Leica M11-P Safari

[justj]

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M11 P Safari with Cognac strap .  I think it looks ok with a black lens but silver one is so much better, waiting for the silver 35 Summilux to arrive tomorrow.

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Edited May 12 by justj

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[pippy]

On 5/11/2025 at 8:38 AM, jaapv said:

......https://commission.europa.eu/news/eu-common-charger-rules-power-all-your-devices-single-charger-2024-12-28_en......

This rule is not very well thought through for cameras as it is normal practice to charge a battery at home whilst using the camera elsewhere. So it forces the user to buy an expensive extra charger unless there are inexpensive third party ones on the market...

Actually the EU ruling, in itself, doesn't force the user to buy an expensive charger and, as stated below, seems to be at heart a sensible move.

"Because the EU has standardised charging ports for mobile phones and other portable electronic devices, all new devices sold in the EU must now support USB-C charging."

That is all fine by me. No EU rule prevents Leica putting a charger in the box; the rule just ensures that the camera can be recharged on its own without the user having to have a charger as well. The problem, therefore, lies in the fact that Leica has decided to no longer include a charger as part of the package. 

As someone who also often needs two batteries (and very occassionally three) for a days' shooting this is quite a disgraceful omission in my opinion. Seriously; we are discussing a $10,000+ camera body. How much does it cost Leica to manufacture a charger? $10?...

Outrageous state of affairs.

Philip.

[kkm]

A battery that can be charged with USB-C will resolve the need of a charger. 

[username]

21 minutes ago, pippy said:

someone who also often needs two batteries (and very occassionally three) for a days' shooting

..wow, are you like shooting 3000 images a day, or do you have live view on for hours?

Also, if you need 2-3 full batteries before going out - you could charge them in-camera, just like you would in a charger, right?

[lct]

40 minutes ago, kkm said:

A battery that can be charged with USB-C will resolve the need of a charger. 

Indeed and people owning a 10k camera and wanting an accessory charger can afford to pay an extra 150€ for it. Camera makers are not charities after all 😎

Edited May 12 by lct

[kkm]

If you are camping with the motorbike the money isn’t necessarily the challenge.

[kkm]

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vor 45 Minuten schrieb username:

wow, are you like shooting 3000 images a day

Walking around from 10am to 10pm and making pictures mostly without LV/Display on than the second battery will get close to it’s end. 
 

I forgot to add - less than 500 pictures.

Edited May 12 by kkm

[pippy]

44 minutes ago, username said:

..wow, are you like shooting 3000 images a day, or do you have live view on for hours?

Also, if you need 2-3 full batteries before going out - you could charge them in-camera, just like you would in a charger, right?

No; nothing like 3,000!......😸......A 'serious' full days' shoot will rarely number above 300 on either of the two bodies I will carry.

With the M Monochrom some of the batteries are now 14+ years old and they no longer hold their charge anywhere near as well as they did when new. Furthermore once the charge-level falls to around 50% I get the 'Low Battery' warning and the camera will switch-off. As such my usual M.O. will be to ensure at least two spare batteries are 'full' before heading out. I will normally have at least one which still have a decent charge from a previous shoot so that one will be installed prior to heading out. I have two M9-era chargers so the 'spares' will be charging whilst I have breakfast. I rarely get through a day without having to change the #1 even although it might only have permitted 100-odd captures. The #2 will often be fine for the remainder of the day but there have been a few occassions where I have resorted to #3.

There might be days of 'serious shooting' which would allow for fully-charging three batteries one after the other - as would be required for in-camera charging - but those days would be the exception rather than the rule. Having stand-alone chargers, therefore, works for me as a better system in terms of reliance.

To state the obvious the M Monochrom doesn't have Live View and I almost never review images on the rear screen so neither of those aspects would be responsible for battery-drain.

Apart from cell-age I don't know why the batteries have such a poor ability to conserve a charge. I do rotate the cells in attempt to ensure all receive a decent chance to retain proper conditioning. A bit of a mystery and mildly annoying but There It Is.

'In-Camera' charging would be less of a problem with the MD-262 and for a few reasons its battery holds a charge for longer / more actuations but even there; the original battery hasn't the same performance as it did when I acquired the camera five years ago. Back then it would be unusual to see the power-indicator fall below 95% at the end of a day but nowadays the reading can often fall to 70%. By way of illustration; according to 'sources' the MD262 should be able to capture 1,000 pics from a full charge. Yesterday (just a fun day out) I took 30 snaps with that camera. By the time I arrived home the power-level was down at 80%. I never used to carry a spare battery for this camera. Now I do...

