Button customisation not working as expected

[wlaidlaw]

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Customisation of controls does not seem to be working as expected. I want to change the front function button from the standard Greycard function to Drive Mode. 

I go into the setup menu and then controls. I check that customise buttons is on. Then I go to the FN button on the menu, which is currently, as expected, showing "Greycard". I push on the control wheel, which then brings up a menu of alternatives for this button, I roll down to "Drive Mode" and push the roller to select it. I come out of the setup menu but then go back in and check to see that "Drive Mode" comes up when I look at what the function button does and it does - so far so good. However when I now am in still capture mode, I press the function button and it still takes a greycard image and resets the WB to Greycard and does not bring up the Drive Mode menu.

Why does what I am trying to do not work and what am I doing wrong?

 

Wilson

[Manoleica]

Hi, I know it's annoying but have you tried a Reset? - then an Off, battery out & then In and Restart.. The customization of buttons seems a very complicated and torturous task..

Regards, L. 

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[ramarren]

Customisation of controls does not seem to be working as expected. I want to change the front function button from the standard Greycard function to Drive Mode. 

I go into the setup menu and then controls. I check that customise buttons is on. Then I go to the FN button on the menu, which is currently, as expected, showing "Greycard". I push on the control wheel, which then brings up a menu of alternatives for this button, I roll down to "Drive Mode" and push the roller to select it. I come out of the setup menu but then go back in and check to see that "Drive Mode" comes up when I look at what the function button does and it does - so far so good. However when I now am in still capture mode, I press the function button and it still takes a greycard image and resets the WB to Greycard and does not bring up the Drive Mode menu.

Why does what I am trying to do not work and what am I doing wrong?

 

Wilson

 

I'm not sure. I have the FN button set to exposure compensation now. I went in through the setup menu, then used the joystick to pilot to customize buttons, set the FN button to Drive Mode. I pressed the joystick, that takes me back to the customize buttons screen, that lets me see that FN -> Drive Mode is set. I half-press the shutter release to exit the menu. Pressing FN brings up the Drive Mode menu. 

 

I did the same thing to switch it back to exposure compensation using the click-wheel, closing the sequence by pressing the shutter release half way. That worked too. 

 

Be sure when you jump into customize control, short cuts that you don't accidentally press the click wheel or joystick ... the first item is the "Customize Buttons" on/off toggle, which is a direct setting. Accidentally clicking either control will set the customizations off. 

 

...

I don't find customizing button settings complicated at all, not after some cameras where it took me hours just to figure out the sequence and they were scattered through four menus and submenus. Menu -> Setup panel -> scroll to Customize Control and click -> Short Cuts and click ... Now set your assignments. Each customizable button (there are six in all) is listed there with a submenu to pick the setting you want. The only issue I see is that they put the master "customize buttons" item first and "reset all settings" second, where I would have put them as the last two items to help prevent accidentally hitting them. 

 

I haven't found a need to do a master Reset on the SL yet. 

Edited November 24, 2015 by ramarren

[wlaidlaw]

Hi, I know it's annoying but have you tried a Reset? - then an Off, battery out & then In and Restart.. The customization of buttons seems a very complicated and torturous task..

Regards, L. 

A bit like ctrl-alt-delete on a Windoze computer 

 

Wilson

[scott kirkpatrick]

Reading about the logical depth and complexity of the manual and the differences in results when you do the same thing (customize a button) makes me think my Olympus M-1 and M-5's are not so complicated after all.  But I dimly recall there was a learning curve there, too.  And I have had to use "reset to defaults" to chase down hardware problems in them.

 

scott

Edited November 24, 2015 by scott kirkpatrick

[wlaidlaw]

Ctrl-Alt-Delete worked. This time I customised the FN button with the joystick rather than the control wheel. This time when I press the FN button, I get Drive Mode as I want. Electronic glitch I assume. The annoying thing is that I have had to re-enter my copyright info and all the other little tweaks I had done for my Profile 1. I had forgotten that after entering the copyright information, you have to press the lower right button to retain it. Does the manual tell us this - of course it doesn't. The manual really is a steaming heap of poo. 

 

Wilson

[wlaidlaw]

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The interesting thing is that the reset has also cured the SL not reconnecting to the app, without setting up again via the QR. Leica electronic glitches still rule.

 

On the app front, am I correct that this does not have an intervalometer for time lapse photography? If this is correct a slightly disappointing omission. The computer app for the Digilux 2 had this 10 years ago. 

 

Wilson

[thighslapper]

Hi, I know it's annoying but have you tried a Reset? - then an Off, battery out & then In and Restart.. The customization of buttons seems a very complicated and torturous task..

