Leica CL CL battery

[Giacomo Sardi]

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i'm worried about battery charge with CL..

i have Monochrom and i can fire 450/500 shots....   with TL 300/400.... but now i have only 80/120 shots with CL...   i think the camera is very very fast and have a very power image processor...    

[ramarren]

The M-D is so efficient on battery usage that I usually get well over 600 exposures per charge. I have two batteries for it, and that's been plenty.

 

The SL proved a bit variable 'depending on usage, anywhere from a low of 220 exposures to just over 1000 on a charge. For it I had three batteries.. One in the camera, one fresh in the bag, one on the charger for a heavy use scenario. In practice i rarely needed more than one change, but the notion is to always have a fresh spare.

 

The CL battery is a bit lower capacity than the SL batteries and the camera seems about the same efficiency, so I've upped my battery stock to four and added a second charger (USB powered). I don't have a good feel for number of exposures per charge yet, batteries are still reaching their best performance, and I'm still spending a lot of power playing with settings and features. But I'm preparing for a longish trip and want to be prepared..

[jaapv]

It depends on use too. Intensive use of the LCD will shorten battery life, for instance, or Video or the WiFi facility. I have no idea how many shots. Like Godfrey, I just carry a few spare batteries, they are light and small.

 

The main problem is that there is no low battery warning with a few shots left. The camera just shuts down, obviously just at the moment that I was going to take that Pulitzer-Prize winning shot...  

[ramarren]

So far, I've just either let it go to the red 'empty battery' warning if I was doing a shooting session or swapped in a fresh battery if there was only one bar showing at the end of a session. It's not been a problem.

 

The flashing warning only shows up briefly then it shuts down, it's easy to miss.

Edited July 30, 2018 by ramarren

[Giacomo Sardi]

i have disable the lcd-after-shot-preview , enable energy saver , and use extend EVF. I noticed the CL is a little bit Hot near lcd ... i think processor is very fast ... compared to the Monochrom's  software it's a Ferrari..... 

[Stonewall Brigade]

The CL uses the same battery as the Q, and that means (unlike the very expensive M10 battery, which has no generic option) you can shop around for a Wasabi type extra battery to power the CL.  Even the Q's battery price is much lower than the M10s.  Therefore, get 1 or 2 more.

 

I routinely use R lenses on my M10 and have to use focus peaking, which quickly drains the battery.  With my CL I can also attach R lenses, and M, and also need to use focus peaking.  Therefore, I have to have another 1-2 batteries charged and ready to go.

[ramarren]

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i have disable the lcd-after-shot-preview , enable energy saver , and use extend EVF. I noticed the CL is a little bit Hot near lcd ... i think processor is very fast ... compared to the Monochrom's  software it's a Ferrari.....

 

Extend EVF? What's that?

I don't use the energy savers, most of the time they're off, and always turn off auto-review as a matter of course.

 

  

...

I routinely use R lenses on my M10 and have to use focus peaking, which quickly drains the battery.  With my CL I can also attach R lenses, and M, and also need to use focus peaking.  Therefore, I have to have another 1-2 batteries charged and ready to go.

I have not seen much difference using focus peaking or not with the CL. I usually have it off anyway, despite that I use mostly R lenses, because it obscures my ability to see the focus transition. Peaking is only an approximation of best focus for getting the focus into range quickly when stopped down a bit and isn't accurate enough for wide open with fast lenses, even an f/2.8 lens.

[danielfrimley]

Extend EVF? What's that?

Basically, it's a setting that means the rear LCD only lights up when you access the menus or replay the shots on your SD card - at all other times all information is via the EVF.

[ramarren]

Basically, it's a setting that means the rear LCD only lights up when you access the menus or replay the shots on your SD card - at all other times all information is via the EVF.

 

 

Ah, thank you! I'd completely forgotten about that setting ... I've been using the CL on a copy stand so much of the time, I use the LCD a lot for focusing and framing.

 

I don't know whether that saves a lot of power, though. I do know that working the menus and commands consumes a lot more power than making exposures. I've noticed that when I'm diddling around with settings I drain the battery down pretty quickly, where I can shoot many more exposures per charge once I've got my configuration set and I'm just making photographs. That seems the biggest variability when a camera is new to me and I to it: I'm spending a lot of time in the high power consumption effort of figuring out how best to set it up for my use. (This same behavior I saw first on the SL back in 2015. Once I had the camera's configuration all sussed out and set up, my exposures per charge rose dramatically.)

[LocalHero1953]

I only use 'EVF Extended'. The rear LCD screen must consume a lot of power. Effectively I'm only using it for menus and the occasional image review. This is my preferred way of use anyway, aside from energy saving. I find it easier to review the image in the EVF anyway.

[wlaidlaw]

Use of the WLAN connection eats the battery. I have now got 4 batteries, 2 Leica and 2 Jupio. When I had my first CL, I bought 2 extra Jupio batteries. One was OK but the other was self discharging. Jupio replaced it with no quibbles. When I had my CL replaced under warranty, I ended up with another Leica battery. Whereas the Jupio batteries are not bad, they are not quite as good as the Leica originals. The only beef I have is the poor design of the battery cover and grip, where I have to unscrew the grip and open the cover to access the battery. This compares very unfavourably with the SL's excellent battery access and replacement system. 

 

Wilson

[ramarren]

I didn't like the grip much when I tried it at the dealership. The half case felt nicer in my hands and permitted access to battery and card without removing it. I don't see much wrong with the battery door, although some have complained that it seems a little flimsy. I dunno; it works fine—don't brutalize it and it will likely last the life of the camera with no problems. 

 

I'm having a bug of a time with the Leica CL app ... It's proving mostly useless so far. I'll post that to another thread soon as I get some actual testing done. 

 

My pair of Wasabi batteries and charger arrived yesterday. They're all charged up and labeled now, I'll put them in rotation and see how they perform. At ~$12 apiece, they seem decent: fit the camera well, run it well, etc. The charger is a nice, small, USB connection for power, thing that does two batteries at once. Not a bad deal. I found a little Think Tank battery wallet for one battery and a spare card which matches the two battery one I've been using for a while. So now I have four batteries and three chargers to work with.. That's most likely more than enough.

[wlaidlaw]

I didn't like the grip much when I tried it at the dealership. The half case felt nicer in my hands and permitted access to battery and card without removing it. I don't see much wrong with the battery door, although some have complained that it seems a little flimsy. I dunno; it works fine—don't brutalize it and it will likely last the life of the camera with no problems. 

 

I'm having a bug of a time with the Leica CL app ... It's proving mostly useless so far. I'll post that to another thread soon as I get some actual testing done. 

 

My pair of Wasabi batteries and charger arrived yesterday. They're all charged up and labeled now, I'll put them in rotation and see how they perform. At ~$12 apiece, they seem decent: fit the camera well, run it well, etc. The charger is a nice, small, USB connection for power, thing that does two batteries at once. Not a bad deal. I found a little Think Tank battery wallet for one battery and a spare card which matches the two battery one I've been using for a while. So now I have four batteries and three chargers to work with.. That's most likely more than enough.

 

I have pretty much given up with the CL app, its too erratic on my iPads, sometimes connects and sometimes doesn't. I use either the WLAN connection if I only need the in camera JPEG or remove the card for the DNG. I wish the WLAN connection allowed DNG access. 

 

Wilson