Jump to content

Survey of remaining issues after upgrade 1.2


Recommended Posts

Advertisement (gone after registration)

I had the opportunity to test the Leica T during an afternoon and evening from my local dealer and was suprised about the image quality, color rendering, contrast and dynamic range. The 1.2 Firmware was installed.

I am an experienced Leica R user (1979) and M user (1990) did a lot of weddings, portraits and media stuff in the "80 and '90 and a Leica lover.

Had a Digilux 2, (very happy) a Sony NEX 5N, (disaster) and now Fuji X 1 Pro (OK) but always wanted my Lux 35 (1973) and Lux 50 (1968), Cron 90 APO and 3.4/180 APO on a Leica body but the M price tag was too high for me.

I did a couple of shots with the T Cron 23 and Fuji X1 Pro with XF 1.4/23mm from the same objects next to the old Lux 35 on the T and XF 1.4/35 on the Fuji. All at F 5.6 and JPEG.

Even High ISO from 200 up to 6400 compared with Fuji were very good and the old lenses

still perform well on the T.

I must say the Leica is more neutral and I like the files. So....

After reading a lot of posts on the Forum (also the German forum) during a couple of evenings and a lot of blogs, I really got the impression that the T was launched too early

which resulted in bad critics and a lot of software issues.

So I'm at the point to buy one, want it for my M lenses, don't need AF because I still use

my Linhof Technika 4 x 5 and know how to determine DOF.

Which problems and issues are left after Firmware 1.2?

What would be desirable to improve?

I would be grateful to hear in order to take a deliberate decision.

Greetings Dre.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Hello fellow forum user,

 

by now the only issue i experienced was unresponsive dials when WiFi is turned on, but i turn it off to save battery life anyways.

 

Most important thing about the Leica T:

Forget what others say about it.

When you feel that it suits your needs, buy it.

 

I own the T since July, shot 5000 frames with it and i am happy with my camera as i never was before.

 

Also, a second hand M9 is not a bad camera, the rangefinder mechanism is really an advantage over the focusing on the T - did you give one a try? Why spend 1500€ on a camera when there's a better solution for 2500€? I shot a small series with a 28 Elmarit at Ravenvennen (very close to Venlo i suppose) on an M9 (avavailable in my flickr stream), i think M lenses belong on an M camera, everything else is a compromise.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I enjoy the Leica T but I think there is room for improvement:

1) it still takes long compared to other cameras until the EVF gets activated after bringing the camera to the face. If they can not improve this time it would be nice to have a setting to switch manually betweeb EVF/screen like in the Leica X.

2) There is a short lag time after taking an image when the EVF is frozen (maybe a second). I am not sure if this can be improved. I can live with it but its definatly a minus compared to other camras.

3) When using manual lenses I would like to be able to change the function of both wheels.

 

Overall the T is really very nice to use and delivers very good IQ IMO.

I also think the lenses are good compromise between speed/size/IQ.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Advertisement (gone after registration)

Thank you SirPiet for the suggestion of buying an M9, didn't know the prices for used M9.

Have an M2 and M6 so I know rangefinder, I'm looking on Ebay.

I loaned the M9 of jaapv during a Leica day in Breda for a moment and loved the results.

Regrettable is I can't use my R 180 mm on it.

The T is all in with M adapter, viewfinder and extra battery about € 2400,- So it's

worth to consider, although the T has left an unbelievable impression, love the design, the interface menu, compact size which harmonizes well with the small M lenses, grip etc.

I can live with the small remaining isues.

Thank you for the nice images of the Ravenvennen I know this place.

Dre

Link to post
Share on other sites

First of all I'm not a troll. I love my Leica T but I have been keeping detailed notes about what I would like improved as they iterate through the firmware versions (my other camera is an Olympus E-M1). I just hope they use the T 701 as a development platform for future T's and maybe even M's and iterate through the firmware at an accelerated pace.

 

As far as I can tell the web interface that was supposed to be in the 1.2 firmware is not working correctly. It gives a http 503 error.

 

The wifi network password field doesn't have a cursor so you have to backspace to edit anything.

 

Boot time is still unacceptably slow.

Resume from sleep is better than boot but should be further improved.

