Revisiting an old problem: battery issues for M8 or M9

[Fraser]

I had no trouble with cheap batteries on the M8 but with the M9 I can only get oem batteries to work.

 

[raid]

I have two OEM batteries, and I somehow got 6 used non OEM with a buy.

Raid

As PKR said this is not a matter of the old charge level memory effect NiCad and NimH batteries suffered from, because onwards from now we deal with Li Ion batteries which don't require to be fully discharged to be charged again, as long as you've offered them the proper full charge/full discharge cycles when new.

This is a matter of how the chip which is inside the battery circuitry "talks" with both the charger and the camera firmwares.

Installing chips in batteries is a trick used by cameras (and all other electronical devices) manufacturers to lock things out so that you must buy OEM spare or new batteries.

Using third party batteries can expose you to such problems, mainly the one you had to face when in Italy, that is, a fully charged battery detected as an empty one by the camera firmware, and a camera which won't want to switch on.

The M9 belongs to the most expensive digital cameras available, so trying to save a few pennies on no-name spare batteries can sound a bit odd, especially when traveling in a very nice place where a large amount of photos is expected to be taken.

For my D700 I am using a set of two original Nikon EN-EL3 batteries. Actually the D700 is a great energy saver and one battery only was enough for one week of shooting in Italy and two 4GB cards filled with NEF files.

You can try to set the M9 custom settings so that energy will be saved to the utmost (set the rear LCD luminosity down, limit the reviewing time to 2 seconds, disable all the useless bells and whistles, don't shoot in C mode, and resist the temptation to always look at the photos on the camera screen with many zooms-in etc etc).

 

[Lss]

Is it only for off-brand batteries when this happens? How did you manage to overcome this problem? Did you throw away your off brand batteries? Did you allow the battery to run low/empty in the camera?

In my experience, and based on everything I have heard so far, it is only third-party batteries that do this. It's only the level indicator that does not show the correct level in my experience. I simply keep using the battery/camera as normal and change the battery when it runs out or at a convenient time. There has never been any other problem.

Could it be that Leica battery chargers do not like off brand batteries, and using non Leica chargers may work better with off brand batteries?

I use both Leica and third-party charges and batteries interchangeably, the only issue is that the level indicator in the camera can only be trusted with the Leica batteries. It's the control electronics in the battery (or lack of it), not the charger.