M10 battery life

[erl]

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Do You mean me? I have no problem with the battery life. But in spite of this: I say the battery life is bad (without comparison). A good battery life lasts a whole day long walking through the streets of Berlin or London or something like that.

No, I don't mean you specifically, but count yourself in if you wish.

Question; what is 'bad'?  To me that indicates 'not functioning as designed'.

The M10 battery does function as designed, unless you have a faulty one.

Good battery life has nothing to do with how far you walk, or where, unless you ar in sub zero temperatures.

Performance is affected by how you set it up. eg. To turn off after 2 minutes or stay on! etc.

Do you use the LCD a lot or not.

 

The reality is that if you set it up appropriately to how you want to use it, it will last all day unless you are 'blazing away'', so to speak.

[elmars]

My English is too bad to discuss this in the way I want. So only this:

 

All sticks together with all. Turn off after 2 min would be ok, if the start up time would be short. But it isn´t. It is about 1,5 sec (1,5 sec longer than the old M9). So I want to set the turn off time to 10 min. But then then the battery is down in the shortest time. If the start up time would be shorter, I would not complain about battery life.

 

But it is not a big complaint. The M10 is a fantastic camera, the best M ever. I love to user her.

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[erl]

I agree the M10 does take marginally longer than the M9. I know that can be a pain on rare occasions. The fact is my M7 (film camera) takes longer than both of them. The difference is the M7 can be left on for long periods.

 

The only solution, in my opinion, is to set the M10 at 2 minutes and practice touching the release button AS you bring the camera up to your eye. It is a work around but does work.

[elmars]

The only solution, in my opinion, is to set the M10 at 2 minutes and practice touching the release button AS you bring the camera up to your eye. It is a work around but does work.

 

 

This is my solution too.

[Mark II]

I agree the M10 does take marginally longer than the M9. I know that can be a pain on rare occasions. The fact is my M7 (film camera) takes longer than both of them. The difference is the M7 can be left on for long periods.

 

The only solution, in my opinion, is to set the M10 at 2 minutes and practice touching the release button AS you bring the camera up to your eye. It is a work around but does work.

 

 

I turn my M7 on when I start, and off when I am done - usually many hours later. There does not seem to be any battery life penalty, and the M7 always responds instantly to the shutter.

 

I do the same with the M 262, and with no chimping (or live view) one battery lasts most of a day, with a second battery on standby in case things get low. To do the same with the M10 would need three batteries, which would be perfectly fine if there was a practical way to recharge them overnight (such  as a compact travel charger that could take two or three batteries concurrently).

 

And as an aside, changing a film several times a day is IMO a *lot* more hassle than occasionally swapping a battery :-)

[Reciprocity]

I did a long "Day in the life of" type of outdoor assignment yesterday, elevation 8,000-12,000 feet, temps as low as -7C and as high as 5C, winds 5-20mph. Due to the nature of what I was doing, I used only the M10 with a single V4 35mm Summicron and wore it bandoleer style on the outside of my jacket the entire time. At one point, the cold affected the aperture ring on the lens as perhaps a bit of snow got in it, melted and then re-froze so I could not turn it for awhile. 

 

I brought all three of my batteries and by the time the first one had dipped to 5%, I had taken 835 shots. This was with the camera set at 2 minutes with light chimping and live view use. I shot close to 1,000 images on this piece and I have to say, I am pleased with the battery life and don't mind carrying all three because I find them much more pocketable than the 240 batteries. 

[ELAN]

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OP here with an update on battery life after using the M10 for 14 months almost daily. While at first the M10 battery life was a concern, it no longer is. My M10 will do 300 to 1000 shots per charge, depending on how quickly the images are captured. If I stroll around town all day the battery will last 300 to 400 exposures, but in situations where rapid exposures are taken the battery can have a 40% charge after 500 exposures where taken within 2-3 hours.

 

I use the M10 like a film camera; review is off, no LV no EVF. Auto-sleep is at 2 minutes. I had originally purchased two extra batteries - one is still in its unopened box and I have never needed it.

 

I suspect that the M10 draws considerable power when the camera is awake but idle, so waking the camera often throughout the day drains more of the battery as the camera stays awake for many 2-minute intervals. I did a test once and captured over 1000 exposures within two hours.

