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Horrible battery drainage on M9


Nathan127

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I have had the M9 for about a month now. It takes great pictures. However on at least 4 occasions I turned on the Leica (it had been off) and the low battery sign comes up. I had used the camera the day before, the battery was 80%, I took about 10 pictures, and it was 75% full. It had been in the off position for the last 24 hours. This is now the 4th time it has happened and is VERY frustrating. I know the camera was OFF because I have paid attention to it. Why would a battery drain from 75% full to empty in 24 hours while OFF? I am VERY VERY frustrated. Anyone else has this experience? Any suggestions? My previous Nikon kept a full battery for months even after taking 100s of photos.

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It's just possible that there is some tricky behavior in the OFF-S-C-Timer switch. I noticed yesterday that I had left my M9's switch pointing between OFF and S. This had the peculiar consequence that when i pressed the shutter button, the shutter first rewound and then fired, doing this for several shots. So see how firmly you have switched OFF. And are you seeing an error message on the LCD when you start up, or is this information confirmed in the INFO screen? Is the battery really dead? The test is how long it takes to charge up again.

 

scott

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This is not typical behaviour. I suggest you check it further (see the previous post) and if it is really this way, contact Leica. I might add that both M8 and M9 have a trick of turning the switch to the "on" position when slipped into a bag sideways and resetting it to "off" when pulled out. In the meantime half-press of the shutter button will drain the battery. I had this happen a number of times when using an old Leica Kombitasche.

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This was also a problem with some M8's.

First thing to check is if the camera is in a bag overnight. When you first pick it up, take it out of the bag is it warm? If the camera is just sitting out you might not feel it being warm but inside a bag the heat won't disapate as easily causing the camera body to get warm.

 

Second is if you put it in a bag that you really turned the camera off and the act of putting in the bag did move the switch to the S position and that the shuuter release isn't depressed.

 

Actually the M8/8.2/9 do not turn completely off when you switch the lever to the off position. It really goes into a deep sleep state. That is why if you have a hang you have to remove the battery to get the camera to turn completely off then back on once you re-insert the battery.

 

Best way to check this is to insert a newly charged battery, take 1 or 2 images then let it sit for a day or 2. If you then turn it on and the battery is nearly empty, or even down considerably, the camera needs to go back to Leica to have it fixed.

 

On my M8 if I insert a newly charged battery I can let it sit for weeks without the battery being drained much.

 

Also the removable battery charges the internal battery even if the the camera is in the off position. So you will get some battery drain over time. But not what you are seeing.

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It's just possible that there is some tricky behavior in the OFF-S-C-Timer switch. I noticed yesterday that I had left my M9's switch pointing between OFF and S. This had the peculiar consequence that when i pressed the shutter button, the shutter first rewound and then fired, doing this for several shots. So see how firmly you have switched OFF. And are you seeing an error message on the LCD when you start up, or is this information confirmed in the INFO screen? Is the battery really dead? The test is how long it takes to charge up again.

 

scott

 

Well when my M9 is on OFF and I press the shuter, the red led turns on for a fraction of a second...however it will no fire. Not sure if it is normal, but it does not bother me.

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Well when my M9 is on OFF and I press the shuter, the red led turns on for a fraction of a second...however it will no fire. Not sure if it is normal, but it does not bother me.

 

When my M9 is off, clicking the shutter does nothing--no red light. I would have that checked out.

 

I agree with jaapv about accidently switching the camera on when putting it in a bag. I've done that. I now reflexively touch the on/off switch with my index finger to make sure it's off just before taking my hand out of the bag.

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Nathan, do you have more than one battery? Does it happen with all of them? Maybe it is a battery with defective cells. I have had rechargeable batteries before that behaved like this (looking fine fully charged and for the first 20 or so percent, but suddenly dying thereafter).

