CAUTION! M7 Battery compartment cover

If noone has experienced this yet, please be cautious about the

battery compartment cover. Mine came loose somehow. Luckily I was

sitting at a table and had the camere with the lens up. My finger

touched the cover and it popped off. Had I been walking down the

street wih the camera on my shoulder, the cover would have been

history, maybe the batteries also. I guess I will have to modify it

or tape it down. A nice decoration for a $2K+ camera. I guess it

would have cost too much to have a threaded metal cover, a la Nikon.

Instead they used a cheap molded plastic cover which will become even

looser, with use, as the plastic lugs wear. Ofcourse they must cut

manufacturing costs no matter what the outcome. So keep an eye on the

cover and enjoy, while you have it.

 

Just thought I'd share my experience with the Forum.

 

Happy shooting, Tony

I recently lost the battery cover on my M6 TTL, so the problem is not limited to the M7.

I had a diopter come lose and fall off somewhere in Las Vegas this past

weekend. Which was not good since I was using a Noctilux at f/1 a lot.

Fortunately I had a tri-finder with another diopter attached that I could

rob from. I guess you should tighten down everything before setting out

to shoot.

Anthony, you pointed to a problem which is there indeed. The battery-cover of the M7 has a bayonnet whereas the M6-cover is threaded. With the M6 it´s possible to follow Marc´s advice, unfortunately not so with the M7.

 

If the bayonnet-thing works down after some use it comes loose even easier. There really should be an improvement of some sort.

 

The M7 needs more batterypower than the M6, so the battery became bigger. Result: no room left for a threaded cover ...

 

Best regards

Maybe the battery compartment cover was not closed properly. I haven't had any problems with mine. When I close the battery compartment, I turn the cover clockwise until I hear soft click - that means it is locked securely. What I had to adjust to was, the spring behind the lower battery made it pop so much so that battery cover literally flew out when I opened it a couple of times at first (I was fiddling with every complaint I found in the web and see if they were that annoying to me). Maybe because it was just so new. Fortunately, the camera was not close to my face or it would have taken my eye out! I have to practice caution in opening the battery compartment. Other than that, I have no other complaints...so far.

 

Keep on enjoying the M!

I too thought that bayonet or screw in, the battery cover should be metal not plastic. Leica's explanation is that the battery compartment allows for entry of a static charge into the camera, which could damage the electronics, which are much more considerable than in the M6 or M6TTL. So you can take that for what it's worth. Leica says it is plastic by design and not to save money on production costs.

Leica's response then, has been finely sieved thru the bullshit-grinder.

For the M6, here's a MUCH better solution:

 

http://www.quickreleaseplate.com/Sofia&Rose.html

I was worried about the M7 battery cover also, but after several months with 2 M7's I've yet to have one come loose. As to them wearing out with time--assuming you *might* change batteries twice a year or even three times, my guess is it'll be a while before that wear gets excessive. Might not be a totally horrible idea for the travelling Leica photog to carry a spare cap in the bag somewhere, just in case. How much can it possibly cost <grin>?

Eliot

 

Leica is wrong! A metal cover is far better at shielding static charges. Tell them to look up "Faraday Shield" in their basic electronics books.

 

Anyway, carry a spare, cheap(hah!) cap.

 

Jerry

In the first week with my M6 TTL the battery cap fell off when I wasn't looking. Of course I stepped on the plastic battery holder and crushed it to death before I noticed the cap was missing. I'm sure the cap will disappear some day once again. Where can I get a replacement or backup?

If you think that it was made of plastic to disipate static charges, I have some oceanfront property for sale in southcentral Texas. It is noting more than poor design. I can't imagine that a manufacturer would let something like that out of the factory. I'll just have to put my engineering skills to work and fix it. It will not be the first time that I improved upon a product.

 

Happy shooting, Tony

Mine once popped off; fortunately it landed where I could see it. It was lucky for me because I was in the desert and it's easy to have things slide into the sand an disappear.

 

I once lost a 39 mm snap in lens cap. It just popped off and vanished. Apparently no one but Leica makes a cap in this size so I had to pay $30 US for a new one. Rather steep, I thought.

 

cheers,

Joe

I keep a little 1" x 1/4" strip of electrical tape over my batter cover, which keeps it in place. It's a little klugy, but it's very effective.

Wow, now the M7 is becoming a spare parts magnet. First

batteries, now a battery cover! Guess we need a Leica spare

parts bag, LOL. Oh, and the difference between losing an M6

battery cover and an M7 battery cover is that the M6 still works

without a battery!

I carry an extra battery cover in my kit. So far no problems but I

use a Crescenzi half case which covers the battery area.

Funny. The first thing I did after I bought my M7 was to order a

spare battery compartment cap. I got it though the normal

channel of dealer/distributor and it took about a month to get it

(that's blazingly fast by Leica Canada distributor standards.) The

only problem now is that I can't remember where I put it :-)

I bought a couple of those coin-operated battery covers for my M6s. The only

trouble is I had to add a nickel to my camera bag in case I need to change the

batteries. Then I became concerned about loosing the nickel so I put more

coins in the bag so I'd have plenty. They started rattling around so I just put a

whole roll of nickels in the bag. Then I became concerned that I'd loose the

battery cover in the middle of changing the batteries. So I put the old battery

covers in the bag too. Then I became concerned that if I lost the battery covers

and had to use the old ones that I wouldn't get them on tight enough so I

added some plyers to the bag to take care of the old battery holder. But then to

be safe I also added a roll of gaffer tape just in case. To make room for all this

stuff I had to leave my extra film at home. :->

ROTFLMAO, John.

 

I hope Leica introduces a new M3 next year, only with the 0.58,

0.72, 0.85, and 0.91 viewfinder options. I'm thinking that would

be the ideal counterpoise to the electronic M7.

Right, Dan, and don't forget to bring your hand-held selenium

cell lightmeter along with your M3. And to feed your horse,

replenish you oil lamps, and put coal in your boiler. ;-)

I used to have the M6 battery cover come loose till I found that my finger tips were pushing (screwing) it undone when changing lenses. It's now firmly tightened down and have no problems. Bit hard to get undone though.

Mine worked itself loose, so I screwed it down with a pair of industrial strength cables pliers. I really mung-ged [ie. I wrecked it cosmetically] the cover. How will I get it off? -- probably never. So I will hook my camera up to a car battery to charge up the batteries when they go flat. I hope it will work.

This is 2019. Wonder if Leica has spare battery covers.

This is 2019. Wonder if Leica has spare battery covers.

Buy Leica Replacement M7 Battery Cap New