[Leica] Leica blocking 3rd party batteries in firmware?

[John McMaster]

I know several people have found that, mine would run out after only a few hours use and not be trustworthy or need to carry 4 or 5 rather than 1 genuine. Battery price is small in relation to camera and lens prices; I have 6x M9 batteries (should be good for 2500 shots) and the price of those (2 came with cameras) is so little in relation to the rest of the bag contents (lenses, cards etc) that I buy genuine and do not worry about them.

john

-----Original Message-----

I have a mix of Leica and non-Leica batteries for my M8, and I cannot tell them apart. Same with my Fuji outfit. That said, I have had to chuck some off-brand batteries in the past. However, in the case of Leica batteries, the price difference was so large (as Kyle noted) that even if half of the non-Leica ones are junk, you are still ahead, money-wise.

Cheers,
Nathan

Nathan Wajsman

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> On 09 Feb 2015, at 21:32, John McMaster <john at mcmaster.co.nz> wrote:
> 
> I have had 2 or 3 non-genuine batteries, none of them ever worked reliably even before the firmware update. I have not bought an M9 battery (I have 6 across M9, Monochrom and M8) for over 2.5 years, the oldest is nearly twice that age, and they all still work fine. If I am carrying the M9, Monochrome and a few lenses then the battery price, rather than reliability, is not an issue...
> 
> john
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> 
> I think on this list at one point different people reported varying experience with different non-genuine batteries. They might chime in?
> 
> For sure the Leica ones cost a lot. I guess that the one for the M8/9 was easy to clone or whoever actually made the originals produced a lot of them to different standards? It's interesting that the battery for the M (typ
> 240) is actually two of the earlier assemblies in one case, but I've not heard of a single non-genuine version anywhere.
> 
> 
> Cheers
> Geoff
> http://www.pbase.com/hoppyman
> 
> On 10 February 2015 at 01:19, kyle cassidy on the lug < leicaslacker at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> Howdy folks --
>> 
>> I've been using 3rd party batteries in all of my cameras since 
>> Australopithecus started banging rocks together -- in Panasonics, 
>> Nikons, and various Leica's with no problem. In fact, I've often 
>> wondered if workers from the OEM shop sneak back in at night and 
>> continue production without labeling them.
>> 
>> I recently got four off-brand M9 batteries (from two different 
>> retailers) and notice a curious behavior -- when they're fully charged 
>> often the camera will give a "battery low" warning and shut down -- 
>> however voltage meter shows the batteries are fully charged. I'm 
>> wondering if Leica has possibly chipped it's batteries and instructed 
>> the camera not to work with 3rd party batteries (in the same way that 
>> the Keuring coffee-machines recognize imposter K-Cups and refuse to 
>> work with them.) I can think of several possible reasons for this, but 
>> chipping the batteries I think is the most likely. Another option is 
>> that only 3rd party manufacturers who make batteries for Leica cameras are hucksters, but it seems less likely.
>> 
>> Any thoughts on this? $130 for a battery is $120 that I could use 
>> toward a plane ticket to photograph something with a battery that's worth $10.
>> 
>> Kyle
>> 
>>