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Generic batteries


Charles_Boileau

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True, but the ones Leica sells work correctly, and the cheap generic ones do not work correctly.

 

I wouldn't mind if Leica priced their battery at 3x the price of the knockoffs, but 8x seems excessive.

 

-robert

 

I believe a company undercutting Leica by making their batter 8x less seems excessive. and are you serious about 8x less? You are willing to buy a knock off Leica battery for $15.61? The batteries for my sekonic L358 Battery are more than that.

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I have a couple of batteries I got on eBay for about $15, a Flashpoint battery purchased from Adorama for $15, and two genuine batteries which cost about $120. Aside from the problem displaying the charge in the M9, all work about the same.

 

Batteries are high markup items for all manufacturers. Leica just takes it to a higher level than most, taking advantage of the credulity of Leica customers.

 

I'm EE trained, and work as a firmware engineer. I'm skeptical about prices because I'm pretty familiar with what things actually cost.

 

I believe a company undercutting Leica by making their batter 8x less seems excessive. and are you serious about 8x less? You are willing to buy a knock off Leica battery for $15.61? The batteries for my sekonic L358 Battery are more than that.
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I understand very well what you are saying... But I bought my M9 with allot of hard work an dedication. ;) So buying a 150$ battery is allot of money for me. This is what I was afraid of, but I've never experienced a battery breaking a camera. I wouldn't mind the battery not working perfectly for 20$ but I would of course mind a battery breaking my 6000$ camera!

 

Thanks

 

Before you buy a $ 7000 camera body, you should realize you're going to pay a lot more for accessories.

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I'm EE trained, and work as a firmware engineer. I'm skeptical about prices because I'm pretty familiar with what things actually cost.

 

It might be interesting if you or any other of the experts here would dialect an aftermarket and Leica battery to scrutinize the battery's chips.

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Before you buy a $ 7000 camera body, you should realize you're going to pay a lot more for accessories.

Correction: Will be 'asked' to pay a lot more. That does not 'demand', as long as there are reasonable options, which there are.

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There aren't really reasonable options. The incorrect behavior of the aftermarket batteries has frustrated me on several occasions, where nothing would work but a genuine battery. I probably didn't run the battery all the way down, since I prefer not to miss shots.

 

I'll get around to opening one up one of these days, and I have a defective genuine Leica battery to compare it to.

 

-robert

Correction: Will be 'asked' to pay a lot more. That does not 'demand', as long as there are reasonable options, which there are.
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Batteries are high markup items for all manufacturers. Leica just takes it to a higher level than most, taking advantage of the credulity of Leica customers.

 

 

You are totally right about this. As I was typing my response, I was going to say the 5d mk III batteries are 100 something bucks too. But low and behold, they were only $50. I recall the 1dsII battery being 100 bucks, but that was a $8000 camera too. So I guess if you are paying that much, the company's just expect you to be willing to fork over $100 for a battery. Even if they really aren't worth that much.

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Now I have had a generic lithium rechargeable fail disastrously in my son's old Canon P&S. This was a 2CR5 rechargeable replacement. It self immolated with a lot of heat and smoke. As a result, I would never buy again non-OEM batteries, as there is no come back if they behave like that. My 2006 original M8 battery (the oldest of 5 I have) is still working just fine in both M8 and 9 after many charge cycles, so I don't consider it poor value.

 

Wilson

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I just ordered the least expensive M9 battery I could find. I will give it a go, then peel it apart to find the chip, if there is one.

 

Man, I need to get a life! Seriously, the joy of retirement is diminishing.

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Wilson, the good part is that you consider your original M8 batteries to have been good value to date. I also have two originals from 2008, along with the cameras. The value is good, I agree, but (there's always a but ;) ) that does not stop the price paid being a ripoff, which I feel it is. I suspect at half the price, Leica would still make a respectable profit on the batteries and our good value would be even better.

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There aren't really reasonable options. The incorrect behavior of the aftermarket batteries has frustrated me on several occasions, where nothing would work but a genuine battery. I probably didn't run the battery all the way down, since I prefer not to miss shots.

The trick (?) is to swap out the the aftermarket battery when running low and replace with the original to keep shooting. Fully discharge the AM at home before recharging. A bit inconvenient but does not affect your shooting and keeps a $20 battery fully serviciable.

