Chronicle of a Death Foretold: Can be the MSDS due to a faulty charger?(longish)

[fuchs]

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Carsten, is there an email you would suggest to contact them? I fear they will request me to send the camera to Solms. I have still 2 charged batteries (...well I think so). If the replacement charger works and I can escape the lockup I am not very fond of the idea of having to part with my camera, which OTOH performs flawlessly (touching wood).

 

Ed

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[J_Brittenson]

There's a fourth connection on the battery pack which is not used when the battery is charged and I'm not willing to sacrifice a real battery pack to see what it's for.

Serial EEPROM to store calibration and usage history so the camera can predict the remaining battery life?

[J_Brittenson]

My 1D chargers are much heavier and maybe a bit bigger than the Leica DMR or M8 chargers.

And that's without an NP-E3 battery attached... Man, I had happily forgot all about those monstrosities.

[carstenw]

Eduardo, I actually meant that the charger should go back. You could always request a new one, and send the old one back when the new one arrives. I don't have any email addresses, since Leica has sadly not chosen me like they have *chosen* some others (), but Guy or someone else might.

[BillBrittain]

I'll agree that faulty batteries or chargers would be an excellent way to produce irregular problems.

 

One thing I noticed about Eduardo's post was that he felt that 50-60 RAW files was nearly a full charge. That is not my experience.

 

I have three batteries which have been though at least 6 cycles each, and I can say with confidence that I get at least 200 images per charge. And I am somewhat of a chimp, at that.

 

Could it be possible, Eduardo, that you have had poorly performing batteries/charger from the first day?

[Guest sirvine]

I thought he meant there was nearly a full charge left in the battery after only 50-60 shots.

[fuchs]

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I'll agree that faulty batteries or chargers would be an excellent way to produce irregular problems.

 

One thing I noticed about Eduardo's post was that he felt that 50-60 RAW files was nearly a full charge. That is not my experience.

 

I have three batteries which have been though at least 6 cycles each, and I can say with confidence that I get at least 200 images per charge. And I am somewhat of a chimp, at that.

 

Could it be possible, Eduardo, that you have had poorly performing batteries/charger from the first day?

 

Of course it is possible

 

I was having steadily about 300-350 RAW shots on the buzzing battery (no instant preview, chimping only after lots of shots, no in-camera editing), but the one I have now in the M8 was at its second charging cycle when the charger started acting funny. During the first 3 charging cycles I got about 170 shots out of a fully charged battery.

And now, with the charger issue, I feel no confidence about the LCD showing how much there is ACTUALLY left in the battery I am using... and that is the problem

 

 

Ed

[fuchs]

I thought he meant there was nearly a full charge left in the battery after only 50-60 shots.

Yes, that's exactly what I meant.

 

I have done just 64 RAW photos with the current battery. I only hope it was fully charged before the charger failed, and the capacity counter is reliable.

 

Ed

[jrc]

I know **** about electronics, but there has to be some kind of fairly accurate meter that will tell you how much charge a battery holds -- I mean, there's one for my boat, why couldn't you buy one at Radio Shack for small batteries? Could one of you engineer guys do some measurements on these batteries? I'd hate to think I sent my camera back to Leica while the real problem, the batteries, are still sitting on my file cabinet...

 

JC

[waterlenz]

FWIW, I have been able to shoot > 8 GB worth of pix on one M8 batt. That is, I formatted and filled 3 2GB cards, then recycled (after downloading & reformating) one of the three and also got a few shots on another after reformatting. I was shooting DNG + JPEG with deault review setting and just a bit of chimping. This was all done within about 24 hours.

Tom

[Jamie Roberts]

FWIW, I have been able to shoot > 8 GB worth of pix on one M8 batt. That is, I formatted and filled 3 2GB cards, then recycled (after downloading & reformating) one of the three and also got a few shots on another after reformatting. I was shooting DNG + JPEG with deault review setting and just a bit of chimping. This was all done within about 24 hours.

Tom

 

Tom, that's about what I get too under most working conditions--about 400 -500 (give or take) shots per charge. Better than the DMR, but not quite as good as a 5d, which honestly sets the bar for a small battery camera.

 

Of course, chimping is what kills the battery here. When I've chimped more agressively, I've lost a few hundred of those shots; when I use the DMR, I turn auto-chimp OFF and only check the first shot in a series.

[fuchs]

Sorry for not having updated this thread at due time.

I was concerned that at least in some cases, the M8 sudden death syndrome may be caused by a faulty charger that tagged a battery as fully charger, but didn't actually full charge it. It all began when I noticed (late silent night) a strange whining sound coming from one of the batteries seated in the (active) charger. Then it shown as fully chared after only 15 minutes, whe I did know it was dead.

 

I've sent the charger back to my dealer (Tony Rose, Popflash)

 

As expected, the new charger came in the mail within three days and it has worked OK so far. I have not experienced any camera strange behavior. I am still testing the three batteries I have, and they seem to perform fine, or at least as expected.

 

So, no (M8) death, sudden or foretold, so long.

 

Best,

 

Ed

[fourfa]

It may be big, but the 12v option is a bonus. Try doing that with a Canon charger. You need to carry a bulky inveter.

 

if you're talking about the BP511, try this:

 

Canon CB-5L Equivalent BP-511, BP-522 Battery Charger

 

$15 at sterlingtek, works great