect that reaction.

Also good feedback from the comments there, I am currently exploring to use smaller cells and more convenient USB C charging port, so you can charge this everywhere without problem. That will be the next iteration. In time.

More than showing and explaining the project this is a way of expressing the process and how I fit in there. If you want more details about how to build I highly recommend to read the post. If you have questions feel free to ask me here or there. This obviously so niche but who knows.

I am proud of my mistakes. They are what bring me here, to who I am.