Battery with postage?

[Jaans]

Hi,

This may seem a trivial question (actually it is^^), but I was wondering if there are any customs restrictions in purchasing a camera WITH the battery?

Does anyone have experience with this, like for example buying a Leica M, only to find that the battery had been removed by customs, or the seller didn't send it with the appropriate battery as it wasn't allowed.

Thanks in advance

 

[jonmanjiro]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium_battery

On 2009 fall, at least some postal administrations restricted airmail shipping (including EMS) of lithium batteries, lithium-ion batteries and products containing these (e.g. laptops, cell phones etc). Among these countries are Hong Kong, USA and Japan.

Japan Post will not accept any batteries for international shipment. However, they will return the package rather than remove the batteries.

 

[Jaans]

jonmanjiro: thanks for that information.

I will be in the States in the next few days hopefully and will be receiving a camera there in the mail. I wonder if anyone else has information on this from that part of the world?

 

[Keith]

I went to post a camera OS a few weeks ago and embarrasingly had to open the package at the post office to remove the batteries from the camera. The woman told me they would probably be picked up with the x-ray and the camera would be returned to me!

 

[Richard G]

I received an M5 with battery from the US in August. Hopefully I am about to receive something smaller from th US with a similar profile. I tried to order some non-mercury batteries through Amazon and couldn't, but the reasons were unclear.

 

[Jaans]

Thanks Keith and Richard G for relating your experiences. I appreciate that. In future I will know not to expect batteries with the packaged camera.

Cheers

 

[btgc]

I can confirm PO doesn't accept batteries. Greedy to serve big countries, they will not accept ANY batteries, not only powerful lithium cells.

 

[Neare]

Shipping out of NZ - you have to remove the battery from the body before it is sent. Also by having a battery in the package you get a nice large warning sticker on your parcel.

 

[gliderbee]

I have bought plenty of new and used cameras from the USA and from the East (mostly Hong-Kong). All VC Bessas come with batteries in the box, all Canon P&S have the lithium batterie in the box, my Nikon D200 came from Hong Kong with batterie included (normal D200 package).

Some of my used cameras had a battery installed, others had not.

I never had a problem ... Was I just lucky ?

Stefan.