Battery Life

[Starwolfy]

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I have bought third party batteries in the past and will not do that again. Thrid party batteries = you get no idea what are the standards for these batteries.

You don't know about : battery safety / battery voltage/amp regularity etc.

Branded battery have a lot of manufacturing guidelines that must be followed to march your camera at 100% and also international (or at least regional) regulations.

Yes I had trouble with thrid party batteries in the past : overheating etc.

Not good. Maybe works 95% of the time...but I dont think it is wise to try to save 50 bucks on a cheap battery that may put your Leica electronics into troubles and...maybe...just kill the warranty. Or it could just explode (happe s more thsn you think) and starts a fire after killing your device. But who knows maybe I am wrong.

[lct]

Just got for nothing two Chinese made "DSTE" 7.4V, 1700mAh batteries for the CL. Both work fine so far. It is a brand i've been using in the past for my M8.2 with no problem at all. FWIW.

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[wlaidlaw]

On Jaap's recommendation, I bought a Jupio BLC-12E  battery from Amazon for £21.65 reduced from £33.00. They claim to have overcharge and thermal protection. It arrived this morning and to my surprise, was nearly fully charged. I thought that Lithium Ion batteries were supposed to be sent near discharged. It works perfectly with the CL. A nice touch is that it comes with a well made and tight fitting polythene battery contact cover, so you can carry a battery safely in your pocket, without the risk of shorts on coins or keys. I don't know if the spare Leica branded battery comes with a case, Given the additional profit margin on the £75 Leica battery, you would hope so. 

 

Wilson

[lct]

[...] A nice touch is that it comes with a well made and tight fitting polythene battery contact cover, so you can carry a battery safely in your pocket, without the risk of shorts on coins or keys. [...]

 

Same with DSTE batteries. Neat idea indeed.

[jaapv]

The Panasonic and Leica battery chargers are completely identical, so if anybody wants to buy a spare charger, go for the cheaper Panasonic.

 

I just found that Jupio has an Orange series of batteries with higher quality build and materials and 5-year guaranty, easier to find in the camera bag too

[lct]

Good grade for Patona whose cheap charger is significantly smaller than the Leica.

[wlaidlaw]

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The Orange Jupio batteries only appear to be available in the Netherlands - appealing to nationalistic sentiments? 

 

Wilson

[Guest VVJ]

FWIW, I use a Chinese wall charger made by Xit.  The batteries are Leica batteries though.  

[digitalfx]

I have bought third party batteries in the past and will not do that again. Thrid party batteries = you get no idea what are the standards for these batteries.

You don't know about : battery safety / battery voltage/amp regularity etc.

Branded battery have a lot of manufacturing guidelines that must be followed to march your camera at 100% and also international (or at least regional) regulations.

Yes I had trouble with thrid party batteries in the past : overheating etc.

Not good. Maybe works 95% of the time...but I dont think it is wise to try to save 50 bucks on a cheap battery that may put your Leica electronics into troubles and...maybe...just kill the warranty. Or it could just explode (happe s more thsn you think) and starts a fire after killing your device. But who knows maybe I am wrong.

 

 

 

You do realize "branded batteries" are not made by the brand right?

 

Of course there are cheap and poorly made options...but dont classify every battery that is not "branded" in this group. There are quite a few excellent 3rd party batteries that frankly exceed the quality of those sold by the camera manufacture. Ive never once had a camera problem because I used an off brand battery...and it certainly wont void your warranty.

[wlaidlaw]

You do realize "branded batteries" are not made by the brand right?

 

Of course there are cheap and poorly made options...but dont classify every battery that is not "branded" in this group. There are quite a few excellent 3rd party batteries that frankly exceed the quality of those sold by the camera manufacture. Ive never once had a camera problem because I used an off brand battery...and it certainly wont void your warranty.

 

The problem is determining which is which. Although Leica don't make their own cells (made variously over the years in Japan, Korea, Malaysia and Indonesia), they will set performance standards and specifications for the batteries and test them thoroughly not just before they order but on a regular basis to make sure standards are being maintained. I have had one non-OEM lithium camera battery go on fire in a camera and one fail, the latter quite recently and supposedly a reasonable make (DOT). I am happy to buy Panasonic or Hahnel branded batteries for Leica cameras and now Jupio but I would still be very wary of putting a battery, where I had no real idea of its antecedents into a £3000 to £5000+ camera. Even the Hahnel did not meet the dimensional requirements and I have had to put some gaffer tape on one face to make sure it clips in firmly into my C112 - an example of sloppy manufacturing. 

 

Wilson

Edited January 2, 2018 by wlaidlaw

[jaapv]

I have bought third party batteries in the past and will not do that again. Thrid party batteries = you get no idea what are the standards for these batteries.

