drteitelbaum Posted November 4, 2009 Share #1 Posted November 4, 2009 Advertisement (gone after registration) Charged my battery, got on a plane, and whipped out my M9 ready to shoot...but wait...the battery was dead! Fortunately, I had spares, and so I put in a fresh battery and messed around with the menu ( I don't do owner's manuals.) Found out that the factory default setting was to not automatically turn off the camera if left on. So I changed that, figuring I solved the problem. But then day after day, I still can't believe how quickly my batteries run low (not old, but should be broken in ---purchased 6 mos ago for my M8). I take 30 or so pictures without review, and the battery is already down to 75% or so... The hallmark of Leica is reliability, but I don't trust battery life at all. I can go away with my D700 for the weekend and shoot like nuts, review and share pics on the camera all I want, and I couldn't possibly go thru it. But yesterday alone, I went through 3 fully chargedbatteries and only shot about 7Gb (RAW) and I BARELY viewed images on the M9 at all... Does anyone know what I should be expecting in terms of battery life? Does anyone know of a way to test my current slew of batteries to know whether they are good or not? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted November 4, 2009 Posted November 4, 2009 Hi drteitelbaum, Take a look here M9 Battery Life..do I have a problem?. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
jaapv Posted November 4, 2009 Share #2 Posted November 4, 2009 Do you switch the camera offf when replacing it in the bag? You should get at least 300 shots on a battery, without review and chimping. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
drteitelbaum Posted November 4, 2009 Author Share #3 Posted November 4, 2009 I try to shut it off, but admittedly I have forgotten to do it. But I have forgotten to turn off my D700, and I never once opened the bag to find a dead battery, and that has happened a few times with my M9. In any case, I don't come close to 300 shots on a battery. Not even close... But it is the quickness that it becomes depleted that shocks me... even worries me with regards to being confident that my camera will always be there for me. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaapv Posted November 4, 2009 Share #4 Posted November 4, 2009 Two things: On the M, especially the M9 the shutter is a bit of a hair trigger and easily activated by movement in the bag, reactivating the camera time and time again. The number of battery cells I went through on my M6.. The M9 will give a "battery low" warning when switched on with a nearly depleted battery. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jerryharwood Posted November 4, 2009 Share #5 Posted November 4, 2009 Leica have always had problem with batteries, for some reason; take the DMR, please ! You were lucky if you got 20 minutes continual use with it ! I went to a seminar at MK, on the DMR; they had one R9 plus the DMR for 12 students. I don't think anyone got 15 minutes out of the damn thing, and that was freshly charged. It put me off, and most of the others, by this terrible performance., Yet, Nikon ? I can do a full airshow, 6 or more hours, plus chimping, and it shows more than 75% at the end !!! go figure- they seem to have a zero rating with anything to do with electronics... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaapv Posted November 4, 2009 Share #6 Posted November 4, 2009 That is indeed one of the drawbacks of the DMR. I carry six batteries and two chargers. The M series is a lot better, but not at the top of the class. The electronics in the DMR was not Leica, but Phase One, btw. Anyway, I found that after a short while on the M9 hitting the info button from time to time becomes second nature. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rebelfocus Posted November 4, 2009 Share #7 Posted November 4, 2009 Advertisement (gone after registration) In any case, I don't come close to 300 shots on a battery. Not even close... I easily get 300+ shots from a fresh battery in my M9. I hardly ever chimp (I use a Luigi case), use DNG only and have the auto-off set to 1 min. I always turn it off before putting it in a bag (sounds like that could have been your problem here) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wattsy Posted November 4, 2009 Share #8 Posted November 4, 2009 The electronics in the DMR was not Leica, but Phase One, btw Imacon. By the way, Jaap, have you ever thought of doing a bit of part time work writing for LFI? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
thrice Posted November 4, 2009 Share #9 Posted November 4, 2009 Also remember CCD's are more power hungry than CMOS sensors - and the M9 sensor is 56% larger than the M8 sensor. A specialised processor like the Maestro would also help rather than generic DSP's (of which there are now two remember). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
zlatkob Posted November 4, 2009 Share #10 Posted November 4, 2009 Leica users deserve a better battery or better power management, or both. Hopefully Leica will introduce a superlative battery at some point. At a recent event, I used a Canon 5D2 for about 10 hours, made about 2,100 exposures with that body, and still had 25% on that single battery at the end of the day. And that battery has to power autofocus and move a full-frame SLR mirror for every exposure. I never turned the camera off; instead, I just let the camera turn itself off when idle more than a minute. Canon changed their battery in order to achieve this level of performance, and some photographers grumbled about not being able to use their old batteries, but the dramatic performance improvement was well-worth the price of a few new batteries. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
thrice Posted November 4, 2009 Share #11 Posted November 4, 2009 I must agree, the 5D Mark II battery is quite phenomenal. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaapv Posted November 4, 2009 Share #12 Posted November 4, 2009 Imacon. By the way, Jaap, have you ever thought of doing a bit of part time work writing for LFI? Not if I make mistakes like this. You're right, it was Imacon. I see it each time I open the thing Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
adan Posted November 4, 2009 Share #13 Posted November 4, 2009 Well, re: the Canon 5Dii - I found the internal viewfinder readout practically unusable in bright light because Canon had turned down the illumination wattage so low as a power-saving measure. Nice that they conserved power - too bad that I had to sell the camera after a month in part because of it. The M9 power consumption is higher than the M8 - running two processors and a bigger buffer, and handling 1.8x (or 3.6x in uncompressed mode) the data per picture. And they both use nice visible red LEDs for meter readouts instead of dim LCD panels, which is a power hit but (IMHO) far more functional. Using ideal power management, one can probably get to Leica's estimated* 400 exposures per charge: use the on/off switch instead of sleep mode; use the LCD only for settings; turn off auto-review; avoid using the "discreet" shutter advance. Or take the hits to battery life (which I do - discreet mode - with full understanding of the consequences). Compare the volume of Nikon/Canon batteries to the M9 battery - and then diagram how to fit the N/C sized batteries into an M-sized body. *Stephan Daniel video interview at Luminous-Landscape.com Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
zlatkob Posted November 4, 2009 Share #14 Posted November 4, 2009 Compare the volume of Nikon/Canon batteries to the M9 battery - and then diagram how to fit the N/C sized batteries into an M-sized body. The Canon & Nikon batteries are of course bigger. But the Canon 5D2 battery is rated at 1800 mAh and the Nikon battery (for D700 etc.) is rated at 1500 mAh — both less than the Leica M8/M9 battery's 1900 mAh. So the Canon/Nikon batteries don't seem to be getting extra juice by virtue of their larger size. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest s.m.e.p. Posted November 4, 2009 Share #15 Posted November 4, 2009 The electronics in the DMR was not Leica, but Phase One, btw. Does this make it any better that LEICA has very poor performance with batteries and electronics? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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