nickd Posted July 14, 2020 Share #1 Posted July 14, 2020 Advertisement (gone after registration) I charged a couple of M240/262 batteries last night, and the Leica charger indicated that they were both fully charged (i.e. the Charge LED and 80% LED stopped blinking). When I inserted each battery in my M240 and then my M-D 262, both cameras indicated the batteries were only 60% charged! I then re-charged both batteries with my Nitecore charger, which again indicated they were fully charged, and both had a rating of "Good". Re-inserted both in each camera, and again the cameras indicated only 60% charge. Is this normal? Are my batteries "dying"? Or, is the battery indicator within the cameras inaccurate? Any advice would be appreciated... Nicholas Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted July 14, 2020 Posted July 14, 2020 Hi nickd, Take a look here M240/262 battery question. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
jaeger Posted July 14, 2020 Share #2 Posted July 14, 2020 how young are your batteries? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdlaing Posted July 14, 2020 Share #3 Posted July 14, 2020 How long were they in the charger? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nickd Posted July 14, 2020 Author Share #4 Posted July 14, 2020 Both batteries were in the charger (the Leica and/or the Nitecore) for roughly a couple of hours. Both batteries had been drained of power, approx 20% capacity each. Batteries have not seen regular but not excessive use, guessing both are no more than 5 years old. This is the first time I've had this issue, so a little confused ... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
a.noctilux Posted July 14, 2020 Share #5 Posted July 14, 2020 I never had any battery problem with M240/262/246. All charges to 100% . I'd not worry, but in case just have one fully charged when I leave home. As I've leaned, from time to time, "discharge" in the camera untill the message "battery low" shows, then recharge. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Bonn Posted July 14, 2020 Share #6 Posted July 14, 2020 You could try shooting until the camera says the battery is low and see if it returns an acceptable number of shots as you'd expect from a battery indicating 100% charge You don't have to guess the age of the battery it's written on it For example the number 1013 Would mean week 10 in 2013 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
grick Posted July 14, 2020 Share #7 Posted July 14, 2020 Advertisement (gone after registration) I've noticed the same issue with one of the batteries for my M240. Whether I charge it for several hours or over night in the Nitcore charger or the Leica charger, it always reads as 84% when checked in the camera. I don't know the reason for the 84% reading but assumed that the batteries are beginning to show their age and can't hold a full charge anymore. My batteries came with the camera when I bought it used a couple of years ago. Greg Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
marchyman Posted July 14, 2020 Share #8 Posted July 14, 2020 I reported the same battery level issue a while back. The consensus was "fully discharge the battery before charging and then see what the camera says". It takes a LONG time to fully discharge a battery in normal use of my M 262 so I haven't quite put the consensus answer to the test, yet. Soon. I see my battery is now at 15% according to the camera. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
laowai_ Posted July 14, 2020 Share #9 Posted July 14, 2020 Lithium Ion batteries usually have a lifetime of 200 to 500 charge cycles. The exact number depends on a bunch if things including temperature, charging voltage, depth is discharge and the design of the battery cells. There are many variables in the manufacturing of a battery cell. As a consequence, the same type of battery will rarely have the same performance after many charge/discharge cycles. In addition the charge indicator in the camera is probably not very accurate. 60% means the battery has less than 100% capacity but more than e.g. 30%, it doesn’t necessarily mean the battery has exactly 60% capacity remaining. In general it is a good idea to charge batteries at low voltage, avoid high temperature and avoid deep discharge. Don’t discharge your Lithium Ion batteries (LiB) all the way if you can avoid it (the NiCd batteries of yore have memory effect, LiBs don’t). Most of all, get used to the fact that batteries don’t last forever and need to be replaced; 200 to 500 cycles seems to be a good rule of thumb. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RayD28 Posted July 15, 2020 Share #10 Posted July 15, 2020 17 hours ago, marchyman said: I reported the same battery level issue a while back. The consensus was "fully discharge the battery before charging and then see what the camera says". It takes a LONG time to fully discharge a battery in normal use of my M 262 so I haven't quite put the consensus answer to the test, yet. Soon. I see my battery is now at 15% according to the camera. I went into settings and changed the display screen to stay on and it drained overnight. Ray Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
marchyman Posted July 15, 2020 Share #11 Posted July 15, 2020 Thank you Ray, I didn't see that as an option on my M 262. Ahh, setting auto review to permanent and not using auto power off seems to have done the trick. Yesterday the battery got to 10%. That's low enough, I told myself. The charger, however, said the battery was full after adding a bit more than 800 mAh. That is less than half of its rated 1800 mAh. When I put the freshly charged battery back in my M 262 the M is telling me it is only 60% charged; the same thing nickd sees. I suspect my M needs to be taught about an empty battery. The camera is miserly with its power use and I tend to charge it up before events where I think I may take a bunch of pictures. For that reason this may be the first time I let the battery get below 30% since owning the camera. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Bonn Posted July 15, 2020 Share #12 Posted July 15, 2020 once the battery display reaches about 5% then the displays changes from (something like) "please consider charging the battery" to (something like) "Battery drained. Charge it now" and the camera won't take a photo On my M9 (and I think other peoples) the battery gauge can go out of sync with the battery, saying only 80% when fully charged.. the fix for this is to keep using it until it won't take a photo (during the final photos you'll be getting the 'please change battery' message a lot, but it'll still take photos) Once the battery is drained (as far as the camera's concerned, it won't drain to 0%) then re-charging it will take it up too 100% again I've not (yet?) had to do this with my M240 Kinda weird this is happening with both your batteries, but then again you've tried two chargers... maybe charge them for longer? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
marchyman Posted July 16, 2020 Share #13 Posted July 16, 2020 Well, I was wrong about my M 262 needing to learn what an empty battery looked like. I waited until I got the "Battery Drained" message by leaving the rear screen on. I charged the battery to full charge (according to two different chargers) yet the camera still says the battery is at 60%. So either my battery is not in tip-top condition or my camera doesn't know what a full/empty battery looks like. The Nitecore charger added 900 mAh to the battery which is about half what an empty battery should take. I think it's time to buy a new battery. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dabrez Posted August 1, 2020 Share #14 Posted August 1, 2020 Try this thread For additional info on the same issue. Taking my battery down to 5% and then recharging worked for me. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Kilmister Posted August 2, 2020 Share #15 Posted August 2, 2020 AFAIK, no lithium battery has a brain. You have a brain. Charge it when it needs charging. Look up "urban myth". Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdlaing Posted August 2, 2020 Share #16 Posted August 2, 2020 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdlaing Posted August 2, 2020 Share #17 Posted August 2, 2020 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_battery Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdlaing Posted August 2, 2020 Share #18 Posted August 2, 2020 https://www.incellint.com/smart-lithium-battery/ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhluxton Posted August 8, 2020 Share #19 Posted August 8, 2020 I bought my first M a 262 in October 2016 and my second a ME240 in July 2019. I can't say I have any problems with the batteries. Both cameras appear to work fine. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
too old to care Posted September 2, 2020 Share #20 Posted September 2, 2020 I’ve also had one of my batteries only reaching 80% charge, the other one reads 100% after a charge. I’m not using my camera much now due to travel restrictions, so I just let it sit until I got the low battery warning. After a full charge it now reads 100%, I don’t know why. My camera is 3 years old, and the second battery is only two years old. Neither have been charged more than a half a dozen times. Glad to know what ever the problem was, it fixed itself by allowing it to almost reach full discharge. Wayne 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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