Non-Leica M9 Battery Test

[RobertW]

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I bought an extra Leica battery when I bought the M8 a few years back. At the time, I also bought 2 no-name batteries.

 

With the M9, I didn't buy any more, as I'm now sporting 5 batteries in total.

 

I'm pleased to say, (knock on wood), that all batteries are alive and well.

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The Leica Q3 is available for pre-order at B&H Photo Video and Adorama

[Washington]

I meant no disrespect really…. I just got a kick out of it. They are both common names

in China but it was the combination of the two that tickled me.

[fotoism]

Don't forget that Leica batteries are also made in China, ....

 

Are you sure or just kidding?

[Washington]

Oh, I just think Andy is sensitive to potential slurs: well meaning or not.

I don’t mind myself. Hell, sometimes I have to wonder what I meant after

writing a comment.

[Washington]

More: right now I have been causing a lot of drain on the battey by having the screen at full-

bright and taking much time with screen on inspecting the infinity variations with the

Frankenrig: (basically a Novoflex rapid focus gizmo with interchangeable lens heads)

After a week the battery is still at 60%! Pretty damn good, Next question: how long will

it stay this way?

[M. Valdemar]

I bought one of the $29 Adorama knock-off batteries last week.

 

Charge level is properly displayed with the "info" button. I didn't do any scientific tests but this battery seems to last longer than the OEM Leica battery.

 

No problems at all. Battery physically fits perfectly in camera, exactly same size as OEM battery.

[Washington]

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Mine is still being used on it’s first charge and is showing 35%!!!

I’d say it does indeed hold more juice than the original Leica battery.

When it goes below 25% I’ll recharge it and use another ‘’off-brand’’ that I

got from a different source. As all batteries slowly deteriorate with time and

use, it will be interesting to see: eventually. I mean really, why pay 100 plus

bucks for a battery that doesn’t work as well as this $30 job?

[250swb]

I bought one of the $29 Adorama knock-off batteries last week.

 

Charge level is properly displayed with the "info" button. I didn't do any scientific tests but this battery seems to last longer than the OEM Leica battery.

 

No problems at all. Battery physically fits perfectly in camera, exactly same size as OEM battery.

 

The problems usually come when you try to re-charge it after the first charge, unless you have a way to completetly discharge it. Re-charging beforehand will show an incorrect reading, possibly even 'empty', on the camera's meter, but it can still be used if you overide the camera by pressing 'Set' if you get a battery warning in the LCD.

 

Steve

[250swb]

Mine is still being used on it’s first charge and is showing 35%!!!

 

The knock-offs I have always give a robust level of charge so I'm not surprised.

 

Steve

[Washington]

Steve,

You may very well be right. I sure wish there were brand names on these things so

one could at least tell what they are using. Like: a knock-off can be made by several

manufactures some good and some not good at all. Right now it’s just a take a chance

and see kind of thing. I don’t claim to know anything about it …. but, at your suggestion,

I just put it in the charger to see what happens. Cheers.

[Washington]

This is worth reading on this subject:

FAQ's on lithium batteries, lithium ion batteries, and rechargeable lithium batteries

[Anasebi]

Lithium, Ion or not; degradation is why I'd -facepalm- when people asked me why I didn't just source a used battery back in my computer technician days. I learned from that experience that cheap, yet brand new Chinese laptop batteries are much better than the real deal when it comes to older laptops. Even if you find a brand new name brand dell or apple its degraded after sitting around 3+ years. Not to mention those batteries are the ones that gave Lithium a bad name in the first place.

 

Lithium is a very fickle thing and every bad brand new battery I had was in a spanking new model ipod, or that one Garmin Nuvi because the battery it came with was completely dead and would not hold a charge.

 

The batteries I acquired for my M9 are marked Cameron Sino, are nicely finished, and despite being rated 1600 to the Leica official 1800, seem to hold a charge just as well and are just as hefty. I only used them as backups but my testing has proven them as very good.

Edited April 15, 2011 by Anasebi

[Washington]

I am trying to learn how Li-ion batteries actually work. From what I gather so far is

these particular batteries have built in circuitry that limit it’s discharge point to about

2.4 volts. If you ‘’deep discharge’’ these suckers they all will refuse to recharge as

the cells are turned off. It takes a special charger that induces a low voltage to reactivate

the usual charge circuit. Interesting! So, a perfectly good battery will not take a charge

and one thinks it’s a faulty battery and tosses it out.

Apparently the cell-phone industry has replaced millions of dollars worth of Li-ion

batteries and are now adopting "in-store'’ chargers that fix this condition. Again, there

was nothing wrong with the batteries.

[k-hawinkler]

Washington,

 

Thanks. Very interesting. May be this explains the following.

When I was running the Leica battery completely down in my M9, it first displayed a warning and then it demanded to shut the M9 down. Luckily I complied.

 

Best, K-H.

[Washington]

Yup, that sounds about right.

Just now I am tying to discover if there are any chargers out there that do the boost

cycle and are reasonable in cost.

The Leica battery looks to me like it can be recharged using a thin connection to

the 2nd and 6th slots and alligator clips connected to the charger.

[Washington]

There is one more thing that Anasebi brought up.

These batteries deteriorate with age no matter how you care for them.

So, having a bunch of Li-ion batteries all from the same time period means little.

They all ‘’go away’’ at the same rate. So, keeping extra batteries, is a waste of time

and money.

[Washington]

Steve was right… in-so-far as I recharged the ‘’ test’’ battery in the Leica charger

and it is fully charged, measuring 4.2 volts, but the camera charge scale still shows

the discharge % it did before I recharged it. I will use the battery despite what the camera

says…. and wonder WHY the camera does not recognize this fully charged battery?

It sounds like a conspiracy plot to me….. so you get freaked out and buy ‘’Leica’’

batteries. I’m kidding, but who knows?

[zlatkob]

That seems to be the problem with all 3rd party batteries. Is there a 3rd party battery that shows the correct charge in-camera after recharging?

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Hallo,

Look here: Leica M

[M. Valdemar]

There is a small electronic circuit with an ID chip in the genuine Leica batteries that communicates with the cameras to display the correct state of charge.

 

Most of the knock-off batteries don't have this circuit, but eventually, it will be reverse engineered. There are some non-OEM batteries which already have this chip trickling in now.

 

The batteries for the Canon 5D MkII, for example, also have similar circuitry and chips. The chips in those batteries not only "talk" to the camera, but to the charger. For a while, the knock-off battery had to be charged in a special, non-Canon charger. But now, the knock-off batteries almost all have this chip.

 

Google search for "decoded" or "chipped" batteries.

 

The Canon batteries were reverse engineered relatively quickly because the replacement market was huge and justified the time and expense to manufacture with the decoded chip.

 

Leica M9 knock-off batteries only sell in limited numbers. The Chinese factories probably don't see any urgent need to replicate the chips.

 

Having said all the above, the knock-off batteries will all work fine, but they may or may not display the correct capacity with the "info" button. Well worth saving $100 or more, in my opinion.

[fotoism]

That seems to be the problem with all 3rd party batteries. Is there a 3rd party battery that shows the correct charge in-camera after recharging?

 

As mentioned in my other thread I bought two of these third party batteries from eBay in 2009 and they are still going strong. After a fresh recharge and installed in the camera for the first time, the indicator does not come on when power on. All I needed to do is to press the shutter release once (shutter does not fire), and everything is back to normal. All three bars show up and picture count remains accurate. As for holding charge I see no difference from the OEM battery of about same age.

 

This is only my personal experience and could very well be a draw of luck.