lars_bergquist Posted December 15, 2009 Share #1 Posted December 15, 2009 Advertisement (gone after registration) I have owned four M8/M9 batteries, and two of them have collapsed. First, they cease to take a full charge, and then they give up the spirit after so little use that the M9 indicator bar is still in the upper half of the scale. Now I have one good battery (the one that came with my M9) and one ailing. The other good battery went with the M8 I have just sold. Is this a complaint? Yes it is. Now if these batteries had seen heavy use, OK. But I am a moderate user. If my laptop batteries behaved that way ... It seems to me that at least batteries made a year ago or more must be of very indifferent quality. I do hope later lots are better. Lots better. The old man from the Age of Carbon-Zinc Batteries Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted December 15, 2009 Posted December 15, 2009 Hi lars_bergquist, Take a look here Battery collapse. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
adan Posted December 15, 2009 Share #2 Posted December 15, 2009 Just to check - you do condition or "calibrate" your batteries every so often by completely discharging them (set camera to never sleep, leave it on, with the LCD on (play mode) until it shuts down by itself due to "dead' battery (2-4 hours) - and then recharge from zero? Each battery needs this treatment about once a month or so to get the best short and long-term life out of it. Long-term, the batteries are good for about 300 full charges (I think - someone can correct me on that number). Also - new batteries (as come with the camera) need a couple of full charge-discharge cycles to get them up and running to best capacity. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaapv Posted December 15, 2009 Share #3 Posted December 15, 2009 No- reconditioning Li-Ion batteries is not needed, in fact it shortens their life rather drastically. Lars, my commiserations. Actually my laptop batteries tend to behave similarly:mad:. I've been fortunate with my M8 batteries. I would just send them to Leica with a complaint, maybe they will extend some kind of guarantee. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
adan Posted December 15, 2009 Share #4 Posted December 15, 2009 OK - I stand mostly corrected (the "first-time" charge cycling is a good thing - otherwise, just keep it topped up, or at 40% charge for long-term storage) An overview of laptop battery technology - Mac OS X Hints That's for laptop Li-ion batteries, but much of a muchness. Thanks, Jaap, for making me research it further. Interesting that Li-Ions have about a 3 year life even at best. I'm using one "M8" battery that is still chugging along. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SJP Posted December 15, 2009 Share #5 Posted December 15, 2009 one out of four for me in the past 2 years. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris_tribble Posted December 15, 2009 Share #6 Posted December 15, 2009 I'm just keeping my fingers crossed - if I make any smug claims I know I'll be immediately struck down with dead batteries... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ttliem Posted December 16, 2009 Share #7 Posted December 16, 2009 Advertisement (gone after registration) Interesting that Li-Ions have about a 3 year life even at best. Used or brand new sitting on a shelf, natural deterioration limits usability to two years from what I've read. That's why I never buy cheap Li-Ions or those that are on sale. Best to buy Li-Ion batteries from a reputable source who has high volume sales. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanJW Posted December 16, 2009 Share #8 Posted December 16, 2009 I had my M8 battery go bad about 6 months after I got the camera. I went out and bought another but I also called Leica who sent me a new battery and did not even ask for the old one back. It is worth a call. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
doug_m Posted December 16, 2009 Share #9 Posted December 16, 2009 Six Digital M batteries (five M8 and one M9). No failures or other significant problems-all going strong except I can't speak for the one traded in with an M8 for the M9. First M8 bought Nov 2006. I do; however, probably top off my batteries more than I need to. This is because I like to start a shoot with full charges and empty cards. Maybe my batteries last longer because of this MO. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brill64 Posted December 16, 2009 Share #10 Posted December 16, 2009 i would have thought that topping off your batteries all the time would have the opposite effect and weaken them more quickly...therefore i practice the opposite..using the power supply right until the battery is almost dead or completely dead, beginning of a shoot or not and then recharging. i practice that religiously and two of my batteries have lasted faultlessly for almost two years, a third for one year. well, that knocks both our thoughts on good battery practice on the head really, since both regimes seem to work fine. my camera gets heavy use, btw. for what it's worth however, one thing i may do differently is to keep each battery in a separate, small plastic bag when not in use or carried in my camera bag which keeps a certain amount of dust and dirt out of the contacts.. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
henning Posted December 16, 2009 Share #11 Posted December 16, 2009 I've lost count of the total number of batteries I've used, but it's around 8 or 10. With my original M8 I bought a second, and both of those have been laid to rest. The one I got with the second M8 is still good and the third party batteries I got for less than 10% of the Leica branded ones all still work fine. If a battery doesn't hold more than 50% charge or so, it's time to send it to recycling. I charge them whenever; often when they stop working and sometimes when I want to get ready for some shooting I top them up. It doesn't seem to make any real difference; I did some testing with some Canon batteries a couple of years ago and it was a wash. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
elgenper Posted December 16, 2009 Share #12 Posted December 16, 2009 Slightly surprised and rather worried about what I read here. Not a single Lithium accu for any of my digital cameras have ever died on me, although the two I own for my Digilux 2 are beginning to show reduced capacity - but they´re close to 5 years, and for almost 4 that camera was in daily use, with just those 2 batteries. And the batteries of my Ixus V2 and Canon G3 are still alive after 7 years.... Phone batteries have died, laptop ones are very short-lived, but for unknown reasons never a camera one.... Certainly hope my eagerly awaited M9 won´t break the trend.... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
scott kirkpatrick Posted December 16, 2009 Share #13 Posted December 16, 2009 In the days of Ni-Cd and Ni-MH rechargeable batteries there were serious memory effects that fooled the chargers and made it become difficult to achieve a full charge if you didn practice deep cycle usage. Li-Ion batteries do not have these memory problems, and deep cycling does wear them out faster than repeated light cycling, so I would think that after whatever initial conditioning is recommended (one or two deep cycles is Leica's current recommendation) that re-charging after use is best, regardless of what fraction they have discharged. Li-Ion batteries do have a finite shelf life, even if they are not used. The Nikon cells in my 2002 Coolpix will no longer take a charge. None of my M8/9 batteries, ranging in age from 3 to 0 years, is giving me any problems at the moment, but I haven't measured their capacities carefully. scott Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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