mtomalty Posted January 10, 2010 Share #21 Posted January 10, 2010 Advertisement (gone after registration) I was out today, near Montreal, shooting with my M8 in temps. around -14 C and fully expected that the M8 would crap out in short order after a lousy performance issue this past week where the M8 died within a few minute with much milder temps. Surprisingly, the camera with one battery enabled over 250 RAW frames with the battery indicator still showing 3/4 full. Camera was always exposed to elements either in shooting position or hanging on my neck so no significant insulation was provided. Battery was Leica branded. Unfortunately,magenta side contamination using a ZM 21 2.8 was so heavy in snowy situations that I can't foresee my M8 experiment lasting much longer. Will look to demo an M9 when dealer supplies permit but, don't see myself forking over $4K for a 21 2.8 asph to get my preferred 28mm FOV on a 10 MP body. Mark Mark Tomalty Photography Montreal Canada Travel Landscape Stock FineArt Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted January 10, 2010 Posted January 10, 2010 Hi mtomalty, Take a look here Cold batteries - giving up? or M8?. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
farnz Posted January 10, 2010 Share #22 Posted January 10, 2010 Yesterday it was 9 degrees F outside and I got 50 minutes out of my 8.2 on a fresh charge. I had a spare batt in my Leica battery pocket in my jeans. The battery came back to 50% once warmed up. ... (Form another post) If we have to spend $ 109 US a year for a new battery to shoot 50 minutes in the cold with our cameras I think I'll blow my cool with Leica on this. They need to do an about face on this and address this. Before you get too steamed with Leica have you considered that it might be your battery charger that is at fault and is not fully charging the battery? The capacity of any battery will be severely affected by the cold because chemical action slows down as temperature drops (and all a battery is doing is converting chemical energy into electrical energy for you). But if your battery is starting 'half-full', even though the charger indicates that it's full, then the battery's capacity will be further diminished by the cold and will be drained earlier. The other thing to consider is the load that your camera is putting onto the battery without you realising it. For example, if your shooting RAW + jpeg then the camera does all the jpeg processing behind the scenes and needs power to do that. As was pointed out in another thread a few months ago, discreet mode can cause excessive drain on the battery while it keeps the shutter from re-cocking until the shutter release is released. If auto shutdown is set for the longest period then it will drain power from the battery while keeping the camera turned on. If you want to enhance your battery life I recommend that you have a look at the camera's settings to see if there are things you can change to lessen the drain on the battery. Pete. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Henry Posted January 10, 2010 Share #23 Posted January 10, 2010 Falkk, Yesterday I spent almost 3 hours outside with my M8 to take pictures under - 5 ° C and I kept the same battery without changing ! Please see photo here : http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/landscape-travel/112032-paris-under-snow.html Have you a battery coming from Leica camera réf : 14 464 ? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jsrockit Posted January 18, 2010 Share #24 Posted January 18, 2010 I just realized that my used M8 came with a third party battery... it dies real quick in 30 degree weather. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
falkk Posted January 18, 2010 Author Share #25 Posted January 18, 2010 Hi Doc Henry, I am using original Leica batteries - when I got my M8 around a year ago, I asked for an additional battery... I am recently putting the M8 under my jacket, but that means it's a lot of fiddling until I can shoot. Street-photography is getting a challenge: I see something, try to get the camera out from under the jacket, and people stop and watch that strange guy opening a strange bulky jacket in the middle of the winter... I look like the guy from Notre Came with my camera under the jacket... not the best disguise I guess... Also, security-guys start looking extremely alert when they see me passing. No chance to take a quick secret shot. Well, I just take it as it is. But somehow it seems, that the people around me, with japanese point and shoot thingis, they are somehow not so much affected? Last week, I found a temporary solution: I went to Hong Kong for a quick de-freeze. Falk Beijing Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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