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 19 hours ago by mujk

[Wipeout]

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Not a Great Start with the M EV 1

 

Just taken delivery of my new M EV 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.

Edited 18 hours ago by Wipeout

[JNK100]

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.

It's not cheap of Leica at all as EU law makes it illegal to include a charger. This is the same for similar products like mobile phones .

[JNK100]

On 10/26/2025 at 9:36 AM, SethiPhotography said:

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. 

EU law prevents supplying chargers with products such as cameras and phones.

This has been the case for a while.

This isn't different to any other camera-mfr.

[EddieCheddar]

Just so this “battery” thing doesn’t get pinned exclusively to the EV1, I bought a brand new SL3 last year and the same thing happened to me. The battery wouldn’t charge no matter which cable I used.  I believe I called the store and we figured out that I need to update the camera’s software (maybe?) or something like that (I know we did some easy settings adjustment.) Once we did whatever it was we did, it charged the battery like normal.

[Carrot]

In my case, as outlined earlier in the thread, with a totally recharged battery I had no way to turn the camera on to check any menus or update software as I had no other SCL7 battery or cables/plugs capable of getting it going.  Travelling back to the dealer was my only option, but thankfully I was under an hour away.  Others experiencing this may be a lot further away from their dealer.  Incidentally, the label of my EV1 box said it was boxed up on 30 July.

[lincoln_m]

Carrot,

I think you meant to say "with a totally discharged battery" you couldn't turn on the camera.

That highlights my comment earlier that it seems to me that the M EV1 can't be powered up if there is no (charged) battery present to provide an internal supply to the camera. The USB-C power seems to be only supplying the internal charging circuits and not have an internal regulator to provide dc power to the camera's internal circuits. It seems to me from what everyone has been saying that only the battery supplies power to the camera's circuits but if the battery has a very low voltage (discharged) then that isn't enough to power the camera. The manual also says the battery is only charged while the camera is off. Turning on the camera will stop the charging process. It's a bootstrap situation if the internal charger chip requires power (high enough voltage) from the battery in order to turn on the battery charging circuits. I'm frustrated by the lack of technical info for the battery circuit info as an ex-electronics engineer who worked for a semiconductor company that designed and manufactured Power Management ICs ( internal supply circuits for boosting or bucking the battery voltage and also battery charging circuits).

JNK100,

I don't think EU Law specifically forbids selling of Chargers with Battery Powered Digital Electronics but the idea of the "Single USB-C Charging Specification" is to give consumers more choice for their charging solution while also "unbundling" the charger block from the Battery Powered Device (Phone/camera/computer) so consumers are not forced to buy the charger. The idea is for less electronics waste.

https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_22_3524

One of the bullet points says:

Improved information for consumers: producers will need to provide relevant information about charging performance, including information on the power required by the device and if it supports fast charging. This will make it easier for consumers to see if their existing chargers meet the requirements of their new device or help them to select a compatible charger.

From looking at the M EV1 & M11 Scope of delivery and the Instruction Manuals / Data sheet I see that Leica are not supplying enough info to help us decide if our power blocks and usb-c cables are capable of charging our devices.

In this M EV1 case (M11 were delivered with Battery Charger block according to the scope of delivery) I think Leica need to supply the charger block because of the situation where the battery is totally discharged with no supply voltage to power the camera before it can start charging or the usb-c charging circuit doesn't work when the battery is completely drained. I'd need to see the circuit diagram to determine which. Or they provide the dealer with extra stickers so they can un-box and charge the battery then re-box with a new Battery charged by the dealer" sticker over the broken seal.

When you buy a box of cigars they always have their seal opened by customs, this is similar situation if the dealer opens the box to charge the battery. Leica should provide a contents list which includes the battery serial number so when you open it you can see that it is the same battery as originally packed at the factory.

When you open your new Leica box you are shaking with excitement and having the camera boot up straight away is what you want. Finding it won't power up and can't even charge its own battery is extremely disappointing, to put it politely.

Lincoln

[JNK100]

6 minutes ago, lincoln_m said:

Carrot,

I think you meant to say "with a totally discharged battery" you couldn't turn on the camera.

