These batteries are sh!t

[morffin]

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$100 for a battery that can hardly get you through a 4 gig card.......Pathetic.

 

I shot for 5 hours today and went through 3 batteries.

 

I've tried everything to get these batts. to work right... did the drain thing...nothing works... they just simply suck.

 

I can shoot more w/ one 5D battery than I can with THREE Leica battery.. and thats with auto focus and chimping on the 5D...and 5D batteries are about half the price.

 

I love my M8... but sometimes I leave it home because I dont want to take a pocket full of batteries with me.

 

Sorry, I know it's been covered to death on this forum...just venting.

[Guest joewehry]

On what "energy saver" settings do you have your camera set?

 

I generally shoot an hour after work each day, and a fully charged battery (about one month old) easily lasts three days (or about 3-4 hours) and some times 5 days. (probably 4-5 hours use.)

 

These are my settings:

 

Auto Preview Mode set to none

DNG only (JPGs have to be processed, maybe using more power?)

Auto Power Off after 2 minutes of non-use (pressing shutter reactivates M8)

LCD brightness set lower

 

Other practices include:

2 GB card (does a 4 GB draw more energy?)

Single picture mode

Don't delete images from the card while I'm shooting

Don't do a lot of Previewing of images

 

My battery is 1 month old.

 

Try my settings if they fit your workflow and see if any of them help.

 

Also, are you using the Leica brand batteries, or third-party?

 

That's the only things I can think of. Good luck!

[morffin]

Thanks,

 

I have mine set almost the same. Hardly do any chimping at all on the M8.

 

I do use the continues mode on the shutter... that might be a factor. Dont use the auto off....takes too long to wake the camera Im sure that contributes to the problem.

 

Dont know why a $60 Canon battery can do twice as much for twice as long.

[marknorton]

You definitely want to use Auto-Off or else manually switch the camera off when you are not using it. I get about 300 shots per battery, but I do use auto-review for 5 seconds.

[dugby]

The M8 battery saga seems to be broadly consistent across users and geographies.

 

As battery technology has not changed too much in the last 1-2 years..... the issue may not be the battery, but rather, the M8's ability to satisfactorily work with a 'partially' discharged battery.

 

It could be the M8's internal voltage regulation specifications may not tolerate a partially used battery. Once again new "territory" for the Leica company, whose products have not been reliant on large capacity batteries prior to the DMR and M8.

[jaapv]

Most users -myself included- have a tendency not to condition the batteries properly. I.e. run them through three full charge-discharge cycles to reach full capacity. Then the capacity is between 400 and 500 shots. I have a feelinng other manufacturers sell their batteries pre-conditioned.

[Eoin]

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It sounds about right 400 shots per battery. Just over a 4Gb card capacity. When I start to get below this number I do recondition by fully draining the battery by using the disable camera power saver mode and then fully charge for 8 hours. It seems to restore the capacity and make the bar graph more accurate.

[Haya]

I I do recondition by fully draining the battery by using the disable camera power saver mode and then fully charge for 8 hours.

 

Wow does it really take 8 hours to get a full charge? I've never had to charge my batteries that long I think it's time I try to do a full drain/charge cycle!

[Nick_Yoon]

If size matters, the Canon battery is larger and heavier - more capacity?

[chris_tribble]

3 days in Paris - 1 battery. OK this wasn't a professional shoot - I was on holiday, but nevertheless 300 images over that period.

 

1/ auto shut off after 2 minutes

2/ turn off the camera when not in use

3/ 2 seconds review just to check histogram

4/ I never shoot in continuous mode - it's just not my style...

 

Maybe all this helps...

[stunsworth]

I get around 400 shots on a full battery. That implies that you were getting 1200 or so with your 5D. As a 5D i never got anywhere near that. Maybe a little above what I get with the M8, but not much - and that would be using manual focusing lenses rather than AF ones.

 

I think your problems are caused by having the auto-off switched off. I expect you'd get a similar result with your Canon set the same way.

[Venkman]

I usualy get between 200 and 400 out of a single battery - depending on temperature, chimping, etc.

 

One thing that I always do is to switch off the camera in between - no need to keep it powered, since it is ready once you've turned the switch.

 

Dirk

[Eoin]

Wow does it really take 8 hours to get a full charge? I've never had to charge my batteries that long I think it's time I try to do a full drain/charge cycle!

 

I just quoted 8 hours, it's normally put on charge before I go to bed and taken off when I get up. 8 hours is my required beauty sleep .

 

I'm just after reading in the M8's manual (p82) that the indicator light (yellow) takes about 3 hours to fully charge a battery, if the yellow light flashes it means it's pulse charging a fully discharged battery until it gets it up to a minimum level then the normal charge begins with the yellow light constantly on.

