Ralf Posted January 31, 2012 Share #21 Posted January 31, 2012 Advertisement (gone after registration) My M9 (compact) charger just stopped working yesterday, after nearly two years. I applied for a new one under warranty and was told I would have a wait of four or more weeks for it to be supplied from Germany! My inquiries discovered a local dealer has two units in stock, at $250 each!! So why can't the importers, who cover the warranty, carry basic stock for warranty purposes? Meanwhile, it's back to the peddle generator to 'run' my M9. Apologies for the grouch, but you see my problem. To have to wait for a month or more for a charger is unheard of and absolutely ridiculous. Recently, there was a post from a guy travelling in Venice whos M9 died on him and he contacted Solms immediately. "After clarifying some formalities" ,quote unquote, they sent him a new one overnight to Venice, which, if I understood correctly, he was even able to keep until his own camera was repaired. You should contact Solms directly via mail, attach a scanned copy of your bill and warranty. Seriouslyly, if you wish, I am ready to follow this thing up with them for you via phone, just let me know. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted January 31, 2012 Posted January 31, 2012 Hi Ralf, Take a look here M9 Battery Charger dead. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
erl Posted January 31, 2012 Author Share #22 Posted January 31, 2012 Ralf, thank you for the offer of help but the local repairer convinced the importer to supply a new unit without question, which has happened. It ios working fine. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
erl Posted January 31, 2012 Author Share #23 Posted January 31, 2012 erl, marknorton, just prior to Christmas, I plugged my M9 Car Charger lead into my vehicle and pop, smoke, etc - the fuse in the LEICA M9 lighter socket plug blew. Unable to deal with this issue, quickly I later opened up the lighter socket plug and confirmed the fuse had blown. I have lost the blown fuse and cannot find a ref from LEICA, web or the user manual as to that fuse rating/type to use (I'm pretty sure that it is a standard glass fuse with the chromed caps either end) BTW, the charger works fine on mains power and the incident above occurred on the first use of the car adapter. I am happy to send away under warranty, but it seems like such an effort when I can simply pop a new fuse in. Any help appreciated... Mark Mark, you don't say where you are located. This can have a bearing on the service you ultimately get. The best approach is to contact your local dealer or represenative and ask for help. In most cases it is very good, but dependent on regional isolation. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ralf Posted January 31, 2012 Share #24 Posted January 31, 2012 Ralf, thank you for the offer of help but the local repairer convinced the importer to supply a new unit without question, which has happened. It ios working fine. I am happy for you. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
photolandscape Posted January 31, 2012 Share #25 Posted January 31, 2012 I agree that one should have a backup charger available, especially when traveling. Question: has anybody tried the Delkin Devices charger? It seems to be reasonably priced and has the advantage of being able to charge two M8-M9 batteries at the same time. Dual Universal Battery Charger with county-specific plugs and car adapters Just back from 10 days in Cuba. A dead charger would have put a quick end to my shooting there. I bought a backup charger to take along just in case--it is actually a modified Pentax charger that a guy made and it has always worked well, tried the Delkin--junk in my opinion--it lasted less than 3 months in light use and was poorly designed. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
M. Valdemar Posted January 31, 2012 Share #26 Posted January 31, 2012 (edited) I bought this for $34 as a spare, works great. I don't know why you think it's "junk", it's about the same quality as the Leica charger. My Leica charger died 4 months out of the box. LEICA Leica M9 Digital Rangefinder . Edited January 31, 2012 by M. Valdemar Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shard Posted February 1, 2012 Share #27 Posted February 1, 2012 Advertisement (gone after registration) On my recent trip to Paris, my charger died suddenly, charged one battery with no problems, inserted another battery and no lights lit up. Luckily they had a Leica Shop that had a charger in stock. Cost an arm and a leg but I did not have a choice. When I returned home, I brought my dead charger in for an exchange, the tech had to open 5 new chargers to find a working one. He was so irritated that he asked, is this socket even working? Seems like this is happening a lot, Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaques Posted February 1, 2012 Share #28 Posted February 1, 2012 how can Leica justify a list price of over 200 dollars for an (inexpensive) item that has such a high failure rate- and is obviously not of the greatest quality? As I mentioned previously I had to wait 10 weeks for mine. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
msap7222 Posted February 1, 2012 Share #29 Posted February 1, 2012 I am located in Australia but travel worldwide for assignments several times a year and interstate quite frequently. I have 2 OEM LEICA Batteries and 8 Aftermarket Leica M8 Batteries which I reckon are about 80% charge capacity and performance of OEM (they were only about $20 each - makes them almost disposable!) New OEM Leica Batteries here are $200 each! If I am travelling somewhere remote, I pre-charge ALL 10 batteries. I do take both the M8 Brick Charger and the slimmer M9 charger with Car Adapters, so I am assuming that I may not have electricity AT ALL in some of the remote locations I work. The 10 pre-charged batteries get me through a few days serious shooting without the need to re-charge. The aftermarket batteries are not fantastic, but certainly good enough as backup until I get to the next place with power (hotel room) BTW, can I ask again (prev. post) - does anybody now what the fuse rating for the M9 **CAR LIGHTER SOCKET ADAPTER ** is? I asked both the retailer AND the Authorised Repairer here and neither could tell me. Sadly, I lost this fuse when I blew it a couple months ago. Thanks In Advance Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ralf Posted February 1, 2012 Share #30 Posted February 1, 2012 how can Leica justify a list price of over 200 dollars for an (inexpensive) item that has such a high failure rate- and is obviously not of the greatest quality? As I mentioned previously I had to wait 10 weeks for mine. Because they are Leica! It is ridiculous. