Panasonic Begins To Lock Out 3d-Party Camera Batteries

OhMyBattery writes "The latest firmware updated for Panasonic digital cameras contains one single improvement: it locks out the ability to use 'non-genuine Panasonic' batteries. It does so for safety reasons, it says. It seems to indicate that this is going to be the norm for all new Panasonic digital cameras. From the release: 'Panasonic Digital Still Cameras now include a technology that can identify a genuine Panasonic battery. For the protection of our customers Panasonic developed this technology after it was discovered that some aftermarket 3rd party batteries do not meet the rigid safety standards Panasonic uses.' The firmware warning is quite clear as to what it does: 'After this firmware update your Panasonic Digital Camera cannot be operated by 3rd party batteries (non genuine Panasonic batteries).'"

Comments

Re:Talk about knee-jerk responses

[Mr. Firewall]

What exactly is the real-life "catch fire and explode" failure rate on lithium-ion batteries anyhow?

It happens quite often, actually. Anyone who's been flying R/C aircraft for any length of time has either seen it or knows someone that it happened to. A friend of mine damn near burned down his house once.

So stop the evil-corporation conspiracy theory bullshit and do a little research. The Battery University is a good place to start.

This is a real safety issue in which real people are being hurt.