Yearly Archives: 2025

Replacement Leica M10 battery – testing

Leica

Making sure it’s good.

For an index of all Leica-related articles click here.

I wrote an extended piece on the battery life of the Leica M10 here.

At the time I bought my used M10 in March, 2025 I made sure that spares were available. Though the camera was sold with a spare, the age of both batteries was unknown and I have not discovered a way of determining it. But, as soon as I took delivery of the camera all replacement supplies – and the battery is only available from Leica and its dealers – dried up. Go figure. I was staring down the barrel of a gun or, more accurately, at a potential $4,600 paperweight, and a useless camera.

So I bit my nails for a while and fretted, though both the batteries which came with the camera worked well, charged fully, and provided some 5 hours of life with the camera turned on and sleep disabled. That’s an essential setup for street photography where the 2 second ‘wake from sleep’ is unacceptably long. Further both batteries retained charge fairly well, losing maybe 5% weekly when unused, with the camera off.

Then one day I came across a listing by CameraWest in SF which showed the Leica M10 BP-SCL5 battery in stock, and immediately ordered one. A system glitch at the vendor’s end meant that in fact the battery was out of stock but their salesperson told me that they were getting small allocations from time to time and, indeed, one month after placing the order a new BP-SCL5 was in my hands, in a sealed Leica box.



The new Leica BP-SCL5 battery.

There is no indication of the age of the new battery and it ships fully discharged. I charged it in the Leica charger, a 5 hour process for the new cell, then inserted it in the M10, turned the camera on with sleep disabled and monitored the remaining charge, using the camera’s LCD display, at hourly intervals. Here are the results:

  • On installation – 100% charge
  • 1 hour later – 85%
  • 2 hours later – 50%
  • 3 hours later – 35%
  • 4 hours later – 15%
  • 4:35 hours later – 5%
  • 4:50 hours later – fully discharged

So the near 5 hour life is identical to that of the two older cells, suggesting the new one is good. I’ll see how it drains once in the camera with the camera turned off, but in the meanwhile should you succeed in snagging a new replacement, I suggest this test is worthwhile, given the $235 shipped cost of the battery.

On recharging the now flat new battery the process only took 2 hours, so it seems that the first charge (5 hours) takes much longer. The 2 hour time is similar for that of my two older batteries.

The correct use of NiMH batteries – when to recharge, how much to charge, and so on – is the subject of much confusing advice and data-light opinions. Best as I can determine there is no damage using a suitable charger which does not overcharge (the Leica charger has overcharge protection) nor is there any problem in fully discharging the battery before the next charge. It’s hard to get definitive advice, but at least I should be able to get another 5-10 years out of the new battery before consigning the M10 to a display case ….

The Road to Perdition

Movies

Gorgeous images.

The Road to Perdition is a 2002 movie starring Tom Hanks and Paul Newman. Also included are Daniel Craig, the always great Stanley Tucci and Jude Law, as mean as ever. The stellar cast apart, the best reason to see it is the gorgeous cinematography of Conrad L. Hall who deservedly won the Oscar to add to the two others on his mantlepiece for ‘Butch Cassidy’ and ‘American Beauty’.

The story is about the Irish Mob, all strict Catholics you understand, in Depression Era America.

Here are some favorite moments:

Recommended for all who love expertly lit and beautifully composed images.

Old Glory

Ramblings

Flying proudly.

My previous Stars & Stripes flag was a tad worse for wear and I never cared for the cheap printed design, meaning I splashed out for a higher quality stitched one with woven stars. Made in America, of course.

But this new one suffered from the same issue common to seemingly all flags mounted on an angled flagpole, namely that they get twisted around the pole in windy conditions, making for an unsightly presentation. So I determined to do something about it.

First I added two pairs of insanely powerful neodymium magnets towards the base to add heft. These certainly stopped the twirling around the pole but in high winds the magnets would adhere to the mild steel pole! And that looked even worse. Further, in a high wind the added weight generated additional force on the thin walled mild steel pole and …. the pole bent at a right angle, landing OG in the dirt.

So I added a hardwood dowel to add robustness to the pole, after some straightening and garage language, and …. a new gust of wind bent the pole and snapped the dowel like a matchstick. Clearly I was dealing with forces whose severity I did not appreciate. So off to the hardware store for two additional purchases. A length of steel rod for the inside of the pole and a three foot length of mild steel bar stock to place across the space between the magnet pairs to add stiffness to the flag and prevent the magnets from attaching themselves to the flagpole.

I first tried this arrangement transversely, the bar at right angles to the stripes and while it did the job the flag looked pretty unnatural, never coming to rest in wind free conditions. So then I tried it with the magnets on the bottom stripe and the bar stock parallel to that stripe and, bingo!, it worked perfectly and the flag looked gorgeous at rest.

But the devil was not done. Now in windy conditions the base holder, secured with three screws to a wooden upright, started to pull the screws out of the wood. So those three were replaced with longer and beefier alternatives and so far, so good. I now have a new appreciation for the term ‘wind power’. And, just for grins, I riveted the two section flagpole together as it had a tendency to separate, yet again landing OG in the bushes. So there!

One final step was called for and that was to spray paint the bar stock red. That would make it virtually disappear against the background of the red stripe and also protect against rust. And here is the happy result:


Old Glory at rest.
Triple cable ties for safety.

A tribute, enjoyed daily, to the once and future greatest nation there has ever been. Meanwhile, we have a convicted felon destroying the economy and kowtowing to our foes, an ex (?) heroin junkie masquerading as Health Secretary, and a billionaire zonker and manic humper destroying the tendrils of our government. What could possibly go wrong?

Commencement

Colleges

A day of unalloyed joy.

I wrote about the due diligence visit my son and I paid to Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY some six years ago. Whereas most of the light manufacturing north eastern towns have been destroyed by the export of labor to the east, Saratoga Springs has been spared and remains a premier tourist destination. The small town is gorgeous and, unlike many we encountered in our many college trips, Saratoga Springs is very student friendly. After all, why turn down some 2,600 affluent consumers?

A key reason the town remains attractive and prosperous is the adjacent Saratoga Race Course thoroughbred racetrack where hopped up horses run fast. It’s the longest continually operating track in the United States. The Mob played a part in its creation finding that the town was a reasonable commute from either Boston or New York City for a spot of weekend revelry, and what is partying if you cannot gamble on the ponies? Thank you, Sicilian descendants.

Winston decided that Skidmore College would be the right choice for a top notch liberal arts education – imagine a world made up solely of narrowly focused STEM grads – and was all set to start in the fall of 2020 when Covid struck. We decided that a gap year would mitigate health risks so he eventually joined the college as a freshman in the fall of 2021. With a likely life expectancy of 100 years we reckoned he could afford to graduate a year later.


September 5, 2021 – Winston starts at Skidmore.

And that graduation was this past Saturday and the great smile on my face has yet to fade. This was a culmination of a 23 year project.


Winnie and dad, May 17, 2025.


Collecting his diploma.

628 graduates were awarded their degrees that day and it’s impossible to convey the joy of the occasion, with so many beautiful, young people at the start of the rest of their lives.


The hat toss.

After the ceremony at the Performing Arts Center we visited the school one last time – a sad place without all those smiling faces – and found Winston’s engraved brick:


On the brick pathway.


Winston Hofler, BA. My son.

Perhaps the best line from the fine Commencement speakers was from President Marc Conner, who had joined Skidmore just as the maelstrom that was Covid broke out in 2020:

“Ever since the Renaissance every generation has considered its problems to be insurmountable yet somehow we have muddled through”

Here’s to Skidmore College and muddling through.

iPhone snaps.