Philip.

EDIT : To be perfectly clear; I have nothing against in-camera charging whatsoever. Indeed I think it a sensible solution but at the same time I don't think it is sensible to not have a stand-alone charger as well and my view is that one should be included in the package when sold.

Edited May 12 by pippy

[charlesphoto99]

Considering how many users on here talk about buying/rebuying M11's, trading up/across for a Mono/P/D/GB/Safari etc. all the while losing thousands in the process (on what is essentially the exact same camera), as well as buying ridiculous overpriced thumb thingie's and exotic hand rubbed leather straps, not including a charger on a 10K camera is a truly a 'first world problem.'

That said, they probably should include one. I guess just hang onto your M11 charger when trading in for that Safari, or use the one you already have. 

[LocalHero1953]

As a SL2-S user I may shoot 1000+ images of a play rehearsal, and will go through 2 batteries - perhaps three in a day if I'm shooting something else as well. The charger that came with the camera sits in the original packaging now though - when I bought the Q3 43 (no charger included, but same batteries as SL2-S) I bought Leica's USB-C double charger. It charges rapidly (with a PD power source) and doing two at a time makes it simpler to get batteries charged overnight.

I could work out a routine for charging in camera, but it's simpler not to have to.

[kkm]

vor einer Stunde schrieb Al Brown:

2500 images in one day easily. Anything the matter with that?

Happy to know your secret how to process so much pictures within a suitable time frame. It’s always a challenge for me doing that after holidays.

[rxj]

I almost wondered wait where is the charger of my safari, but then realised when I sold my M11, the charger was unused still in plastic wrapper, still in the box, where it was day 1.

Is it crazy they don't supply a battery charger. Yes. Do we need one, no.

I used USB-C charging all the time on my M11.

[Smudgerer]

1 hour ago, Al Brown said:

2500 images in one day easily. Anything the matter with that?

Eyestrain.......

[Eoin]

1 hour ago, username said:

Also, if you need 2-3 full batteries before going out - you could charge them in-camera, just like you would in a charger, right?

True, one could. My concern would be the long term reliability of the charging circuitry within the camera and if something went wrong with it, it would possibly require a main board replacement costing many multiples more than the previously supplied charger. Also to mention the timescale involved in current service turnaround.

For sure, the convenience of being able to charge the battery in the camera via USB-C is welcome. But I still prefer having a dedicated charger for all my batteries which was supplied heretofore, having to buy a charger at extra cost now, I didn’t notice Leica reduce the cost of the cameras by the savings they made in not supplying it in the box.

I guess it’s common practice now with many consumer goods, but with my cameras, I like to have multiple batteries which are removable, so a dedicated charging station is my preference, if it fails, it’s small money to replace, I shudder to think what it’ll cost if the internal one fails.

[Smudgerer]

26 minutes ago, Al Brown said:

Only if you hate what you do...

Yes, I get what you mean by that, and agree with you but I only had to start wearing glasses in the early 2000's after spending to much time editing, ( FCP / Avid ), which I loved doing but it eventually came with a price paid.........

Edited May 12 by Smudgerer

[SrMi]

10 minutes ago, Al Brown said:

25 years of batch processing experience, small secrets of RAW workflow, my own recorded actions, powerful computer. Easy.

For me, the biggest time-drain is evaluating each image and assigning it a rating. Post processing occurs only on the best images.

[username]

While on the subject of power users - is there even a dual-charger for the M11 batteries (like there is for the Q / SL)?

I'm only seeing the single one on the German Leica site (BC-SCL7) - and it's not available 🙂

[didier]

4 hours ago, Al Brown said:

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

Cognac strap was included with M10-P Safari. Also charger, as said. For all 7 out of 12.943 forum members who have not yet seen my photo of my loving machine... here it is.

Even when you’re not amont the 7 out of 12.943 forum members, it is always good to see it again    !!

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Hallo,

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[Elliot Harper]

3 hours ago, Al Brown said:

2500 images in one day easily. Anything the matter with that?

Really?

With 86400 seconds in a day, you literally have to take a picture every 35 seconds in order to achieve 2500 images a day, not even considering you need to eat, sleep, shit...etc. (or maybe you don't need...)

 

Edited May 12 by Elliot Harper

[costa43]

Not only should we be getting a charger but Leica should be giving us a spare battery for a 10 grand outlay.