With the Oly Trip sorted, I've turned my attention to the 35RC, a kind of Trip on steroids. Trouble is that those steroids require power in the form of a 1.35v mercury cell battery, which has been banned in most parts of the world for some time. The few still around are way beyond their shelf life and cost about £12 a go. The battery in mine is, of course, long dead. So the alternatives:

Hearing aid batteries. Cheap but only last a few weeks.
A zinc / air cell. Lasts up to a year but almost as expensive as the mercury version.
Cheap Alkaline cells are out as they make the meter lie at random.
The almost-as-cheap silver oxide cells would work, but are a higher voltage so make the meter lie consistently.

Which leaves 2 options:
Silver oxide cells in a voltage reducing adaptor (£30)
or re-calibrating the meter to work with the higher voltage cells.

I'm going for the latter. Wish me luck!

pics from this camera in NYC are here and LeMans here before the battery died...