New Leica M240 is 4.5 years old

Gid

Gid

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Hi,

Just bought a new Leica M240 from a major UK dealer in their "sale". The price is good, but the camera manufacture date is September 2014. In addition either the battery or charger (or both) is not working so I can't use the camera. Any opinions on the impact of the age of the camera on its longevity? The dud battery isn't a good sign and the dealer didn't mention the age of the camera.
 
Gid said:
Hi,

Just bought a new Leica M240 from a major UK dealer in their "sale". The price is good, but the camera manufacture date is September 2014. In addition either the battery or charger (or both) is not working so I can't use the camera. Any opinions on the impact of the age of the camera on its longevity? The dud battery isn't a good sign and the dealer didn't mention the age of the camera.
Click to expand...

You didn't know this before the purchase? Even the most basic research on Leica cameras would show that the M240 is not a current model.
 
Gid said:
Hi,

Just bought a new Leica M240 from a major UK dealer in their "sale". The price is good, but the camera manufacture date is September 2014. In addition either the battery or charger (or both) is not working so I can't use the camera. Any opinions on the impact of the age of the camera on its longevity? The dud battery isn't a good sign and the dealer didn't mention the age of the camera.
Click to expand...

By a strange coincidence, I've just purchased an M240 as my first digital Leica.

The only advice I can give is that I seem to remember reading somewhere (possibly in the back of the manual) that the expected battery life is around 4 years.

I should add though that I'm not knowledgeable at all about digital cameras, and I've yet to use my 240 - I didn't even know I had to buy an SD Card!!!!

John
 
So you bought a NOS camera and the battery is bad. That's likely from sitting in the box for several years ... batteries *always* need to be maintained.

Go back to the dealer and tell them to give you a new battery in exchange for the one they supplied with the camera. If they won't, return the camera and go buy from a reputable dealer.

Oh: and the next time you buy a camera, check that the battery is good.
Cameras don't go bad by just sitting in their box on the shelf.

G
 
John Lawrence said:
The only advice I can give is that I seem to remember reading somewhere (possibly in the back of the manual) that the expected battery life is around 4 years.

John
Click to expand...

John,

I have my original battery and several others for my original Monochrom. All are doing well. I bought a second battery as a spare, and a friend from the NYC Meet-Up gifted me one of his old M9 batteries he had laying around. One of these batteries could be first M9 old and well over 5 years old. Two are at least 5 years old.

I learned from on this forum that deep cycling is bad, overcharging is bad, and that batteries like to be maintained between 40% and 80% of full charge for longest life. Full charge for long term storage is not recommended.

Interesting to note that my SL charger has an 80% light. With the SL I don't have a spare battery, and the now 4 year old battery is still running strong.

Cal
 
Calzone said:
John,

I have my original battery and several others for my original Monochrom. All are doing well. I bought a second battery as a spare, and a friend from the NYC Meet-Up gifted me one of his old M9 batteries he had laying around. One of these batteries could be first M9 old and well over 5 years old. Two are at least 5 years old.

I learned from on this forum that deep cycling is bad, overcharging is bad, and that batteries like to be maintained between 40% and 80% of full charge for longest life. Full charge for long term storage is not recommended.

Interesting to note that my SL charger has an 80% light. With the SL I don't have a spare battery, and the now 4 year old battery is still running strong.

Cal
Click to expand...

Thanks Cal.

As I'm new to these things, it's always good to get information like this.

John
 
Ted Striker said:
You didnt know this before the purchase? Even the most basic research on Leica cameras would show that the M240 is not a current model.
Click to expand...

Well, I did my research. New M240s are still being sold in the UK and have only recently come off of the Leica site. They had been available alongside the M240P which is still available new. The M10 came out in 2017 so I might reasonably expect a new M240 to be dated to 2016/17.

Cheers
 
Godfrey said:
So you bought a NOS camera and the battery is bad. That's likely from sitting in the box for several years ... batteries *always* need to be maintained.

Go back to the dealer and tell them to give you a new battery in exchange for the one they supplied with the camera. If they won't, return the camera and go buy from a reputable dealer.

Oh: and the next time you buy a camera, check that the battery is good.
Cameras don't go bad by just sitting in their box on the shelf.

G
Click to expand...

No, I bought a new camera that turns out to be NOS. It is difficult to check the battery from a sealed box before buying online and if I had known it was NOS I would have asked more questions.

Cheers
 
first off, congrats! excellent camera.
when u plug in the charger and insert the battery, does a charging light come on? if not it may just be the charger that is bad. when i bought my M-E the charger was defective out of the box and this was a new current model camera at that time.
 
Gid said:
No, I bought a new camera that turns out to be NOS. It is difficult to check the battery from a sealed box before buying online and if I had known it was NOS I would have asked more questions.
Click to expand...

Well, the M typ 240 is still a current model available on the Leica website for sale. Whether they've closed the production line or not is what determines whether it's considered NOS, and the production line might be closed, but even that isn't the issue. Even the biggest selling Leica M is a relatively limited production camera made in modest batches, and "new" just means that the camera is in a box that has not been opened since it left the factory. When it was built and packaged is mostly unimportant—except for the battery.

A battery sitting in a box for four years after packaging could be dead and/or the charger might not be working correctly. A good dealer will sort that out for you. You're right: You cannot test the battery beforehand on a mail order purchase. Dealers should always accommodate that when something is amiss.

I've never seen a new camera go bad from sitting in the box unless the battery was in it and was leaking or corroding the camera's innards. So I wouldn't worry about the camera too much... 😀

G
 
My 10 yr old M9 battery is still running strong! Purchased the camera used 5 years ago from a dealer... The only issue I had was with the sensor which was replaced by Leica free of charge other than that the old dinosaur runs like a champ! M240 should last you a very long time I suspect...
 
The dealer is organising a new charger and battery which he will test before sending to me. Hopefully all will be well.

The irony is that I bought a new camera because I'd problems with two second hand ones I bought.
 
Update: New battery and charger received (battery fully charged). All tested and good to go. Time to get reaquainted with RF photography.
 
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