SL3: in camera battery charging vs separate charger

[mboerma]

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I would like to understand if there are others who see the same thing. When I charge my battery in my camera it seems to fully charge the battery. The icon shows a full battery, at least. And enough time has passed. The green led around the power button is still on. After using the camera for few minutes (just setting some menu preferences) it is already at "Approx. 60 – 79%" judging by the icon (manual page 35). 

Now I'm charging the battery in the new dual charger. Here the LED's seem to indicate that the battery wasn't even at 80%. One LED is blinking. 

So either I misunderstand the icons, LED on the camera, or the LED on the new charger. Or the battery doesn't get fully charged when charging it in camera. Or it needs a few cycles to "warm up" to the task of being a battery. 😉

At least it isn't very intuitive. (And Leica should have included a charger to begin with. But that is a different topic). 

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[SrMi]

1 hour ago, mboerma said:

I would like to understand if there are others who see the same thing. When I charge my battery in my camera it seems to fully charge the battery. The icon shows a full battery, at least. And enough time has passed. The green led around the power button is still on. After using the camera for few minutes (just setting some menu preferences) it is already at "Approx. 60 – 79%" judging by the icon (manual page 35). 

Now I'm charging the battery in the new dual charger. Here the LED's seem to indicate that the battery wasn't even at 80%. One LED is blinking. 

So either I misunderstand the icons, LED on the camera, or the LED on the new charger. Or the battery doesn't get fully charged when charging it in camera. Or it needs a few cycles to "warm up" to the task of being a battery. 😉

At least it isn't very intuitive. (And Leica should have included a charger to begin with. But that is a different topic). 

The new (SCL6) or the old battery (SCL4)?

[mboerma]

New, SCL6. 

[LeicaS2]

The charger was not included because Europe no longer allows chargers to be included with any electronic product.

[jaapv]

That is only a directive which still has to be formulated in the law of the member countries. It will be more precisely defined. For instance I am sure that electric cars will be exempted in many countries. My Panasonic S5ii came with two charging adapters a couple of weeks ago.  
Leica could have put a voucher for a charger in the box. 

[mboerma]

58 minutes ago, LeicaS2 said:

The charger was not included because Europe no longer allows chargers to be included with any electronic product.

Like Jaap says. Plus: Not this part of the charger. It is the adapter thing on the other end which most people have many of already at home. And the EU directive is mainly about the uniformity of connectors. 

[SrMi]

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5 hours ago, mboerma said:

New, SCL6. 

Thanks. In order to try to reproduce it can you tell us what USB charger are you using for in camera charging?

[mboerma]

An Anker 3-port 65w Pod. 

[algrove]

OP

If it is a brand new battery it will take at least three charges from completely empty to get it up to maximum efficiency. Also what is the output of the port on the Anker you are using? For example I use an Anker single port model of 65W and not a multi port one since sometimes those drop the wattage output level below the 27W minimum Leica wants to see.

[albireo_double]

Slightly off topic, just to remind people that there is still the Nitecore charger that costs about Eur/$60. It works with the new batteries as well as with the old ones (just tested today, with an Apple adapter for iPad Pro). It is small and travels well. No need to buy the expensive Leica dual charger. https://charger.nitecore.com/product/ulsl

Edited March 16, 2024 by albireo_double

[scott kirkpatrick]

I'm using my M11 charger and charging the battery in the camera.  So it's time for an experiment.  Since my little charger is just at the limit of power that will charge when the camera is off, I have to make sure that it IS off.  Not easy, since this is a great lurker. 

charge to steady green in the camera using an M11 charger and USB.  It's open circuit voltage is about 15 volts, but it probably negotiates with the camera and delivers a voltage which I don't see.   

battery voltage ends up at 8.39 or 8.41 volts

That's a good approximation to fully charged.  Charging in an SL2/2S charger doesn't seem to work, and I didn't buy the SL3's dedicated two battery charger.

