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Official News : Leica's new M8 charger


Guest guy_mancuso

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Guest guy_mancuso

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As i mentioned in the Germany tour thread, leica is announceing a new twin charger for the M8. Christian Erhardt is traveling with us on this tour and mentioned this to me and i asked if i can publish this and post the images of it. So straight from Leica

 

Hi Guy,

 

Here is the info...

We are pleased to introduce the Hahnel Twin Charger for the LEICA M8. This compact charger is a great travel companion and can be used in a vehicle. The Hahnel Twin Charger has many features including a fast charging capacity and a LCD display that indicates the charging process as well as other functions such as "battery full", "battery defect" and "over heating switch off".

 

Some of the features of the Hahnel Twin Charger are:

 

** Modern style housing with slide-out charger cover, turning into a stand-up charger support

 

** Fast charger for 1 or 2 Lithium Ion Batteries

 

 

** Two charge control systems - one for each battery

 

 

** Battery overheating protection

 

 

** 2 LCD displays - one for each battery

 

 

** Charging time varies from less than 1 hour for 1 battery to approximately 2 hours for 2 batteries. This depends on the battery capacity.

 

 

** Multi-voltage switch mode power-supply 100 - 240 V for worldwide use.

 

 

** 12 V DC input with car lead included

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Guest guy_mancuso

We were all talking about this at dinner tonight and all said the same thing , we really could have used them on this trip. We are all shooting a lot of images and charging 2 batteries a night , at least i am. This would have been great to have . as you can see it is thinner than the current one which will make this easier to pack in a bag for the road

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Intelligent announcement... Leica maybe is becoming a marketing-wise company :

 

- It is a useful device for M8 customers, solves problems

- It is fine and graceful

- It does not impact Leica factory workload

- It carries with itself additional sales of high add-on value devices (batteries)

- It probably does not put at risk brand image (difficult it "doesn't work right")

- It brings a very high commercial margin (factory price can be in the range of 50$ or even less)

 

I would not be surprised if at the moment they are also dealing with some chinese or rumanian contractor for a line of bags/cases... both are strong on leather... italian shoemakers (and Luigi Crescenzi of Rome, I suppose) know this well...

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Guest guy_mancuso

Yes this is great for leica because it does not effect what they are working on currently that is vital to them and that is getting Leica product in our hands, like lenses and M8 bodies.

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Will Leica provide the charger to early adopters at a discounted price, I hope?

 

Ed

 

I'm think this charger will not replace the original charger included with the cameras made to date and more then likely those made in the future. It is clearly a add-on charger. Otherwise it would carry the Leica brand name.

 

Now the big question is will you be able to buy this charger from sellers other then Leica.

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No this will only come from Leica as to what i am hearing and it may carry the actually leica name also. Not sure

 

We have to remember Leica does vendor out and they should vendor stuff like this out. My opinion leica will always do what leica doe's best and that is make lenses and also there higher end digital camera's. But like any other company some things it simply is better business sense to vendor it out under your specs. Nothing magic about that but seeing there facility in Solms there magic is in the glass.

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"Now the big question is will you be able to buy this charger from sellers other then Leica".

Ed, they ARE becoming marketing-wise... think they took proper contractual measures... the packaging of the battery is HIGHLY proprietary... I bet we will not find a good second-source... unless... the new device apparently does not have a Leica logo... maybe this can be a symptom...

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1. Looks like a winner...

 

2. On the same subject, saw THIS today on CNBC...since the Hahnel and the original Leica charger both provide male 12v DC car accessory cables, they are easily compatable with Solio's accessory female 12v adapter...(see accessories page)

 

Solio - Portable Hybrid Solar Power Charger

 

This can charge YOUR lithium battery from its own internal lithium ... or pass along the charging current directly from the solar cells.

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So, does it come with a cord to go in the wall or is there a second brick of a box (unseen) that goes with it?

 

Sorry if I seem cynical but the current charger does little to make me optimistic that Leica have recognised that we have to actually travel with these things!

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Guest guy_mancuso

I think it is cord to wall, i will try and get more info on it. This also is the first news of this so we have to see what info will come further. I just wanted to get this info out to you all, I am looking forward to one of these. waiting for a batterry to finish charging right now so i can change it and go to bed.

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I've never understood, however, what the fuss is with the charger that came with the camera.

 

I've taken mine all over the Caribbean, across the Utah desert, and just last week carried it with me on a jet/car trip to and through New England, which I made - with my wife - on ONE carryon bag, one book bag, one purse and one smallish camera bag (my sister said she'd never seen any couple travelling so light!)

 

The Leica charger disappeared into one external pocket on the carryon, and I never gave it another thought.

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I've never understood, however, what the fuss is with the charger that came with the camera.

 

Let's just say that the M8 charger wouldn't pass the Steve Job's aesthetic/functionality test for a complete camera system!

 

If you want to carry the charger in a large bag with other equipment it's really not a problem. If you want to travel light with a single small day bag with just an M8 and a couple of lenses then it's a TOTALLY different scenario. The charger takes as much space as the camera and a lens and so the whole ensemble either requires a bag twice the size or you have to put the charger in with your other luggage where, if you're anything like me, it runs the risk of being forgotten next time out. I ended up with multiple batteries, a charger at home also as a spare just in case.

 

I have a number of (larger) camera systems and none of them require a charger of the relative size of the Leica one. My backup R-D1 has a tiny charger by comparison yet the battery isn't much different in size.

 

Anyhoo - I'm looking forward to the new charger. ;)

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Guest licht
I've never understood, however, what the fuss is with the charger that came with the camera.

 

So you probably never worked with an analog Leica M Camera where 1 (one) battery CR 1/3N was enough as backup for a 4 week reportage. :cool:

 

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