jippiejee Posted December 11, 2011 Share #1 Posted December 11, 2011 Advertisement (gone after registration) First: I am very happy with my black M8, since one week in my possession. Latest addition to my growing Leica family, consisting of the X1, D2, CL, M4-P and now the M8. Two questions: For the second time while shooting this week my battery went flat all of a sudden, from three bars on the display, to dead. Poof. I was already considering getting myself another battery, since I feel more secure having a back-up in my bag. But is it normal for the battery on the M8 to behave like this? Or is this maybe because the battery has been unused for too long and will it get better over time with more charging-uncharging going to happen? Or is the battery faulty? And the second surprise is finding aperture information in the Exif data of my images. Not always accurate, but still, it's there. How does the M8 figure out/guestimate what aperture was used? Thanks in advance for anyone taking the time to reply. I'm puzzled on both issues... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted December 11, 2011 Posted December 11, 2011 Hi jippiejee, Take a look here Two questions by new M8 user.... I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
Erik Gunst Lund Posted December 11, 2011 Share #2 Posted December 11, 2011 If second hand and it won't keep a charge, just get one or two new batteries... There is a small blue sensor above the lens that the camera uses to guess the aperture, if you use coded lenses it's actually pretty good at guessing... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tobey bilek Posted December 11, 2011 Share #3 Posted December 11, 2011 Old Li battery will read full to nearly full and crash quickly . Based on electric razor and Nikon D3 bought used. Nikon batteries have a useful remaining life circuit built in which can be read by the camera in addition to charge remaining. Not built into the M8. I purchased two new Nikon batteries for the D3 and all is well. My best advice is to buy a new one and charge it every time you use the camera and never run it below 70%, 90% if you can do it. Charge once per month on the first of the month and they will last a long time. I have some 5 years old Nikon batteries and they read 100% useful life remaining that I have maintained that way. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
IWC Doppel Posted December 11, 2011 Share #4 Posted December 11, 2011 I have the same issues, with bar reading 3 then dead with no early indication. I now have a second battery and did read somewhere that if the battery has not been fully charged this can happen or if it was not fully run down before recharging. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
WestMichigan Posted December 12, 2011 Share #5 Posted December 12, 2011 I have the same issues, with bar reading 3 then dead with no early indication. I now have a second battery and did read somewhere that if the battery has not been fully charged this can happen or if it was not fully run down before recharging. In my experience, the M8 a) doesn't operate very reliably once the battery starts to have limited charge left and doesnt do a very good job accurately telling you exactly what the charge state is of the battery in the camera. I was shooting at my niece's graduation party and almost as soon as the 'not fully charged' indicator was showing in the lcd the camera got a little flaky (froze once and wrote a bad file I couldn't review iirc) then shortly thereafter the camera konked out completely. I do have a spare and usually switch soon after low charge indicator comes up, but in that instance my full camera bag arrived sometime after I did and switching to it wasn't an option til it arrived. Moral of Story: have spares batteries which are charged, too! Richard in Mi. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jippiejee Posted December 13, 2011 Author Share #6 Posted December 13, 2011 Thank you all for the replies. Walked to a local store today that had a new battery in stock. That'll probaby fix it, keeping the old battery as back-up. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shade Posted December 13, 2011 Share #7 Posted December 13, 2011 Advertisement (gone after registration) I would not have the old/bad battery as back up, it may just run out of juice sitting in your bag. Get another new battery that will last for at least a year or two or even more depending how you shoot. Sorry imho a bad battery is no battery. The exif data is not always accurate because you may have uncoded lenses when you shoot. While it may not have any significant effects but there are no information regarding the lens to the camera. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
spylaw4 Posted December 13, 2011 Share #8 Posted December 13, 2011 Thank you all for the replies. Walked to a local store today that had a new battery in stock. That'll probaby fix it, keeping the old battery as back-up. Remember to condition your new battery - charge fully overnight and then use it until it has run down completely. Repeat at least once. You should then be able to part-charge it as needed for around 12 months. Repeat the conditioning after that. etc. etc. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jippiejee Posted December 13, 2011 Author Share #9 Posted December 13, 2011 You're probably correct, Shade. Another second new battery is probably what I need and want. And on lenses: my Elmarit 28mm is coded, the other lenses are not. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
WestMichigan Posted December 13, 2011 Share #10 Posted December 13, 2011 For what it might be worth: Both of the batt's which came with my 2nd hand M8 were aftermarket and behaving essentially as I would expect a camera battery to behave. Note: did want to pass along that I just saw on flea-bay that one battery supplier has a triple pack of aftermarket M8 batteries for $30 u.s. and free shipping. I've almost talked myself into buying it and stock piling them for the future. Richard in Michigan You're probably correct, Shade. Another second new battery is probably what I need and want. And on lenses: my Elmarit 28mm is coded, the other lenses are not. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jevidon Posted December 21, 2011 Share #11 Posted December 21, 2011 Avoid the after market 3rd party batteries. The battery will not fully charge after a charge or two. It is then necessary to fully discharge the battery flat by leaving the camera on, disabling the power saver shut off and and turning on the LCD full time in order to fully discharge. Then you will get a full charge on the cheapo battery until the next time the problem arises. It's really a pain in the you know what. I ended up paying the painful price and getting a Leica original battery as a backup to my original Leica battery. This is one of the rare times when the advise of the camera manufacturer to use only their product is for real and not a scam. I would like to add that the cheapo battery that I bought was sold by one of the reliable camera stores and not a no name internet purchase. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lct Posted December 21, 2011 Share #12 Posted December 21, 2011 Avoid the after market 3rd party batteries. The battery will not fully charge after a charge or two. It is then necessary to fully discharge the battery flat by leaving the camera on, disabling the power saver shut off and and turning on the LCD full time in order to fully discharge... Not exactly my experience. I mosty use 3rd party batteries as i don't like to be hijacked by Leica and other camera makers but it's just me. Problem with M8 (and M9 i was said) is one must discharge the battery in the camera before recharging, failing which the camera meter gives false results. Suffice it to use the battery until the camera stops that's all. Remains about 25% charge then but a full drain is not necessary. At least with the four 3rd party batteries i'm using currently. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shade Posted December 26, 2011 Share #13 Posted December 26, 2011 Im not so much of a purist but please avoid 3rd party aftermarket For Leica batteries. They are unstable most of the time and the battery indicator is not always accurate.. So you never really know if its really full or almost empty. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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