That highlights my comment earlier that it seems to me that the M EV1 can't be powered up if there is no (charged) battery present to provide an internal supply to the camera. The USB-C power seems to be only supplying the internal charging circuits and not have an internal regulator to provide dc power to the camera's internal circuits. It seems to me from what everyone has been saying that only the battery supplies power to the camera's circuits but if the battery has a very low voltage (discharged) then that isn't enough to power the camera. The manual also says the battery is only charged while the camera is off. Turning on the camera will stop the charging process. It's a bootstrap situation if the internal charger chip requires power (high enough voltage) from the battery in order to turn on the battery charging circuits. I'm frustrated by the lack of technical info for the battery circuit info as an ex-electronics engineer who worked for a semiconductor company that designed and manufactured Power Management ICs ( internal supply circuits for boosting or bucking the battery voltage and also battery charging circuits).

JNK100,

I don't think EU Law specifically forbids selling of Chargers with Battery Powered Digital Electronics but the idea of the "Single USB-C Charging Specification" is to give consumers more choice for their charging solution while also "unbundling" the charger block from the Battery Powered Device (Phone/camera/computer) so consumers are not forced to buy the charger. The idea is for less electronics waste.

https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_22_3524

One of the bullet points says:

Improved information for consumers: producers will need to provide relevant information about charging performance, including information on the power required by the device and if it supports fast charging. This will make it easier for consumers to see if their existing chargers meet the requirements of their new device or help them to select a compatible charger.

From looking at the M EV1 & M11 Scope of delivery and the Instruction Manuals / Data sheet I see that Leica are not supplying enough info to help us decide if our power blocks and usb-c cables are capable of charging our devices.

In this M EV1 case (M11 were delivered with Battery Charger block according to the scope of delivery) I think Leica need to supply the charger block because of the situation where the battery is totally discharged with no supply voltage to power the camera before it can start charging or the usb-c charging circuit doesn't work when the battery is completely drained. I'd need to see the circuit diagram to determine which. Or they provide the dealer with extra stickers so they can un-box and charge the battery then re-box with a new Battery charged by the dealer" sticker over the broken seal.

When you buy a box of cigars they always have their seal opened by customs, this is similar situation if the dealer opens the box to charge the battery. Leica should provide a contents list which includes the battery serial number so when you open it you can see that it is the same battery as originally packed at the factory.

When you open your new Leica box you are shaking with excitement and having the camera boot up straight away is what you want. Finding it won't power up and can't even charge its own battery is extremely disappointing, to put it politely.

Lincoln

My mistake - apologies. 

[jjroroek]

i thought storing a flat battery for a while is very bad for the life of the battery. a li-ion battery should always been kept between 20 and 80 % 

[lincoln_m]

If the M EV1 batteries came from a batch years ago that were meant for the M11's they didn't build but made a new top plate with EVF inside to go on top of the M11 body for the EV1, then that might explain why the batteries are now totally flat for the new M EV1's. It sounds like Leica test the M EV1 while its being built but not the "new", on the shelf for years, battery they package with the M camera.

That's just me guessing.

I can understand that if I was flying a plane full of Li-ion batteries from China I'd want them to be at the lowest, or zero, charge as possible.

Anyway Leica CS should be working out a fix/procedure for this issue, hopefully not a camera recall as that would be further inconvenience but a replacement with a charged battery might be OK.

[mujk]

Let's hope that Leica sorts this out ASAP. Unfortunately, the descriptions in this thread of how the issue has been fixed so far do not sound very promising.

1. According to the EV1 manual the USB Charging factory setting is On, so there should be no need to go into the menu system to enable charging. If this turns out not to be the case there is an issue (e.g. configuration memory problem).

2. According to EV1 technical specifications the power delivery requirement for the USB power supply is 5V 2A, meaning that most current USB chargers, power banks etc. should work. No need for a 9V power supply.

3. If the supplied, empty battery will charge in the M11 but not in the EV1 there could be a bigger problem. Either the batteries supplied are out of spec or the EV1 internal charging circuit does not work as it should. In both cases there could be problems further on.

BTW, the battery manufacturing date should be printed on the battery.

[satijntje]

Strange that this battery behaviour was not reported for the M11. 
 

The Battery from my m11-p safari was completely flat when I received it but charging in camera was no problem.