Re: [Leica] Batteries? Give me your experience.

[MicroGrid@aol.com]

I responded a couple of weeks ago to a question about M6 battery life. Our 
company supplies a material to the advanced battery industry. We supply the 
cylindrical lithium battery market, (2/3 A cells, 1/3/N cells) - the M6 
batteries

In my opinion the lithium cells are the best choice for powering the meter in 
an M6. Alkaline suffers greatly at low temps, and has a sloping discharge 
curve. Silver does not have the capacity. However you must keep in mind that;
1, I have no experience with an M6, I still use an M5.
2.A caveat, My company makes the mesh for the lithium cells we are talking 
about.

I could give you the reasons in technical terms. Suffice it to say that the 
only practical objection I can find to using Li batteries when available, is 
the price.

Having said that, there are so many complaints in this list of short life for 
Li batteries in M6's, there must be something more to it. Tom A's great 
suggestion about the check circuit during the last discussion of this subject 
shed some light on a potential repair solution. However even with that, there 
seems to be too many unhappy snappers out there for me.

I will go the technical people at the big three makers of cylindrical lithium 
cells, Duracell, Matsushita, (Panasonic), and Sanyo, and ask for possible 
explanations for this phenomena. I am asking for some experiences, so I can 
put together a case study.

Give me the details of your good and bad experiences. Classic, TTL,Switch 
on/off, Temperatures, etc. What about the SF20?
If anyone knows what the mAh drain rates are or any other technical 
information on the M6, it would save me the trouble of finding it out from 
Leica. 
Please do not clog the list with this, Email me privately.
Do not count on a quick response, I've got a job to do too. As I develop 
answers (or more questions) from the manufacturers I'll post them to the list.

Thanks in advance
Bruce Bowman
Killingworth CT




(tekapo@golden.net writes:

<< 
 A couple of questions about batteries for the M6.
 What's the best kind?
 How long should they last with the camera getting semi-daily use?
 
 The reason I'm asking is that when I go out shooting in the cold (it's -21
 celsius here today!) the light meter often doesn't light up, or else it's
 very, very dim. If I take the batteries out of the camera and warm them up
 in my hands or pockets for a while, they come back to life, and the light
 meter gets brighter.
 
 Is the diminishing power of the batteries the result of the cold, or the
 resistance to the cold of the type of battery I have, or is it a case that
 they get too cold too easily in the M6, or might the batteries just be weak?
 I haven't had the batteries that long in the camera (about two months), but
 then I don't really know what the life of batteries should be, nor do I know
 what the best batteries for the cold are. [I've gone through a few sets of
 batteries in the M6 over the past couple years; whereas with my old Nikon
 FM, I had a set of batteries that went through heavy use for 7 years and
 were still going strong before I replaced them -- I gave them a pre-emptive
 replacement, being fearful that they were eventually going to die -- then
 the next set of batteries I got for the same camera died only after a year.
 I might have thrown away a magical set of batteries.]
  >>