EV1 battery won't charge

[kiwidad]

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33 minutes ago, lincoln_m said:

The BC-SCL7 charger is £135 from Red Dot. It’s a bit cheap of Leica to not include the charger with the M11* cameras as it is causing customers inconvenience. It sounds like we should get the dealer to charge the battery and check it’s working before leaving the store. 
I can imagine the batteries are shipped to Wetzlar uncharged for safety and they are never charged or tested in the factory because the camera is tested/powered with a battery shaped power plug and never sees the battery until it’s packaged and shipped to the dealers.

They did include it with the original m11 along with the single battery charger which I assume is a bc-scl7. I don’t know how the Leica store did a low power charge because the bc- scl7 refuses to charge on a low power usb supply! It just flashes a warning at you!

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[jakontil]

4 hours ago, LocalHero1953 said:

Yes, strange. I can't remember ever receiving a camera (Leica or other) with a totally flat battery.

I did, last three occasions on the M11 variants.. within this year, all flat battery, including the safari

[jaapv]

55 minutes ago, lincoln_m said:

The BC-SCL7 charger is £135 from Red Dot. It’s a bit cheap of Leica to not include the charger with the M11* cameras as it is causing customers inconvenience. It sounds like we should get the dealer to charge the battery and check it’s working before leaving the store. 
I can imagine the batteries are shipped to Wetzlar uncharged for safety and they are never charged or tested in the factory because the camera is tested/powered with a battery shaped power plug and never sees the battery until it’s packaged and shipped to the dealers.

Not supplying a charger but just an USB C connection is in line with EU regulations.. However I agree that it would have been far more elegant to set the camera price £ 135 higher ( nobody would have noticed) and include a voucher for the charger 

[Carrot]

10 hours ago, jaapv said:

Sometimes a completely flat  battery needs a bit of time to start charging. Just leave it plugged in for a few minutes (I thought the battery on my cat's GPS tracker had died  this morning- it started charging after being plugged in for about ten minutes. 

I had it plugged in for over an hour and nothing happened. The suggestion of getting it going when at the dealer before walking away with your new camera makes sense. As reported I’m up and running now, but it is just odd that even more powerful chargers at the dealership wouldn’t get my battery started in my new EV1, it only started charging when put into a used M11, and then with my same SCL6 charge plug. That begs the question as to whether there is a slight change to the power circuitry inside the EV1. I’ve passed it all onto Leica so they can investigate. 

[SethiPhotography]

On 10/25/2025 at 2:04 AM, lincoln_m said:

The BC-SCL7 charger is £135 from Red Dot. It’s a bit cheap of Leica to not include the charger with the M11* cameras as it is causing customers inconvenience. It sounds like we should get the dealer to charge the battery and check it’s working before leaving the store. 
I can imagine the batteries are shipped to Wetzlar uncharged for safety and they are never charged or tested in the factory because the camera is tested/powered with a battery shaped power plug and never sees the battery until it’s packaged and shipped to the dealers.

Agreed, If batteries are in fact leaving Wetzlar flat or at least arriving Flat to the stores in the UK, then they need to ship them with chargers.  at £6850 I would expect a charger in the box at the very least.  Boxes are sealed so I dont think dealers would want to break the seal to charge the batteries. 

[mujk]

According to regulations, lithium batteries must be shipped with a charge of 30% or less. Batteries discharge by themselves over time, so the batteries delivered with the M11 and EV1 have probably been on their way and/or in a warehouse for a long time. The issue has also been discussed in forums for older digital M models, where spare batteries may have been in storage for several years before being purchased.

The problem is that totally depleting a lithium battery (deep discharge) may cause damages to the battery and can also cause the battery to refuse to charge. It seems that the dealer knew of some way to get the battery to charge again, but this is not always possible without brute force (=jumpstarting - not recommended). I think Leica should provide dealers with a few spare batteries with the instruction to keep them charged and then replace the originally shipped battery at time of sale.

Edited 1 hour ago by mujk

[Wipeout]

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Not a Great Start with the M EVF 1

 

Just taken delivery of my new M EVF 1 — and the battery was completely flat out of the box. I’ve tried several USB-C cables and chargers, but it refuses to charge. I don’t have an M11 to test the battery separately.

 

After speaking with Leica Mayfair, the only options are to take it in to London or arrange a courier collection.

 

Really disappointed — this isn’t what you expect from any new camera, let alone a top-tier brand like Leica.