Transition time between screen and EVF needs to be improved.

 

AF: I think they really need AF continuous in addition to what they have now which is sort of AF lock. I find this when I have a narrow DOF and I want to get something like a branch with flowers on it and it is moving slightly.

 

AF tracking would be helpful for kids and animals.

 

The AF selection point is kind of bad when using the EVF.

 

The 2s self timer must be reset every shot. IMHO it should be sticky and stay until turned off because you tend to use 2s timer when you want the camera to settle down to take a shot. The 12s timer on the other hand is used when you want to be in the picture, that one can turn off after each use.

 

Tons of work needed on the WiFi side of things. I'm a computer guy and so I understand this stuff but snce it is so beta like, I will wait until 1.3 and 1.4 when they have had more time to work on it before I start feeding my suggestions back to Leica.

 

I think that there is a little bug that can cause the screen to go weird and the camera to eventually get unresponsive, if you hit the shutter to AF when it is transitioning between the screen and the EVF. I haven't figured out how to reproduce this one yet.

 

I think that they should combine the ISO and the Auto ISO settings panels.

I think that they should rename "User profiles" to "Profiles" because it is not just users it is usage mode. e.g. street vs landscape. I also think we should be able to rename the profiles rather than just have "profile 1" and "profile 2"

It would be nice if they could show you the focus scale that you can get when using MF when you are using AF.

It would be nice if they would add focus bracketing in addition to exposure bracketing. This is really useful for macro photography.

I would love to have a time lapse mode.

It would be nice if we could disable or reprogram the video mode button.

Link to post
Share on other sites

BTW Maybe I should explictly say this:

 

Mostly it just works. It provieds a very clean uncluttered UI that just works and has very few bugs.

 

I've been paying fairly close attention and I am used to testing software and that is saying a lot. They have a couple of minor bugs, they need to optimize their code in a few key areas, and without breaking with the minimalistic design princple they really could use a few more features but overall it is really well done and basically it just works.

  • Like 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

As far as I can tell the web interface that was supposed to be in the 1.2 firmware is not working correctly. It gives a http 503 error.

 

Got *x?

 

What kind of round-trip numbers do you get from pinging the camera?

and

nc -z -w 1 cameras.ip.number 80

(returns nothing if no port 80 service

or "Connection to cameras.ip.number port 80 [tcp/http] succeeded!"

Link to post
Share on other sites

Got *x?

 

What kind of round-trip numbers do you get from pinging the camera?

and

nc -z -w 1 cameras.ip.number 80

(returns nothing if no port 80 service

or "Connection to cameras.ip.number port 80 [tcp/http] succeeded!"

 

generally about 2.4-2.8ms with some delayed packets

 

no this is really a http 503 error:

me: get /

camera: 503 Service Unavailable

 

I think that they made a fairly wise decision near the end of the release cycle after the manual was printed to disable this functionality rather than ship something half baked. I'd bet it is just delayed until a later release after they have had more time to work on it.

 

I sort of feel like this camera's firmware is very much like the boring advert. They took the time to polish it before they sold it.

 

IMHO they have a lot of potential with the WiFi capabilities but it needs more polishing before it fully realizes that potential.

1) IPv6

2) A usable cursor when entering network passwrod

3) https rather than http for its web interface

4) optional authentication before images can be viewed

5) phone home firmware updates

6) phone home reporting of crashes or HW failures

7) GPS position from phone rather than only from EVF (offline?)

8) NTP sets time and date. Local time set using GPS position, with timezone files updated over the internet.

9) Security hardening for IP stack -- I haven't probed it yet

10) Security analysis for app access of camera -- hmm let me see how quickly can I hack this ...

11) Documented API for remote control

 

And that is not even scratching the surface of out of the box i.e. crazy ideas like:

I'm home and turn on my camera and my pictures get imported into lightroom over wifi.

Leica Photopark access?

Flickr access?

"Upload my pictures to the bureau immediately as I take them because my camera is likely to be confiscated by the authorities" mode.

"A photogenic location is over in this direction."

Let me know when someone turns on my stolen camera.

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

Startup/wake-up time and the lack of an option to completely shut off image review in the viewfinder are the two things I'd most like to see improved.