 

They also recommend fully discharging and recharging the battery after every 25 recharge cycles. Now how many of you do that .

 

I know some chargers charge other batteries to about 80% quickly and then top up to 100% over a longer period, it seems reading Leica's instructions, yellow light on = charging, yellow light off = not charging. What they don't mention is why does the green stay on for another 2 hours before going out?. At that point when the green goes out it indicates the battery cannot be charged?. Surely if the battery was full when the yellow went out the green would go out as well not some time later.

[ljclark]

My guess is the circuitry in the M8...It just isn't as energy efficient.

 

Tale: This weekend I shot a soccer match with a pair of Nikon D300s. Normally I rarely chimp, but this is only the second outing for the pair and I needed to do a lot of checking to confirm my setups. Lenses were the Nikkor 70-200 (VR off) and the 300 f/2.8 (non-VR).

 

Nikon has a battery display in the menus that shows the number of shots taken with the battery since the last charge, and the remaining capacity. This morning I looked at each camera and the results were: Camera A - 160 shots, 82% remaining; Camera B - 233 shots, 78% remaining.

 

5 years ago, shooting the same lenses on a D1H and a D1X, I might have had to change the battery on Camera B. During the intervening years, most camera manufacturers have made HUGE advances with regard to reducing power consumption. Looking at the disassembled M8 pictures on this site you don't see many custom circuits. Custom circuits make manufacturing easier and less expensive (once you recover the investment) but also (usually) lead to significant power consumption savings.

 

Battery specs? The M8's battery is listed at 3.7 volts, 1900 mAh (3 or 4 small cells wired in parallel?). The Nikon EN-EL3e (used by several models) is rated at 7.4 volts, 1500 mAh (2 cells wired in series).

 

I don't blame the battery. I think the M8 just has clunkier circuitry. That's why I need to get two more M8 batteries.

[guidowi]

Morffin, Did you tried to charge your batteries with another charger?

I had a charger failure with the DMR one.

At the beginning of the problem the batteries were half charged and then a battery was burned and the charger dead.

DMR and M8 chargers appear to come from the same manufacturer and both very poor related to the high cost of the cameras.

 

I have only two batteries for the M8 and usually are enough for a day.

 

Guido

[devils-advocate]

Yes, they are shit. Overpriced and deeply under-performing. I'd have more sympathy if they were being called up to drive a big, bright, beautiful screen. Alas, they cannot avail themselves of that excuse.

 

To leverage this for the better, may I once more humbly offer the suggestions of returning a thumb-wind lever for cocking the shutter??? This would probably double the battery life and make the camera appealing to the hand once more :-)

[ChrisC]

..... Hardly do any chimping at all on the M8........ that might be a factor. Dont use the auto off......

 

I always carried a spare battery, never had to change it in the field, chimped everything, deleted in-camera, but used the 'auto-off'. I think not using the latter is draining your batteries [providing you conditioned them properly]. The coma wake up time is a nonsense, but you might need to get in a frame of mind of using it and 'nudging' the shutter release prior to firing a first shot.

 

I don't know the effect of continuous mode on battery life as I never used it, but you could satisfy yourself by testing how long it takes to drain a half full battery just by leaving it on without a sleep mode.

 

............... Chris

[Chuckcars]

Morffin, you do not say what type of shooting you are doing with the M8. Nevertheless, makes little difference. I fail to see any advantage in not using automatic power off. Leica batteries are not greatest, however, it is your responsibility to get to know the cameras limitations, not the other way around.

[rob_x2004]

Is it possible the charger is at fault?

Most devices I know show full charge when the battery still needs more of a soak.

And maybe the charger is only half juicing anyway.

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Hallo,

Look here: Leica M

[blakley]

$100 for a battery that can hardly get you through a 4 gig card.......Pathetic.

 

I shot for 5 hours today and went through 3 batteries.

...

 

I can shoot more w/ one 5D battery than I can with THREE Leica battery.. and thats with auto focus and chimping on the 5D...and 5D batteries are about half the price.

 

The Canon battery is more than three times as large (2.5 cubic inches vs. 0.8 cubic inches) and more than twice as heavy (2.6 oz vs. 1.2 oz) than the Leica battery, so it's not at all surprising that the Canon battery gives you more life than the Leica battery.

 

The Leica is probably less efficient than the Canon at energy use, and may also be true that the Leica battery isn't as well-engineered as the Canon battery (Canon's been making consumer electronics batteries much longer).

 

Having said this, you're comparing apples and oranges. If you like an SLR better than a rangefinder, that's fine, and if you value battery life more than you value size and weight that's also fine. You can carry two Leica batteries and still have size AND weight left over vs. the Canon battery. If you do carry two batteries, the Leica will give you a similar number of shots.

 

I don't see why this is a big problem.