M8 third party batteries

[kidigital]

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With several of my batteries, I've noticed that once my battery meter reads two bars and I leave the M8 in sleep mode, the camera will not go to sleep. The camera stays on and gets warm to the touch. For some reason, there ends up being a miscommunication between the batteries and the camera.

 

I'm with all of the others who point their fingers at the batteries as being a concern on the M8. At $100 a pop, they certainly don't inspire much confidence.

 

Kurt

[chetccox]

The batteries are composed of 'cells', and each puts out a certain voltage caused by a chemical reaction. Lithium ion cells in the Leica battery produce the 4.15 or so volts under a no-load condition. 3rd party batteries will produce this same voltage. Leica provides the specs to the manufacturer as to size, contacts, color, voltage, and milliamp-hours. If a 3rd party battery does not have the same milliamp hour rating, it simply will not last as long. As far as undervoltage goes, there is no way undervoltage can damage anything unless the circuitry has been so poorly designed that some component shuts down the processor or other critical component and locks it in that state. I believe this is doubtful in the M8, and in any event it could not cause permanent damage to any internal chips. It would be a very simple process to find out if this is causing the shutdowns. Leica would simply connect a variable voltage supply to the input on the camera and vary the voltage until something happens. I am certain they have done this. If they discovered anything they have said nothing. I think something else is going on, but of course I don't know what. I would not be afraid of 3rd party batteries except for the possibility of explosion, but as we have seen this can happen to the best of them. I have used many 3rd party batteries on canon slr, canon and sony video, and sony cameras. I have yet to have one explode. They are always cheaper and often last longer than the authentic ones.

[rami G]

Chet, what if the substitute battery puts out too much voltage -- or too little?

 

first, never heard to third party battery that "fries" the machine, only the original betteries, such as in Mac, Dell and Sony computers. In fact, for a while Mac users that had issues with batteris went right away to use the third party batteris that with the Mac are famous to have higher milliapmer and great performance and no reported issues.

 

Third party batteries are not made by unknown companies but are lines in the production of highly respectable companies that will loose a lot if they will Fxxk up to such an extent as putting the wrong voltage level for a battery. And if that is something that could happen and be responsible for failure of machines, it worth checking if the Leica did some mistake to that effect with the batteries they chose. But in general, I don't think you listen to the point: why just pay more for batteries that are known to cause issues with the M8? simply because they are Labelled "Leica"? Leica does not produce batteries. God knows if the reason for the failure with the batteries is because Leica chose to save some dollars on each M8, being in the difficult financial stage that Leica were in in the last few years, and we are paying for that choice? If anythying fries as you suggest, or freezes, to be more realistic,, the M8 is is not the use of VC lenses, you are right, it is rather the use of Leica Labelled batteries.

[colorflow]

The batteries are composed of 'cells', and each puts out a certain voltage caused by a chemical reaction. Lithium ion cells in the Leica battery produce the 4.15 or so volts under a no-load condition. 3rd party batteries will produce this same voltage..... They are always cheaper and often last longer than the authentic ones.

I agree with Chet. There is a lot of talk on this forum about sudden death pointing the finger to the battery. The worst the battery can do is short life and low voltage which any self-respecting programmer should be able to handle and safe-guard against. Most M8s will encounter faulty batteries in their lives and must be able to handle them. I maintain the fault is in the firmware which, under certain power conditions (probably related to faulty battery), gets wrapped around the axel and requires a cold start (by draining the internal battery) to recover.

Since we have not heard any new sudden deaths for a while, perhaps Leica already fixed it in one of the new firmware releases?

 

Alan

[gravastar]

Today I received my battery from Min Ho (wqtallup). The casing is a very high quality moulding with a good label. It has charged OK in the Leica charger. It's 1700 mAh, about 5 gms heavier and it works.

 

Since no one has left seller feedback on this item I would assume the delivery time (ordered on 12th March) was probably due to the time taken for the manufacturer to deliver the batch to the vendor.

 

Bob.

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[fuchs]

On one hand, I think that the problem with the batteries has nothing to do with the voltage but with their internal memory, ie being tagged as fully charged when they actually aren't.

 

On the other hand, if Leica batteries are

a- more expensive,

b- known to fail and

c- suspected to be the cause of the MSDS (M8 Sudden Death Syndrome),

why not give the third party batteries at least a try?

 

So long, the only batteries we know for sure that can be unreliable are those from Leica. I know it is possible, but how probable is it for someone to make an even*worst* battery?

 

The only case that really would scare me to death was if that third party company were the same OEM battery providers for Leica. LOL (well, actually, I hope they're not!)

 

Best,

[fuchs]

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Today I received my battery from Min Ho (wqtallup). The casing is a very high quality moulding with a good label. It has charged OK in the Leica charger. It's 1700 mAh, about 5 gms heavier and it works.

snip

Bob.

Thank you Bob for the pics, they look really well made. If they are somewhat heavier, we can assume they are structurally different than the originals, and so the company producing them is not the same company Leica uses as battery source.

 

I hope to receive mine after the Easter holidays, as I ordered them two days later than you.

 

Best,

[Stephen.s1]

Got mine today. Charged and so far about 100+ images made. The camera has not burst into flames. Everything looks normal whilst chimping.

 

Bottom line. $20.00 delivered from the far east. Works as I'd expect it to.

 

Now, if the world turns to s..t regarding this battery, you folks'll be the second to know.

 

Don't stay awake waiting...