 

Having progressed through seven different mirrorless interchangeable lens camera models of three different brands prior to the T, I find the T's firmware to have fewer anomalies than any of the other mirrorless cameras I tried.

 

One huge plus in the T is the ability to set focus magnification to either deactivate with a half-press of the shutter button or remain active until the shutter is activated. The former is invaluable for shooting macro and the latter is more useful to me on wider shots.

 

All of the previous mirrorless bodies I used could do one or the other, but none could do both. The notion that a firmware designer would even *think* to include a switchable option is, to me, a stroke of genius. That it is included in the T's firmware is yet another feature that sets this camera apart from and ahead of other mirrorless options.

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

no this is really a http 503 error:

me: get /

camera: 503 Service Unavailable

 

503 is an HTTP return code. Therefore, you have reached a working HTTP server, if perhaps only minimally working. It might not like the abbreviated URI you are throwing at it, you might have missed some of the steps outlined in the manual or it might, indeed, not be properly working.

 

Two things the manual mentions: touch the "use browser" icon on the T and do not use the USB connection at the same time.

Link to post
Share on other sites

503 is an HTTP return code. Therefore, you have reached a working HTTP server, if perhaps only minimally working. It might not like the abbreviated URI you are throwing at it, you might have missed some of the steps outlined in the manual or it might, indeed, not be properly working.

 

Two things the manual mentions: touch the "use browser" icon on the T and do not use the USB connection at the same time.

 

Yep, I know. That was me abbreviating and paraphrasing the conversation between the latest version of Firefox and the Leica T. At first when I read that it had a web server in the manual I tried it with whatever was handy, probably my iPad. When that didn't work, I decided to take a closer look and fired up Wireshark and Firefox on my Fedora20 laptop. I didn't think that people here were interested in the details of DHCP ARP RARP IGMP ICMP mdns/Bonjour and the details of TCP connection setup. So I tried to cut to the chase of where things went wrong. This is a camera forum not a computer forum plus if I did that then this would seem just a little too much like work. ;-)

 

I think Leica was smart and didn't want to release something that was half baked.

I may take some time and reverse engineer the app protocol and pick away at all the bugs in it -- or maybe I'll just go out and shoot. ;-)

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

.... I didn't think that people here were interested in the details of DHCP ARP RARP IGMP ICMP mdns/Bonjour ...

 

None of those you mentioned above is of any interest, once you have established a connection with HTTP, provided you have reached the server you thought you have. If its really true that the web interface does not work, this most certainly qualifies as an issue, particularly seeing as that function is explained in the manual, I think.

Edited by pop
Link to post
Share on other sites

None of those you mentioned above is of any interest, once you have established a connection with HTTP, provided you have reached the server you thought you have. If its really true that the web interface does not work, this most certainly qualifies as an issue, particularly seeing as that function is explained in the manual, I think.

 

Reported to leica via technicalinfo@leicacamerausa.com on Nov 29. No response yet.

Is there a better avenue for discussing bugs and feature requests with them?

Link to post
Share on other sites

I enjoy the Leica T but I think there is room for improvement:

1) it still takes long compared to other cameras until the EVF gets activated after bringing the camera to the face. If they can not improve this time it would be nice to have a setting to switch manually betweeb EVF/screen like in the Leica X.

2) There is a short lag time after taking an image when the EVF is frozen (maybe a second). I am not sure if this can be improved. I can live with it but its definatly a minus compared to other camras.

3) When using manual lenses I would like to be able to change the function of both wheels.

 

Overall the T is really very nice to use and delivers very good IQ IMO.

I also think the lenses are good compromise between speed/size/IQ.

 

The above three points are the only ones affecting me as well. Thank goodness none of them are deal-breakers.

 

It's a great camera but I am looking forward to a few more updates. ;)

Link to post
Share on other sites

Thank you all for your comments, suggestions and other input.

Reading a couple of blogs (Luminous Landscape/Soundimageplus and other) I believe this

camera has all to become a succes.

They all praise the 2 lenses now available and I wonder how they relate to the M lenses.

Will they have the same image quality?

I ordered mine yesterday and it will arrive tomorrow.

For now I use my M lenses.

Very happy with my decision and I will post some pictures in short.

 

Dre

Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...