You don't know about : battery safety / battery voltage/amp regularity etc.

Branded battery have a lot of manufacturing guidelines that must be followed to march your camera at 100% and also international (or at least regional) regulations.

Yes I had trouble with thrid party batteries in the past : overheating etc.

Not good. Maybe works 95% of the time...but I dont think it is wise to try to save 50 bucks on a cheap battery that may put your Leica electronics into troubles and...maybe...just kill the warranty. Or it could just explode (happe s more thsn you think) and starts a fire after killing your device. But who knows maybe I am wrong.

The batteries I recommended are made by a Dutch Graydon AAA rated company..Cheap does not always mean bad.

 

http://www.jupio.com/about/

[lct]

Never heard of Jupio so far. They are aimed at the north EU market apparently. Now do they make batteries really or do they build them with Asian parts? Hard to be cheap otherwise. Just curious.

[jaapv]

They probably have them produced in China or someplace else in the world, I wouldn't know - most companies do and have gone global.

The interior electronic parts of your Leicas are not made in Germany, nor of your Mercedes car.

Leica Microsystems and Zeiss have their own factories in China, for instance, as does Panasonic. Many Japanese companies produce or have their products produced in India.

 

The point is that the better manufacturers will check their supply chain. They need to, to insure quality and ethical -like pollution, working conditions and absence of child labour- requirements.

 

Look for the quality labels on the product and check the rating and mission statement of the company you are dealing with.

 

Note that if you are dealing with a European company (as is the case here) that there will be product liability for at least three years and for damage over 500 € by European law.

[wlaidlaw]

Jupio batteries seem fine (I bought one for my CL) but the German marketed DOT camera batteries are not good in my experience and seem to die about one day after the warranty runs out. For lithium 18650 batteries for torches and bicycle lamps, we have found that Ultrafire are a waste of money. They have no over-discharge protection, so if the user forgets to charge them regularly and they run down, they will never charge again. Also their stated mAH capacity seems to be complete fiction. We have found that NiteCore and Panasonic protected cells work well and now have been charged many times with little to no apparent deterioration. 

 

Wilson

[scott kirkpatrick]

I've seen bad cheap batteries and good slightly less cheap batteries (for Olympus) in the past.  Paying for the Leica label, after saving about 30% by shopping around a little and negotiating, is as much work as I am willing to put in on this subject while keeping safe.  And I'm not such a heavy shooter.  2 CL batteries seems like enough for now.

[jaapv]

I'm sloppy about charging and changing - I need at least three extra ones - one in the camera, one in the charger, spare in the pocket - and one empty in the camera bag. The M8 got me into this routine

 

Also, I run a GX8 which lives in another bag which I might grab, so I need quite a few BLC12 batteries - If buying five or six the price difference mounts up.

 

Although not as much difference as being daft enough to buy a Leica flash - I would like the SF26, but the Panasonic variant for the GX set me back one-quarter of the price for the Leica branded one for exactly the same piece of gear. I'll make do wth the SF 24 D I bought in the Iron age and my Metz 32 CT 7 - arguably the nicest flash Metz ever made.

[wlaidlaw]

Metz 32 CT 7 - arguably the nicest flash Metz ever made.

 

I have two Metz 32's. One is the AF version for Micro 4/3rds cameras, is very nicely made and works perfectly, apart from an idiosyncrasy of the Olympus firmware, which means that the low light illuminator on the flash does not operate and you are dependant on the very weak camera light for focus in darkness. The other one I have is the basic auto and manual only version, which was the only flash of reasonable power I could find, that still had an optional plug in PC cable to use with my older non-hot-shoe film Leicas. It is appallingly badly made of cheap flimsy plastic and the tilt head just flops around. The best made bit of it was the cardboard box it came in. I bought it as new old stock with no warranty, so could not return it. I spoke to the seller, who got another one out its box and he said it was exactly the same. Metz obviously must have used two factories (maybe pre and post bankruptcy, as I have had the Olympus AF one for some time). One makes things properly and the other one slings them together out of poor quality mouldings, although to be fair, apart from the floppy head, the poorly made one does work properly. 

 

Wilson

[jaapv]

This is the one I mean:

 

 

 

 

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[wlaidlaw]

Jaap, 

 

Sorry memory failure. My two are different versions of the Metz 36 not 32. I had the larger version of the 32 horizontal style Metz flashes, the 44 with SCA module system and it was as you say, an excellent flash. My son acquired mine to use with his Sony A99, as the Mark 5 Leica SCA module would not work properly with the digital M's. 

 

Wilson

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[jaapv]

Strangely enough they work just fine with the Nikon 343 module...