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This may be really simple - be sure you don't have the AUTO POWER menu function set to off. If you leave the camera on it will drain the battery. This is the default setting as it comes from the factory. I was used to leaving my M8 switch to S, but when I first got the M9 it kept draining the battery after a day. I now have it set to AUTO POWER goes off after 2 minutes and no problem.

 

Hope this works for you.

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adding, purely anecdotal evidence to the bulk here.

 

So far my M9 have delivered very good battery endurance. on par with my M8.2 I have not actually measured, but find it to be about the same on a average day of use.

 

I DID have a early problem that the power were left on when the camera were transported and the shutter were depressed, resulting in drained batteries, but once I figured that out, things were back to normal.

 

.

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I haven't used my M9 much because I still like (prefer?) my M8u's.

 

Mark, why do you prefer the M8s?

 

There are several things I don't like in the M9 (the LCD screen, the slow operation), and the problems reported here, at LUF, made me think twice before I buy one. My M8 have had lots of problems, travels to Solms, etc.

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Jaap has started a "in defence of the M9" thread and I certainly would not argue with either the benefit of FFor the M9 IQ aside of course from the dismal red fringing with the 18mm Super Elmar.

 

My concerns about the M9 are all to do with the usability of the camera - I miss the clarity of the LCD glass cover, it's unbearably slow to use, the English phraseology is clumsy, I miss the top panel indicator showing if the camera is awake or asleep and so on.

 

The M9 of course disappoints because it does nothing to improve the viewfinder eye comfort, let alone provide built-in diopter correction or variable magnification.

 

I expect we'll see an updated camera at Photokina in 9 months.

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Jaap has started a "in defence of the M9" thread and I certainly would not argue with either the benefit of FFor the M9 IQ aside of course from the dismal red fringing with the 18mm Super Elmar.

 

My concerns about the M9 are all to do with the usability of the camera - I miss the clarity of the LCD glass cover, it's unbearably slow to use, the English phraseology is clumsy, I miss the top panel indicator showing if the camera is awake or asleep and so on.

 

The M9 of course disappoints because it does nothing to improve the viewfinder eye comfort, let alone provide built-in diopter correction or variable magnification.

 

I expect we'll see an updated camera at Photokina in 9 months.

No defense, Mark, just the way it feels to me. Opinions may differ between individuals, you know.

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On overall battery performance in the M9: It uses power faster than the M8, for sure. Two processors, and bigger files to write. About 75-80% as many shots for me, on average. The scale is also very non-linear - I get 200 shots out of the first 75%, and about 20 shots out of the last 25% before the camera says "Enough!" and shuts down.

 

On the OFF/S/C switch. In-between settings are to be avoided and checked for. The two times I had M8 "temporary sudden death" incidents that required pulling the battery to reboot, it was after I'd found that the switch had slipped to between OFF and S.

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When my M9 is off, clicking the shutter does nothing--no red light. I would have that checked out.

.

 

Well I checked again, and indeed the red light at the back flashes once when I press the shutter halfway, and then the red light stays on as long as I fully press the shutter... And no time to get it checked out as I am heading to Central Africa tomorrow... The rest is working just fine and my batteries are starting to operate the same way as with the M8. Just hope that the red light does not signal future problems.

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Well I checked again, and indeed the red light at the back flashes once when I press the shutter halfway, and then the red light stays on as long as I fully press the shutter... And no time to get it checked out as I am heading to Central Africa tomorrow... The rest is working just fine and my batteries are starting to operate the same way as with the M8. Just hope that the red light does not signal future problems.

 

More puzzling : the red light turning on when the camera is ON only occurs when I am in Soft mode...if I set the camera back into regular mode, and I fully press the shutter, there is no light.

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On overall battery performance in the M9: It uses power faster than the M8, for sure. Two processors, and bigger files to write. About 75-80% as many shots for me, on average. The scale is also very non-linear - I get 200 shots out of the first 75%, and about 20 shots out of the last 25% before the camera says "Enough!" and shuts down.

 

Whoa, that is shockingly bad!

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