My S2 was not used for about 2 weeks. It was stored in a dry place. The battery was removed and charged. Last night I put the battery in and wanted to use the camera. The little red light on the back side of the camera blinked twice but everything else dead (top LCD, back LCD, viewfinder). Also, no reaction to pressing any button.
Removed battery, put back in, same result.
Just to be save, put the battery on the charger over night, put back in this morning, same result.
Changed CF card, same result.
Any idea what that could be?
Georg
PS: I have the camera since March 2011, took it all over the place, and this is the first issue I have with it.
No idea, but have you tried to change the lens as well? And do you have a second battery?
I did not have a 2nd battery but got one from my dealer. Turned out it was the battery indeed. Quite a relief.
Lesson learned: carry a second battery, even though one does not need one (as I never got even close to use a complete charge until being able to charge again). Good thing is this happened at home. I would have been devastated, had that happened on one of my trips.
Puh. Good to hear. It seems like there are some issues with the one or the other battery.
Georg,
I’m a little late to the party (I’m 6 hours behind here in the US), but I would have said it was the battery not holding a charge.
When you see the CF card light turn red for a moment, go off, then nothing else works… 99% of the time it indicates a dead battery. Over the last couple years with the S2, we’ve seen this a handful of times. Leica has been good about replacing defective batteries, but I would second the opinion that a second battery is always a good idea in spite of the S2’s phenomenal battery life.
When you put the dead battery on the charger and tried again, it was just further evidence of a battery gone bad. It is a little easier to diagnose with the Pro Charger as the charger will display the actual existing charge on the battery.
Anyway, glad that everything is sorted out so quickly.
David Farkas
Red Dot Forum
Leica Store MiamiGeorg,
I too am late to this thread, but when I read your first post it was like Déjà vu. I experienced a similar problem a year or so ago and about freaked out. I don’t have a Leica dealer nearby, but a quick call to David and a new battery was on the way pronto. Problem solved. The battery is a weak link in the system. When it works it is outstanding, but it can and has failed completely without warning.
For what its worth, Leica should replace the bad battery for you.
Count me in too… the original battery would never move off 100%. I had actually totally depleted the battery and the S2 had similar symptoms. Leica should be exchanging the battery, and I had second battery.
So, I guess a battery can “go bad” at some point all on its own?
I would like to see Leica add an info screen like they have the M9 where is shows the battery at X% of charge; and I’d like to know how many clicks on the battery since the charge. This way if I see some numbers that don’t reconcile with my usage, then I might have a hint that the battery is going south. If nothing else, it’s just interesting trivia to better understand the S2’s power usage characteristics.
David Farkas;2388 wrote: Georg,
I’m a little late to the party (I’m 6 hours behind here in the US),
And I thought you be monitoring this 24/7???…Just kidding :D:D:D.
My dealer already offered to send the battery to Leica and ask for a replacement. Anyway, the thought that this could have happened during my safari in January or somewhere in the middle of Sri Lanka, still freaks me out.
@pebbleplace: I am not sure a charger that shows the charge would help. I has the impression the battery went south from one moment to another. The odd thing is that on the charger it shows that it is more than 80% charged.
I am now going to make the time to participate in this forum. Having heavily used an S2 for nearly two years now, I’d have to agree that one of its weak links is the battery. I bought a second battery within a week, having experienced an initial problem of having had the camera in my bag overnight with a fully charged battery and went out to shoot and it was dead. I had left the camera switch set to ON, but with the settings, I believe, set to turn off when no activity was sensed for a time. But the camera release button must have been half pressed in while the camera was in my bag. At least this is what I supposed happened. Not having a second battery meant I was up a creek for the morning, 80 miles from nowhere. David, this happened with the camera I rented from you, prior to buying one. So lesson learned, always have a spare battery. Now, learning from this thread, there’s even more reason to have one in the bag at all times.
Yup, I think I’ll be getting a third battery just in case, before I leave for my Africa trip in a month’s time…(got the vertical grip today; camera handles much better for me now, even for horizontal shots).
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