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ljclark Posted February 26, 2012 Share #31 Posted February 26, 2012 BTW, can I ask again (prev. post) - does anybody now what the fuse rating for the M9 **CAR LIGHTER SOCKET ADAPTER ** is? I asked both the retailer AND the Authorised Repairer here and neither could tell me. Sadly, I lost this fuse when I blew it a couple months ago. Thanks In Advance The reason they might not be able to give you this information is because...(drum roll)...there is no fuse. Have just had my M9 for a few days and walked downstairs to pull the virgin car adapter from its little plastic bag. Undid the screw and carefully separated the shell. No fuse. Just a goofy looking spring to the tip. Did you manage to smoke the the whole spring? If you can find a straight 12 VDC (no internal voltage change) at a store, it will probably have a fuse -- which is a better deal than the Leica version. You just need to find a coaxial tip of the right size...or solder your old tip to the new plug. (It is 5.5mm OD, and I think the pin is 2.1mm) I'm not sure the charger that came with the M9 is working properly -- even brand new. Luckily I bought the small charger for my M8 (which will be sold with the brick charger) so I'm not entirely out of luck. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaapv Posted February 26, 2012 Share #32 Posted February 26, 2012 One of my small chargers died last week, four years old. Cameranu had stock and a new one was delivered within 24 hours. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
vladik Posted March 3, 2012 Share #33 Posted March 3, 2012 Try to use car adaptor cable in your car, it work for me when the mains side of charger failed. Or ask your dealer to lend you one before the replacement arrives. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
darylgo Posted March 4, 2012 Share #34 Posted March 4, 2012 I have a Vivitar Universal charger that I use for all other camera batteries but have been anxious about putting a $120.00 Leica Battery in it, anybody have any experience with this combination? Also, which is the + contact on the battery? I am guessing it is the second contact in from the side (2nd of the 2 adjacent contacts) while the negative is the end contact where no adjacent contact exists. Thanks. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
patrick parker Posted March 6, 2012 Share #35 Posted March 6, 2012 M9 chargers are dropping like flies. M8 chargers (the big bulky ones) still work fine,I would recommend anyone buying a new M9 ask for one of these chargers from the dealer. Mine died after a few months of moderate use. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaapv Posted March 6, 2012 Share #36 Posted March 6, 2012 I wish we had that number of flies in summer Anyway - I guess most will be replaced by Leica under guaranty, unlike the older brick chargers, that, like Mark Norton showed, are rather shoddily made. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
m0n0 Posted May 15, 2017 Share #37 Posted May 15, 2017 erl, marknorton, just prior to Christmas, I plugged my M9 Car Charger lead into my vehicle and pop, smoke, etc - the fuse in the LEICA M9 lighter socket plug blew. Unable to deal with this issue, quickly I later opened up the lighter socket plug and confirmed the fuse had blown. I have lost the blown fuse and cannot find a ref from LEICA, web or the user manual as to that fuse rating/type to use (I'm pretty sure that it is a standard glass fuse with the chromed caps either end) BTW, the charger works fine on mains power and the incident above occurred on the first use of the car adapter. I am happy to send away under warranty, but it seems like such an effort when I can simply pop a new fuse in. Any help appreciated... Mark I'm sorry to hear about this, but the M9 chargers have a record of just dying on schedule. (Just like the CCD sensors, except they're not covered. Oh wait.... I just got an email from Leica..) This hasn't happened to me with any other charger I have used, original or cheapo third party, for other cameras. My chargers for M9 and MM dead within weeks of each other. You'll find other discussions of this. See https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/151529-m9-battery-charger-dead/ for example. You either have to stump up for a new one at the ridiculous price offered or go for a 3rd party alternative. You could also try the reverse of what Mark (above) did. In some cases the charger will work via the lighter socket when the it won't work from the mains anymore. I found that to be the case with one of my dead chargers. All this steampunk improvisation and know how needed to keep five year old M9's working is more of an experience of 'vintage' and 'classic' photography than I bargained for. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pico Posted May 17, 2017 Share #38 Posted May 17, 2017 I am lucky to have 110 volt AC in the vehicle as well as three fused 12 volt D.C. It's a DIY thing for the handy. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham (G4FUJ) Posted June 13, 2017 Share #39 Posted June 13, 2017 I have used the Annsman Universal Charger for M8 Dlux 4 and C lux 2 when travelling with complete sucess. Do you know the Ansman part number for that charger? Just having alook at their web site. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Albertson Posted June 13, 2017 Share #40 Posted June 13, 2017 I recently picked up a Nightcore ULM9 USB charger https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1297987-REG/nitecore_ulm9_usb_travel_charger_for.html, and so far it has worked well. Very small and lightweight, since it only draws power (5V) from any handy USB port. The USB lead is quite short, however. It recharged a MM batt from about 20% left in two hours. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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