Two M-9 Questions: "Info" screen & Battery condition indicator.

[RonM]

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I am just learning to use my new-to-me M9.  I am using older, uncoded lenses, but I have saved the suggested user profiles for my 50mm Summilux, 35mm Biogon, and 28mm Elmarit.   I select the appropriate profile for the lens that I mount, but I find that the "info" screen seems to always show the lens as "35/f2.0."  This happens if the Menu's "Lens Detection" is set either to Off or Manual.   Is this correct, or am I not setting up something properly?

 

Also I am finding that soon after the battery condition indicator is at 25%, the battery gets low enough to give the low battery warning and turn off the camera.  This is true with the two Leica batteries I have.   Firmware is 1.176.  Again, is this normal operation?

 

Thanks for any help that can be offered.   Having had an M-3 MANY years ago, and an M-8 about 7-8 years ago, I find that it isn't taking too much of a learning curve to come up to speed on the basic operation of the M-9, but would like to clear up these two quirks.

[pico]

For what it is worth, the most recent firmware for the M9 is 1.202, available for download here.

 

I have the M9 and latest firmware and cannot duplicate your problem.

.

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[RonM]

Thanks,  I will have to try updating the firmware.

[nelly]

I have manually coded many lenses on my M9 in the software and never had this issue

No problems in Firmware 1.176 and 1.196

I have not bothered with the 1.202 update as I thought that was just to include some new lens profiles but no other helpful changes.

Both my Batteries do not behave like yours either. Draining normally

Although I try to never let my batteries drain too low before switching them out

Hope you manage to resolve your problem.

[jaapv]

Drain your  batteries as low as they will go by setting autoshutoff to off and let the camera sit with the LCD switched on until fully drained. That will reset the battery calibration.

[MaDeVa]

I never had such problem with my M-E (firmware 1.202) but recently the battery level did not go more than 75% (from info on the camera) even if regularly charged up to 100% (according to the led indication of the charger).

I tried the procedure indicated by jaapv but it didn't work.

As I have sent my camera to Leica Italia for sensor cleaning (and checking for corrosion), they also wanted the charger and the battery for checking if the problem is on any of them or on the camera.

Edited June 9, 2015 by MaDeVa

[Joakim]

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Also I am finding that soon after the battery condition indicator is at 25%, the battery gets low enough to give the low battery warning and turn off the camera.  This is true with the two Leica batteries I have.   Firmware is 1.176.  Again, is this normal operation?

I have pretty much the same experience and I always try to change battery as soon as it gets down to 25% just to be safe.

[RonM]

I tried doing a re-set of the camera's controls, and that appears to have cleared up the "info" menu anomaly.  It is a bit tedious to have to re-do the lens info, so I will also have to be sure to keep a charged battery in the camera, to prevent the internal memory battery from going dead if the camera is not used for a while!  Will save time later on.

 

I will have to wait and see if there is any change to the battery status and life, but I will try Jaap's suggestion of draining the battery as completely as possible.

[adan]

The M9 battery sensor/indicator is definitely not perfectly linear at the low end.

 

It is very common on both my cameras that I can take 200+ pictures with the first 5/8ths of the battery, reach the "3/8ths" mark, and get the "battery low" shutdown within another 25 shots or so. They've been doing that all along, (as did the very first demo camera I tried on 9/10/2009), and through various firmware versions. I've just learned to swap batteries as soon as the indicator drops below 50%.

 

(There was one firmware update 2-3 years ago that specifically addressed improved battery management with aging batteries, but that solved a different problem (lock-ups and banded images) and didn't change the low-end (in)accuracy.)

 

"Calibration" as jaap suggests is somewhat controversial with Li-ion batteries. Depends on whether they are in cameras, lap-tops or phones, and whether they are "smart" batteries with a control chip (and just how "smart"). Truly discharging a Li-ion to zero will damage or destroy it - but therefore most devices have a safety factor built into the indicator system (device, or battery's own chip) to prevent an actual complete discharge.

 

The ideal way to charge a Li-ion is to keep it topped up - charge whenever possible, even if it is only down to 80% or so.

[RonM]

Thanks for the information, Adan.  I know I can't rely totally on the battery indication, but I was curious as to whether this operation was "normal" for the M-9, and apparently it is.  I will look to change out batteries at about the 40-50% level to be sure.  At least I do have three of them!  (All Leica OEM.)