wparsonsgisnet Posted January 17, 2007 Share #1 Â Posted January 17, 2007 Advertisement (gone after registration) I still only have 1 battery and was wondering if I could power the camera some other way. Â I tried the USB cable -- no brass ring. Â I looked at the charger to see if something would connect to the M8 -- still no magic bullet. Â I haven't seen anything about this since (1) the M8 has arrived, and (2) we ALL need spare batteries. Â No way, right? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted January 17, 2007 Posted January 17, 2007 Hi wparsonsgisnet, Take a look here Alternative to Battery?. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
larry Posted January 17, 2007 Share #2 Â Posted January 17, 2007 Bill, Â I'm usually pretty upbeat when it comes to the M8, but I've contended for several months that the proprietary battery is its Achilles' heel. Leica really needs to deliver some batteries soon, find another supplier or let a generic brand sell clones. Â Larry Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
atufte Posted January 17, 2007 Share #3  Posted January 17, 2007 Why don't you order some spare battery's from SH Photo..?  info@shphoto.de  Ask for Igor, they have M8 spare battery's in stock....  http://www.shphoto.de Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wparsonsgisnet Posted January 17, 2007 Author Share #4 Â Posted January 17, 2007 Alexandre, thanks for the suggestion. I'll do something next week. It's already too late for my shoot on the 21st. Fortunately, these batteries run down slowly. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
larry Posted January 17, 2007 Share #5  Posted January 17, 2007 Why don't you order some spare battery's from SH Photo..?  Alexander,  Thanks for the suggestion, but after checking the price, I found a battery would cost about $160 U.S. I'm willing to wait a little longer before I buy from Europe, but it's certainly an alternative.  Larry Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
canlogic Posted January 17, 2007 Share #6  Posted January 17, 2007 Bill, I'm usually pretty upbeat when it comes to the M8, but I've contended for several months that the proprietary battery is its Achilles' heel. Leica really needs to deliver some batteries soon, find another supplier or let a generic brand sell clones.  Larry  Every camera that I own 2 canons, 1 pentax, 1 sony, M8 all use proprietory batteries. Why would this surprise you? I ordered a spare at the end of november and got it about a week later. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
larry Posted January 17, 2007 Share #7 Â Posted January 17, 2007 Advertisement (gone after registration) Every camera that I own 2 canons, 1 pentax, 1 sony, M8 all use proprietory batteries. Why would this surprise you? I ordered a spare at the end of november and got it about a week later. Â Tim, Â It doesn't surprise me, but it worries me. Canon, Nikon and Sony are hardly in the financial straits that Leica is in, and they have had no difficulty keeping their inventory pipelines full. It's also easy to buy a third-party battery for any of those brands. I'm simply not excited about owning a $5K paperweight if Leica goes belly up and no one else makes a replacement battery. Â Larry Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gravastar Posted January 17, 2007 Share #8 Â Posted January 17, 2007 I would suspect that the battery case and molding are proprietary and not the cell or it's controller/monitor. It might be a good idea to keep old batteries when they have reached the end of their life and not throw them out. If need be a third party may be able to retrofit cells into the casing. Â Also there's the possibility of using the battery case and contacts to power the camera from an external source. I could imagine the bottom of the battery case being fitted with a socket that could be accessed via a hole in the camera baseplate. In that way you would have the choice of powering the camera from an external source or battery just by changing the "battery". Â Bob. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wparsonsgisnet Posted January 17, 2007 Author Share #9 Â Posted January 17, 2007 Every camera that I own 2 canons, 1 pentax, 1 sony, M8 all use proprietory batteries. Why would this surprise you? I ordered a spare at the end of november and got it about a week later. Â Tim, where did you get your battery, please? Â tnx. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wparsonsgisnet Posted January 17, 2007 Author Share #10 Â Posted January 17, 2007 Every camera ... all use proprietory batteries. . Â I don't mind the proprietary part. I do wish, tho, that the M8 used the same battery as the D2. That would have made life a lot easier. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guy_mancuso Posted January 17, 2007 Share #11 Â Posted January 17, 2007 Bill call Sean at Camera West tell him I sent you or Tony at Popflash. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wparsonsgisnet Posted January 17, 2007 Author Share #12 Â Posted January 17, 2007 Bill call Sean at Camera West tell him I sent you or Tony at Popflash. Â Thanks, Guy. I called Tony because I had a really nice talk with him a couple of weeks ago. I told him you are the guilty party. Â I ordered one -- they are expecting 75 batteries on Friday (all lurkers, take note). Â I wonder why Leica didn't think to supply remote power when they gave us remote control on this body. If you're in the studio, tethered to a computer, why not supply power too? Â Thanks again. Regards, Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guy_mancuso Posted January 17, 2007 Share #13 Â Posted January 17, 2007 Great Tony is a great guy to deal with , very reliable. I really like helping these two dealers out they have helped me on numerous occasions Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaapv Posted January 17, 2007 Share #14  Posted January 17, 2007 I would suspect that the battery case and molding are proprietary and not the cell or it's controller/monitor. It might be a good idea to keep old batteries when they have reached the end of their life and not throw them out. If need be a third party may be able to retrofit cells into the casing. Also there's the possibility of using the battery case and contacts to power the camera from an external source. I could imagine the bottom of the battery case being fitted with a socket that could be accessed via a hole in the camera baseplate. In that way you would have the choice of powering the camera from an external source or battery just by changing the "battery".  Bob. I doubt it. There seem to be some electronics in the battery that integrate with the camera hardware. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wparsonsgisnet Posted January 17, 2007 Author Share #15 Â Posted January 17, 2007 At $100 per battery, I can cope just fine. Let's just get some stock out there! It is a kinda cute little guy ... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest stnami Posted January 17, 2007 Share #16 Â Posted January 17, 2007 http://www.digitalcamerabattery.com/ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
4season Posted January 17, 2007 Share #17  Posted January 17, 2007 The original manufacturer of the charger (and presumably, the batteries too) is Ansmann:  ANSMANN Portal  So batteries should remain available with or without Leica.  I think Leica did not expect that the M8 would be so popular, or that so many M8 buyers would also want multiple batteries almost immediately. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
colorflow Posted January 17, 2007 Share #18 Â Posted January 17, 2007 Just got my spare from Robert White in UK for 53 English pounds (about US$105) including air parcel to US. Seems very reasonable considering B&H price is $109.95 plus shipping, but they are out of stock. Also quite efficient. Arrived 6 days after I ordered. Â Alan Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaapv Posted January 17, 2007 Share #19  Posted January 17, 2007 The original manufacturer of the charger (and presumably, the batteries too) is Ansmann: ANSMANN Portal  So batteries should remain available with or without Leica.  I think Leica did not expect that the M8 would be so popular, or that so many M8 buyers would also want multiple batteries almost immediately.  I suspect many batteries failed Leica's QC thus creating scarcity. I suspect too, that some slipped through. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wparsonsgisnet Posted January 17, 2007 Author Share #20  Posted January 17, 2007 Just got my spare from Robert White in UK for 53 English pounds (about US$105) including air parcel to US. Seems very reasonable considering B&H price is $109.95 plus shipping, but they are out of stock. Also quite efficient. Arrived 6 days after I ordered. Alan  My battery from Popflash will arrive in the US in a few days for just a little under that amount. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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