 

I'll get around to opening one up one of these days, and I have a defective genuine Leica battery to compare it to.

 

-robert

Your findings will be of great interest to all.

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Wilson, the good part is that you consider your original M8 batteries to have been good value to date. I also have two originals from 2008, along with the cameras. The value is good, I agree, but (there's always a but ;) ) that does not stop the price paid being a ripoff, which I feel it is. I suspect at half the price, Leica would still make a respectable profit on the batteries and our good value would be even better.

 

Erl,

 

You would have to consider however, that without the profits generated by selling lots of small, high margin items like batteries, straps, filters, etc, Leica might not have been able to allocate enough R&D funds to arrive at serious goodies like the MM and M-240.

 

Wilson

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B) the fuel is identical at all stations and is filled by the same trucks.

 

.

 

This is not true and I have proven it myself.

 

I was skeptical until I took my Golf GTi on holiday to France. At home I always use Shell fuel but at that time, branded fuel was far more expensive in France than supermarket base fuel. After a fortnight of French fuel, the car was running like a dog.

 

As soon as I got back to the UK, I filled the tank with Shell and within two days, the car was running fine again.

 

I wrote to Shell UK and told them that I was now convinced that their fuel really is better than cheap supermarket stuff. I got a very nice thank you letter from them and a beautiful guide to the stately homes of England.

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  • 4 years later...

I burn through a lot of m9 batteries clicking through hundreds of images per day. I have 1 original m8 battery that is still holding its own. 2 out of 3 Leica batteries that came with my m9 have kicked the bucket. I started buying the $20 knock offs and found that they will not display an accurate state of charge, they will make your charger flash like a disco but they work. So i just have as many as i can fit in my pockets while shooting and blast away until they're dead, and do a battery reload on the fly.  Depending on the temperature and my chimping frequency I can usualy get about 3-400 snaps out of a battery.  So far I have not had a total failure with a knock off.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I burn through a lot of m9 batteries clicking through hundreds of images per day. I have 1 original m8 battery that is still holding its own. 2 out of 3 Leica batteries that came with my m9 have kicked the bucket. I started buying the $20 knock offs and found that they will not display an accurate state of charge, they will make your charger flash like a disco but they work. So i just have as many as i can fit in my pockets while shooting and blast away until they're dead, and do a battery reload on the fly.  Depending on the temperature and my chimping frequency I can usualy get about 3-400 snaps out of a battery.  So far I have not had a total failure with a knock off.

 

3-400 shots is decent. Which knock offs did you buy?

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I learned the hard way the implication of processing costs following a visit to a European town where I discovered that an ornate mediaeval-themed religious procession was due to take place on the following day. The event was not on the tourist calendar, so I was able to get a good vantage point, and take a lot of pics.

 

Facing a processing bill of several hundred pounds on my return home, I opted to wait until next month… and the next month …. and eventually stored the exposed film in the back of the refrigerator to await when I’d have the time and money to get the job done. The long-forgotten films were still there when I cleaned out the refrigerator after it finally died some eight years later.

 

 

 

Nikon and Canon batteries for top-of-the-range cameras are not exactly cheap either.

 

Best regards,

 

Doug

 

did you ever get the films developed?!?!?!?!?!?!?1

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I burn through a lot of m9 batteries clicking through hundreds of images per day. I have 1 original m8 battery that is still holding its own. 2 out of 3 Leica batteries that came with my m9 have kicked the bucket. I started buying the $20 knock offs and found that they will not display an accurate state of charge, they will make your charger flash like a disco but they work. So i just have as many as i can fit in my pockets while shooting and blast away until they're dead, and do a battery reload on the fly.  Depending on the temperature and my chimping frequency I can usualy get about 3-400 snaps out of a battery.  So far I have not had a total failure with a knock off.

Both of my Leica labeled batteries are made in China. So, I ordered non-Leica labeled $20 battery from Germany which is also made in China. Two weeks ago after two burst shots at 1/2000 camera stopped working. After I placed this battery into the charger it started flashing both lights. I removed battery from the charger, inserted working battery and camera started. I removed the working battery and inserted one which was malfunctioning. Camera started, I turned off auto power off and drained the battery. It was charged normally and camera works fine with it, including correct charge level display.  

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