Cheaper battery for Leica M8

[rustysheepdog]

I wonder if anyone has experience of the various "cheap" batteries for the M8/M8.2? Leica Camera's price seems very high - at least here in Britain - and I'm tempted by the thought of getting one for a quarter of the price, or even less depending on source.

 

[Broughsup]

Cheap bats

Cheap bats

I have had five cheap batteries, two more expensive Aku's from Germany and three from Hong Kong, and though they seemed to be a bargain at the time all failed within a couple of months of purchase.
My oppinion now thus is stick with the genuine item. regards, Don.🙁

 

[jaapv]

I bought four over time. Waste of money. Worked once or twice and died and whilst they worked they had to be recalibrated all the time.

 

[baycrest]

I got 2 Leica batteries and 2 China made batteries.
There's no performance difference. YMMV
The China batteries cost $12 each when I got them a year and a half ago.

Some posters have similar experience as mine, others are not as fortunate.

One of the 2 Leica batteries I have rattle when shaken, that rattle doesn't deteriate performance. It works fine.

I also use no-name batteries in my D300, LX3 and DP2.

Rob

 

[__hh]

My heart tells me I should get Leica's OEM batteries, my brain tells me that the generic 3rd party ones will do.

After 5 months' use of a $15 chinese battery, I am glad my brain was right (for now).

 

[Oscar Levant]

If you spend $9 on a battery and it works well for a year or two, you're way ahead of spending well over $100 for a "real" one.

 

[JNewell]

In another part of my life I'm a amatuer radio operator and electronics hobbyist. All I can tell you is that I've seen and heard so many reports of disasters with cheap lithium cells that I would never save a few dozen dollars in a multi-thousand dollar camera trying to use cheap batteries. I'd stick with Leica batteries.

 

[Oscar Levant]

I think there are very few "disasters" from using cheap batteries, except maybe from people posting rumors on the intertubes.

 

[jaapv]

The problem with generic batteries is that they lack the internal electronics that communicate with the M8. That causes them to lose calibration, meaning they have to be run down 100% to reset the battery meter on the camera each time, but worse is that they lack some safety interlocks that check the battery temperature, shutting the system down when it becomes to high. In theory (it has never happened yet afaik) the battery could explode in that case.

 

[__hh]

A classic case of FUD.

Just like Epson insisting that you ***only*** use Epson ink and (listen to this) Epson paper for their printer 🙂

 

[kully]

After hearing about all these stories and wanting 3rd party batteries myself I put up a thread about the same thing a few months ago.

Reading the recommendations I bought 10 batteries from a seller called 'loo100us' on eBay to see for myself.

There are no complaints about the finish of the housing, the internals are tidy and they last as long as my OEM batteries.

I've been using just two batteries which have been cycled each week for the past three months and they have not exploded or exhibited any peculiar behaviour.

Sure, there are shockingly bad 3rd party batteries, but there is no special voodoo in making good Li-Ion batteries. The technology is mature and they can be made very cheaply and well - of course, this is not so good for the Earth.

I'm not at all connected with the bloke behind 'loo100us', something to keep in mind though.

I see you're up in Glasgow, if you pop me a cheque for £6 I can send you a battery to try.

 

[kully]

Addendum: On a couple of the 'loo100us' batteries I noticed that after the first charge the camera did not show the battery was fully charged. However, thereafter it never happened again.

I have seen this with my spare Leica battery as well i.e. first charge after purchase has this issue and then fine thereafter.


Oh, and I don't actually use all these batteries, I destroyed one taking it apart and another I used for dropping and throwing onto concrete (I wanted it to explode 🙂 ) and some others I have given away.

 

[rocheung]

iI bought 4 pieces, all of them are ok so far

 

[Ben Z]

I bought a couple OEM Leica batteries from KEH used for $35 each. Given the M8 is less than 3 yrs old the natural decline of LiION batteries shouldn't be a big problem, and KEH has a good return policy. As it turned out the lot #s on the used batteries were later than my original one, and have worked just fine. Oddly my original battery that came with the camera rattles if I shake it (no functional problem) but the new-used ones don't.

 

[MCTuomey]

i don't really understand the argument about spending top$ for batteries since the M8 is top$. i value my carcass quite a bit, but too often i put pretty sorry "fuel" into it ...

 

[rustysheepdog]

Thanks to everyone for your comments - much appreciated !

 

[noimmunity]

After hearing about all these stories and wanting 3rd party batteries myself I put up a thread about the same thing a few months ago.

Reading the recommendations I bought 10 batteries from a seller called 'loo100us' on eBay to see for myself.

There are no complaints about the finish of the housing, the internals are tidy and they last as long as my OEM batteries.

I've been using just two batteries which have been cycled each week for the past three months and they have not exploded or exhibited any peculiar behaviour.

I bought 4 batteries from the same seller. Just after reading this thread, two developed a problem (after four months of rotated use). Even after charging, the camera sees them as empty, but it still powers up.

I will have to see if I can drain them and recharge. Or something...

 

[noimmunity]

Well, I've had the camera LCD on for the past half hour with one of these batteries and it continues to stay illuminated, even as the power indicator is flashing empty. This sounds exactly like what jaapv is describing above.

Still, 2 out of 4 isn't so bad...

 

[JNewell]

Addendum: On a couple of the 'loo100us' batteries I noticed that after the first charge the camera did not show the battery was fully charged. However, thereafter it never happened again.

I bought one of these for T&E. Shipping was very fast. Unfortunately, after charging in the Leica charger, the body of the battery has swollen to the point where it does not slide into the M8 easily and probably would not come out if it were forced, although the real issue is what happened to the Li cell inside to swell up the outer case. I will not be using that battery! 😀😱🙁

 

[Keith]

I've had two Chinese batteries for a while now and no problems at all ... I do completely discharge them between uses though!

From memory the two of them including post was $20.00 US. 😱