Additional batteries. Do you have?

[ChipNovaMac]

Really? Just one 2G card full? I get about 2 1/2 cards per battery. The first time I used the M8 i was ticked off because the first bar drops off pretty quick(i thought well this battery life blows) and the second bar stays on a wee bit longer but that last bar just stays on forever.

Maybe Leica plays it more conservative....

For me my 3rd battery was a freebie from a customer of mine that lost his M8 in a theft (without insurance <yikes>) that gave me his spare battery that was lost...

But with my 3 batteries right now I can rest easy.... May have to test things out... and leave that huge charger at home now on a week long trip.

 

[jaapv]

I get over 400 shots from my Leica batteries, but no auto-review and I shoot DNG only. Computing time eats batteries, I find. Auto-turnoff enabled as well, of course.The Hong-Kong ones do about 250 shots.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Come on, Benson, your wife is a game gal...
My problem is Africa. Although Leica thoughtfully provided a car cigar lighter connector, I find the Land Rovers used there either have the thing disconnected, or they are so old that they are 6 Volts, or positive earth.
So I need to be independent of electricity for two weeks at least.

There's an easy way around this one. On the dash, to the left of the clocks, there are two little holes, one red-surrounded, one black. These are connected directly to the battery. They take standard banana pins or (if you can find one) a special adapter plug. They are more trouble to disconnect than they are worth.

Buy a cigarette lighter extension lead; cut off the bit that goes into the cigarette lighter socket (incidentally, I've never seen a cigarette lighter in a Land Rover); fit banana pins or the (reversible) plug; and you're away. This is how I run the cooler in my Land Rover to keep the film cool.

Alternatively, of course, put crocodile clips in place of the banana plugs/adapter plug; clip directly to the battery; charge overnight (I assume the bonnets have locks on them).

As far as I know -- and this is memory only, i.e. I have not checked it -- even the last Series 1 LRs were 12v, so any LR made in the last 50 years should be 12v. The oldest LR I have owned (1963) was 12v.

Cheers,

R.

 

[jaapv]

You have to see the wiring in African vehicles to believe it - yes those sockets - I know them. They are never connected. The only sure way to get electricity form these things is indeed to use crocodile clips as I believe they are called on the battery leads. After all, this is the way they are usually fired up too. That is why these clips last two days before they are pinched. And batteries - there is a bird that produces a descending series of whistles - it is known as the African Battery Bird.
One of the few guys I know that runs a decent vehicle (apart from the luxury camps that take the George Clooney crowd) is Chris McBride.
He has a pristine Landcruiser - and one of the first of the series 1....Several decades old

 

[Sam2nd]

I waited my second, the seller does not have.
I think a second batterie is necesary, al least for no to charger the first one always at half life

 

[RingoHung]

you hv got to have two. You can still shoot when another one is being charged...at least.

 

[DaveB]

I have 7 batteries: 2 Leica and 5 from that nice guy in China.

I spend as long as four weeks away from chargers and need enough to shoot up to 20 GB of DNG's.

Im my experience they've all functioned the same so far as I can tell.

 

[Philippe D.]

I bought a spare battery with my first M8.
I got two Leica and two no-name with the second-hand M8 i bought later.
That's make 3 batteries for each body.
I have the feeling, the no-name drain faster as the brand ones.