Packing away my Zoom F1 mic the other day, I dropped it, well it fell a few inches onto a wooded bench and the battery door broke.
I was a little surprised by this until I googled it and well, it seems to be nearly inevitable.
The odd and annoying little battery door is under some considerable contact spring strain and a very thin little bit of plastic is all that stands in the way of battery, full projectile exit.
Further Googling found little of use. A replacement door or clip fix, even a service agent seemed to be hard to track down. I have only used the F1 a few times, so breaking a $200+ item (including mount) is annoying, but I perservered.
Turns out a helpful blogger came up with a simple fix.
A cable-tie, synched tight and the tail clipped off holds the door closed, slides out of the way easily (more easily than the stupid little door) and even does double duty covering the on/off switch and record button when being worn as a LAV recorder.
A clean look, replaceable and even a selection of colours. The last image shows that you do not need the tie to be flush, which it can’t be, but the connection is still clean. I used it last week mounted on camera and it did not miss a trick.
Ironically, battery changes are now quicker and more secure.
A few for later :)
The original poster said he tried a few and settled on 4.5mm ties, but I went to Kmart and bought this bag for $6.00 and they are fine. First one fit, was clipped clean and there we go.