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Found a stash of old selenium cells in a junk shop last week
I was digging through a beat-up electronics store in Portland and grabbed a box of selenium photocells for $5. They were from a 1960s light meter batch, still in their original wrappers. I tested a few and almost all of them were still responsive within 10% of their rated sensitivity. That's wild considering how many modern meters I've trashed from dead cells. I cleaned up the contacts and swapped one into a battered Nikon F meter head. It worked perfectly on the first try. Has anyone else had luck reviving old selenium gear or is this just a fluke?
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joseph52917m ago
Nah, gotta push back on that. Those old Weston and Gossen cells definitely had rated sensitivity specs printed right on the factory data sheets. I've got a stack of old instrument catalogs from the 50s and 60s, and they list things like "sensitivity at 5400k color temp" with pretty tight tolerances. The 10% thing might sound loose compared to modern cells, but for something that's been sitting for 60 years that's actually pretty impressive. My theory is that the sealed packaging kept them from getting contaminated by humidity and crap in the air. I've seen the exact same model of cells that were stored open drop off by 30-40% in just a few decades. So yeah, it's a fluke that those specific ones were stored right, but the technology itself was solid.
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haydenj904h ago
Whoa, hold up, I gotta call you out on something. Those old selenium cells, they don't really have "rated sensitivity" like modern photodiodes or silicon cells do. They're just naturally wider in how they respond, so getting within 10% of anything that specific is more like luck than a sign of quality. Still, that's a killer find for five bucks, and getting a Nikon F meter head working again is a solid win. I'd say it's more a fluke with those particular cells than a rule, but hey, beats paying for a new meter.
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