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

[Geoff Hopkinson]

To focus on your specific question Kyle, I have never previously read of
anyone's speculation that any version of their genuine batteries were
'chipped'. I did provide the official explanation for the changed camera
behaviour from the firmware update for whatever you want to make of that
;-).
That model has been used and available since 2006 and is still in use with
some current models of course. You will see subtly different marked
versions in circulation and genuine production has come from at least two
different manufacturers/countries that I am aware of. There are different
power ratings markings (on some non-genuine ones) too. There are many tens
of thousands of the originals in circulation, there having been 30,000+
M9's for a start. Those numbers are tiny compared to the volume production
for the big brands of course.
One recent comment elsewhere I saw was that leaving the (non-genuine)
batteries for longer on the charger past the nominal fully charged
indication made them then show as charged fully in the camera. You could
try another charger too if you were in a mind to investigate?


Cheers
Geoff
http://www.pbase.com/hoppyman

On 10 February 2015 at 06:25, Geoff Hopkinson <hopsternew at gmail.com> wrote:

> Kyle due to some publicised reports of write errors one of the changes in
> later firmware for the M9 was to make the camera less tolerant of marginal
> power levels from batteries. One indication of that was for when you want
> to perform a sensor clean. The camera would not start that unless the
> charge was nearly full. They also noted that all batteries have a finite
> life (limited number of charge cycles before they become much less
> efficient). Voltage levels of course are not the the sole
> measure/indication. Their instructions also include noting about a number
> of cycles before the units are most efficient initially and recommend
> periodically running them 'flat' (not shorting them out though.
>
> Including those originally included I think I had four (genuine) units I
> used over 6 years (maybe 25000 exposures? or so with the two cameras that
> got randomly rotated and I never saw any problems with them personally. As
> far as I know two or three of those are still in service now with Lluis. I
> would typically change the battery with the SD card after ~400 exposures or
> whenever I forgot to turn the camera off before putting it in my bag,
> whichever came first.
>
> 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
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>
>
>