 

My M10 awakes from sleep within 1.5 to 2 seconds. While I try to half-press the shutter whenever I reach for the camera that doesn’t always happen. I have missed countless moments waiting for my camera to wake up. I wish Leica would shorten the wake-up time.

[pgh]

I've used the M10 fairly heavily for about 8 months now. I find the battery life totally fine and acceptable. I own 2, and have never felt the need for more. I have only rarely needed the second. There are many things I feel Leica need to address before battery life. I would even give up some battery life to address the other areas. 

[Reciprocity]

 

The only solution, in my opinion, is to set the M10 at 2 minutes and practice touching the release button AS you bring the camera up to your eye. It is a work around but does work.

 

 

This is my default method of working with all my digital cameras, I rarely miss a shot in doing it this way.

[J.P.B]

Leica M 10 .  I almost  filled up a  32 Gb SDHC  300 mb /sec card in 3 hours with  an impressive 1032 shots and  25 % of a fully charged  battery remained  !

LV  was off and  never looked at the screen .

Iso was most in the range  1000 to 3200 and average speed  about  125 / s . Battery  temperature normal .

So , like many other ,  I think M 10 battery is sufficient for quite a big shooting . Wouldn't mind a bigger one  . Better not to play to much  with the camera ,switch of LV , set it to 2 minutes and wake  it up when needed .

 Central light metering  seems to be battery friendly ,   as a   speedy SD card formatted on computer and camera  !   

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Edited May 13, 2019 by bammatter
Complete

[mb_p]

On 3/21/2018 at 4:37 PM, Reciprocity said:

I did a long "Day in the life of" type of outdoor assignment yesterday, elevation 8,000-12,000 feet, temps as low as -7C ...

I shot close to 1,000 images on this piece and I have to say, I am pleased with the battery life ...

This is great info in quite an extreme test environment. I have to say I also think this battery life is fine.

To take 1,000 shots with 135-36 film would have taken 28 rolls. The weight of those rolls is equivalent to around 12 M10 batteries and changing those 28 rolls is very time consuming. I appreciate we are not discussing digital vs film but we should put this into perspective. Just get 2 or even 3 batteries and this is really not an issue. 

Good advice on this thread on 2 min timer and pressing the release button early. 

[Keek]

On 5/13/2019 at 11:34 PM, J.P.B said:

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Hi. What means 00:00:10  0/1000?
It is for interval picture series maybe?

 

[J.P.B]

Yes  Keek , 1000 captures are done with interval pictures (  1 picture every 10 seconds  )   to fill up a 32 Gb high speed card  +  32 shots made without using screen or LV  so tee how many capture a fully charged battery could do .

25 % of charge remained after that exercise .Conclusion :    Main battery drain is not related to obturator activity .

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[J.P.B]

22 hours ago, Keek said:

 

Yes  Keek , 1000 captures are done with interval pictures (  1 picture every 10 seconds  )   to fill up a 32 Gb high speed card  +  32 shots made without using screen or LV  so tee how many capture a fully charged battery could do .

25 % of charge remained after that exercise .Conclusion :    Main battery drain is not related to obturator activity .

[mujk]

I find M10 battery life decent, but not great. Using live view or Viso 020 clearly consumes a lot of battery, but that could sort of be expected. But what I find most irritating is that battery depletion is hard to predict. After having showed green for a long time it may suddenly start warning about low battery and then stop working after only a few shots. You really need to have a spare with you all the time.

[pico]

Me gosh, an M10 battery is so small, so portable and convenient. I keep three extras in a jacket pocket and another always recharging in my vehicle. The battery is a non-issue to me.

I have to add, as disclosed earlier, that the M10 has a port hidden in the bottom that might support an additional battery and USB through a hand-grip. I hope Leica eventually makes it available to the rest of us.

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Edited May 18, 2019 by pico

[elmars]

This port is only for the Leica Service to read out the camera data. 

[jdlaing]

7 hours ago, elmars said:

This port is only for the Leica Service to read out the camera data. 

And to program the chips.

[pico]

8 hours ago, elmars said:

This port is only for the Leica Service to read out the camera data. 

How do we know that? Has Leica told us?

 

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[elmars]

Not to You perhaps, but to me and others.