M240/262 battery question

[david strachan]

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Hi Wayne

You don't have to wait 'till travel restrictions lift...there are a million photographs all around you, just look, and see..

 

Edited September 2, 2020 by david strachan

[too old to care]

Thanks.  I’ve let this get me really down.  I’ve reverted to my secondary hobby, riding bicycles, to work off the anxieties. Recently I’ve decided to do something about it, and volunteered for phase three of the trials. That has also helped my emotions, so I’m going to also order some new chemicals and get back into the darkroom.  

Sorry for the hijack.

Wayne 

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The Leica Q3 is available for pre-order at B&H Photo Video and Adorama

[marchyman]

On 7/16/2020 at 11:52 AM, marchyman said:

I think it's time to buy a new battery.

That was almost 7 months ago.  I finally got around to getting a new battery.  With the old battery the chargers said fully charged but the camera said "you don't have enough juice to load the new firmware".   OK, that wasn't the exact message, but I got the point.   With the new battery the camera now agrees with the chargers, a fully charged battery reads 100% capacity.  New firmware loaded, too.

I'll keep the old battery as an emergency spare.  It's still good for many shots on my power miserly M 262.

[martinot]

On 2/7/2021 at 3:04 AM, marchyman said:

That was almost 7 months ago.  I finally got around to getting a new battery.  With the old battery the chargers said fully charged but the camera said "you don't have enough juice to load the new firmware".   OK, that wasn't the exact message, but I got the point.   With the new battery the camera now agrees with the chargers, a fully charged battery reads 100% capacity.  New firmware loaded, too.

I'll keep the old battery as an emergency spare.  It's still good for many shots on my power miserly M 262.

The first thing I do with any new camera, including Leica, is to get a new extra spare battery. Well worth the investment.

Edited February 14, 2021 by martinot

[d30gaijin]

On 7/13/2020 at 7:15 PM, nickd said:

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

I had the same problem with my 262 battery recently.  I went into the menu and turned the screen to always on, display to brightest setting, took several really long exposures, then left the camera on all night.  Next morning the battery had mostly drained but I kept turning it on and taking long exposures until it was really dead i.e., would not start up at all.  I then charged the battery all day in the Leica charger and then put it back in the camera.  Bingo!  100% charge showed on the camera screen.

[a.noctilux]

In M240/M262 manuals, Leica is conservative stating recommendation to replace batteries about every four years.

Happily, those can be used much longer than four years, when regularly cycle charge/discharge and follow some recommendations.

[laowai_]

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On 5/18/2021 at 6:43 AM, a.noctilux said:

In M240/M262 manuals, Leica is conservative stating recommendation to replace batteries about every four years.

Happily, those can be used much longer than four years, when regularly cycle charge/discharge and follow some recommendations.

Usually Lithium Ion Batteries are good for a certain number of charge/discharge cycles. The time is four years is probably based on an average usage. 
In praxis lot of factors influence the lifetime of a battery. There are a few things you can do to extend the lifetime of a LiB.

don’t run it down to ‘empty’

don’t charge to 100%

store at about 60% charge

keep the LiB cool.

at least that’s what battery science says, your mileage may vary…

 

[plaidshirts]

On 7/13/2020 at 6:15 PM, nickd said:

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

Had the same issue with a battery. The battery charger said 100% but the camera, 70%. I tried what others recommended and drew it down until I saw “bc”, charged it fully and the camera agreed this time.