Edited March 17, 2024 by scott kirkpatrick

[mboerma]

9 hours ago, algrove said:

OP

If it is a brand new battery it will take at least three charges from completely empty to get it up to maximum efficiency. Also what is the output of the port on the Anker you are using? For example I use an Anker single port model of 65W and not a multi port one since sometimes those drop the wattage output level below the 27W minimum Leica wants to see.

The 27W minimum is for charging and using the camera at the same time. For charging the wattage requirements are not that high. 
I used the Anker USB C Charger, 735 Charger (Nano II 65W), PPS 3-Port. But also others. The charging is erratic. 

I will have to wait for a couple of full cycles to see if this is just because it is a new battery. 

[mboerma]

8 hours ago, albireo_double said:

Slightly off topic, just to remind people that there is still the Nitecore charger that costs about Eur/$60. It works with the new batteries as well as with the old ones (just tested today, with an Apple adapter for iPad Pro). It is small and travels well. No need to buy the expensive Leica dual charger. https://charger.nitecore.com/product/ulsl

Tried those too. It doesn't fully charge the battery. It stops at one bar below the maximum of the Nitecore screen. I have two of those and both behave the same. That is also why I decided to pay the price for the dual charger. 

 

[mboerma]

4 hours ago, scott kirkpatrick said:

I'm using my M11 charger and charging the battery in the camera.  So it's time for an experiment.  Since my little charger is just at the limit of power that will charge when the camera is off, I have to make sure that it IS off.  Not easy, since this is a great lurker. 

charge to steady green in the camera using an M11 charger and USB.  It's open circuit voltage is about 15 volts, but it probably negotiates with the camera and delivers a voltage which I don't see.   

battery voltage ends up at 8.39 or 8.41 volts

That's a good approximation to fully charged.  Charging in an SL2/2S charger doesn't seem to work, and I didn't buy the SL3's dedicated two battery charger.

I charged to a steady green, making sure the camera was off. I tried other adapters too. I have many. 

I never had or have issues with the SLC4 batteries or SL2/2S or M11. It might be the battery.

BTW, the dual charger is also something which needs a study to understand. Depending on if you put in two batteries or one and what the battery charge left in the batteries is it decides to show different LEDs.  There is some "intelligence" involved here.

[albireo_double]

38 minutes ago, mboerma said:

Tried those too. It doesn't fully charge the battery. It stops at one bar below the maximum of the Nitecore screen. I have two of those and both behave the same. That is also why I decided to pay the price for the dual charger. 

I see all bars completely lit at the end of charging and the display message showing "End". The screen alternates to show capacity as 1303 mAh (which is of course short of the stated capacity of the new battery at 2200 mAh...). When I insert the battery in the SL3, it shows as fully charged (all bars lit) but soon goes to about 80%. Hmmm....

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Edited March 17, 2024 by albireo_double

[mboerma]

Thanks. I will try again with the Nitecore when the battery (SCL6) is empty again. 
 

[jaapv]

So the Nitecore charger does not recognize the higher capacity battery and cuts the charging short at the required level of the old battery. Best contact Nitecore and ask. 

[Ken Abrahams]

My new SL2 Batteries last year would run down super quick, not what I am used to. After about three or four uses and recharges the batteries would last much much longer. And I checked at the time, that any other battery hungry camera settings were off. After a few chargers hopefully the new SL3 battery will good?

Has anyone charged the battery in camera? How long does that take?  

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[mboerma]

Hi Ken,

That was my main point: charging it ‘in camera’ was not really satisfactory. It was slow, but it also seemed not to fully charge the battery. 

I will give it some time. Don’t remember this from my SL2/2s and M11. Here the batteries were easier to get up to level. 

[Ken Abrahams]

Okay, sorry I didnt read fully. There is another battery thread going at the same time. Well that doesn't sound good about in camera charging not reaching its capacity. I haven't ordered the charger with my SL3 coming next month and was hoping to get around the cost which is significant in AUS dollars.