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M240 battery

scgross

By scgross
in Leica M (Type 240 / 262)

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pippy

pippy

Posted
Posted (edited)

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11 hours ago, fotomas said:

...Why instead this strange thing that it is only available as spare part now?...

A battery - regardless of Camera Brand - IS a 'spare part'; an Accessory.

An essential one for a Digi-M, of course, which is why I feel that Leica really do need to address these 'Official Leica Suppliers / Internet Rumours' and explain just 'What The F'n'Hell Is Going On?'

Is that REALLY too much to ask? Personally? I don't think so.

Philip.

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lct
lct

See what Leica USA wrote below. Source: https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/4769920?page=2#forum-post-68256778  

LUF Admin
LUF Admin

I have asked Leica for an official statement about the situation. Here is their reply. Currently only very limited quantities, full capacity awaited in spring 2026. In the same message the

Chris W
Chris W

I emailed Leica UK last week and had a prompt reply. Yes, they can order the M240/M246 battery as a 'spare part', cost £50 each.

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Anbaric

Anbaric

Posted
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On 8/2/2024 at 2:52 PM, lct said:

It is for sale the same way as other spare parts, i suppose. Normal way as far as i recall is ordering the spare part to your Leica store that will order it to Wetzlar. I can be wrong though as it happened to me a couple of times only in half a century and those were not batteries.

I have dealt with the spares department before via Customer Care, after I was referred there by another department. They were very helpful and were able to set up an invoice I could pay online, then sent the 'part' to me directly (actually a binocular case that wasn't available as a retail item).

My question, though, would be why this change in availability? I might wonder if they are managing a diminishing resource at this point. It will be interesting to see if anyone gets batteries in the future with production dates later than when these things vanished from the shelves (mid 2024 or earlier?).

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lct

lct

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M240 series cameras have been sold between 2012 and 2015 IINW. Almost 10 years later i don't find it strange that Leica sell their batteries as spare parts. It is the way i got my last battery that had no packaging but a transparent plastic bag and has been made by Varta Indonesia in December 2023. My earlier batteries are from 2013 and are still working fine so i suspect my last one will look fresher than my 20 yo M240 (let alone her owner...) in 2033.

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pippy

pippy

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13 hours ago, lct said:

M240 series cameras have been sold between 2012 and 2015 IINW.

Actually (as I believe has been mentioned?) the ME-240 was still on sale in 2020 so these cells were standard-fitment just four years ago.

If Leica has, indeed, stopped buying batteries from Varta then I will join the number of people who hope that a 3rd party manufacturer will fill this gap in the market.

Philip.

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lct

lct

Posted
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I had not noticed those posts sorry. I did not notice that Leica stopped buying batteries from Varta either. Hard to believe given that my Varta one is from December 2023 but i may have been missing something again.

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pippy

pippy

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22 hours ago, lct said:

I had not noticed those posts sorry. I did not notice that Leica stopped buying batteries from Varta either. Hard to believe given that my Varta one is from December 2023 but i may have been missing something again.

No, lct; to be honest I don't think that you any more uninformed than the rest of us here.

As far as the situation between Leica and Varta goes we are all a bit in the dark. There have been many reports from all quarters of the globe saying that either the cell has been discontinued or else that the cell is no longer available to be ordered. These two scenarios, clearly, are not quite the same.

If the latter is true then it could be that current stocks are being run down at present but might yet become available once more some time in the future. If the former proves to be true, however, then the concern is that the longer-term future usability of all M240-series cameras is thrown into doubt if no third-party sullpier steps-up to fill the gap in the market.

AFAIK there has been no Official word from Leica. Really rather shockingly-poor behaviour from such a highly-respected company.

Philip.

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pippy

pippy

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7 hours ago, lct said:

Or just rumors. We know the Leica reply and we know the order number of the spare part as well so, unless Leica are lying, which i feel hard to believe, i can't seem to see any problem personally. YMMV.

Actually I hadn't seen this post - quoting someone from Leica Customer Service - to which you might be making reference?;

"The battery is still available. However, now as a spare part without packaging. The part number is 420-240.020-000.

Kind regards......Frank Hausmann"

I will try to 'phone Ivor Cooper (at Red Dot Cameras, London) whether he can, now, order batteries from Leica which situation was not possible just a few weeks ago and was the origin of my concern regarding future availability (and was mentioned in post #12).

If the reply from Herr Hausmann means that batteries will continue to be available for several years to come then I'm sure everyone will be much relieved.

Philip.

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MikeRZ67

MikeRZ67

Posted
Posted

I panic-bought one in a Swedish Leica store after reading this thread. It is new, but came without a box, so maybe that is already the spare part people are talking about here. It says Varta Indonesia, but I couldn't see a production year on the battery itself.

It also arrived completely depleted, and my Nitecore charger refused to charge it. It just displayed "EE EE". So I also had to order an original Leica charger 🙄 That one charged it to 100% and it's working fine; so now I'm on the save side and hopefully can get many more years our of my M240!

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fotomas

fotomas

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Posted

The date should be imprinted somewhere in the plastic. It's hard to see. I needed a magnifier. It's four digits. The first two for the week and the last two for the year.
Was in stock at the Leica-store or do you had to order it?

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Mute-on

Mute-on

Posted
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1 hour ago, MikeRZ67 said:

I panic-bought one in a Swedish Leica store after reading this thread. It is new, but came without a box, so maybe that is already the spare part people are talking about here. It says Varta Indonesia, but I couldn't see a production year on the battery itself.

It also arrived completely depleted, and my Nitecore charger refused to charge it. It just displayed "EE EE". So I also had to order an original Leica charger 🙄 That one charged it to 100% and it's working fine; so now I'm on the save side and hopefully can get many more years our of my M240!

My two Varta Indonesia batteries, dated 3322 (August 2022) also arrived without boxes. Plastic bags with model number (the original number, not spare part number) stickers only. Easily charged to 100% in Leica charger.

Now we can both get many more years from our M240/262!

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NigelG

NigelG

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I bought a boxed one this afternoon from Red Dot Cameras - as per Mute-on’s it is Varta Indonesia and date coded 3322 (August 2022 ) and is currently sitting on charge…

I think Ash at the shop said they had a couple left but were also planning to order-in the new “spare part” code ones when they run out.

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Vmmp

Vmmp

Posted
Posted

Today I bought a battery at Fotocasion (Madrid) and it still has stock. It looks like the battery is from March 2023 (Indonesia). Waiting to charge. I want to think that we will have no problems in the future with the issue of batteries for our M240

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a.noctilux

a.noctilux

Posted
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If I recall well, batteries (on some devices) explode  for many years now.

I recall some spectacular fire on electric bus ...

I understand that manufacturers wait for more informations, then this is (I hope) only short time "shortage".

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