Regards, L. 

 ??  ........ it's actually very simple from the Customise Control Menu ........ it's just getting the choice and setup right that takes a bit of head-scratching  ....... I now have a fixed arrangement that suits my need and I suspect it will not change.

 

Four User Profiles that do almost everything I would want (Auto, Manual, HDR, Timer) and just a few things on the favourites menu.

 

I have hardly accessed the main menus at all in the last week......

[ramarren]

The interesting thing is that the reset has also cured the SL not reconnecting to the app, without setting up again via the QR. Leica electronic glitches still rule.

 

On the app front, am I correct that this does not have an intervalometer for time lapse photography? If this is correct a slightly disappointing omission. The computer app for the Digilux 2 had this 10 years ago. 

 

I've found in the past that when I'm learning a camera, I try so many different options and settings that I "confuse" the configuration from time to time, which is why a reset usually fixes everything. What I'm surprised at with the SL is that I've tried nearly every still feature now and I still haven't needed to do a reset. I reset my Olympus E-M1 at least three dozen times in the course of learning experimentations...

 

I don't know about the app, but the SL has intervalometer recording built in. See page 238 in the English section of the manual. I'm pretty sure you can just set it up on the camera and use the app to trigger it. 

 

G

[jonoslack]

Hmmmm. I wonder. Firmware 1.1 was pretty late (after most cameras were made), and I'd learned to do a reset after firmware installation (hold down left silver button on top plate together with top right on the back and switch off).

 

perhaps yours missed out on the Ctrl-alt-del?

[wlaidlaw]

 ??  ........ it's actually very simple from the Customise Control Menu ........ it's just getting the choice and setup right that takes a bit of head-scratching  ....... I now have a fixed arrangement that suits my need and I suspect it will not change.

 

...but it was not working. The text changed on the menu but the button function did not. I also tried with other buttons than the front button. Although the menu said the button function had changed, when you pressed it, you found it had not. This has all been sorted by the reset, so there was obviously a problem. 

[ramarren]

...but it was not working. The text changed on the menu but the button function did not. I also tried with other buttons than the front button. Although the menu said the button function had changed, when you pressed it, you found it had not. This has all been sorted by the reset, so there was obviously a problem. 

 

I suspect the preferences file was just corrupted, causing the problem. Reset should clear them and write fresh defaults. That's all, not really a big deal. 

[wlaidlaw]

 That's all, not really a big deal. 

I am not sure that it is not. This sort of thing is "par for the course" with Leica digital cameras but a very rare event on others. I suspect it is indicative of less than well written code with dead ends in the programming, instead of auto-reset sub routines or self correction sub routines. A few years ago the computer bureau I was using for my business software, running on  IBM 34 and 36 mini-computers (actually about the size of a small car), started to charge me what I thought were excessive fees, during an exercise to become semi-paper free. I decided therefore, to learn RPG2 and 3 programming, so that I could check what they were doing and asking me to pay through the nose for. I ended up doing a lot of the small tweaks myself and correcting some of the bureau's errors. I found how it is essential that you put escape tunnels into routines, so that if the routine does not run as expected or loops, the system does not freeze or crash. 

 

Wilson

[scott kirkpatrick]

I am not sure that it is not. This sort of thing is "par for the course" with Leica digital cameras but a very rare event on others. I suspect it is indicative of less than well written code ...

 

Wilson

 

I agree.  When problems in running a routine through one interface leave damage behind, the answer is not just to go to the interface that seems to work, but to ask why the first method didn't exit properly.  It would be helpful to document this as solid reproducible bug so that it can be attacked properly.

 

scott

[Peter Walker]

I am amazed by the ability of some of these forum threads to take a minor issue, that could well have been caused by an inexperienced user, and talk it up over the next couple of posts into a major gripe about quality issues in Leica's build processes...

[wlaidlaw]

I am amazed by the ability of some of these forum threads to take a minor issue, that could well have been caused by an inexperienced user, and talk it up over the next couple of posts into a major gripe about quality issues in Leica's build processes...

I have been using Leica digital cameras for over 16 years, including weirdos like the original Digital S1 archival camera, so hardly an inexperienced user. If the menu says that the function has been changed but the button retains its previous function, that is not down to experience or finger trouble it is an error. I am equally  amazed that you think that this is minor. This is the whole heart of the SL camera and I have reported it to Wetzlar as an error and a serious one at that. 

[Peter H]

I am amazed by the ability of some of these forum threads to take a minor issue, that could well have been caused by an inexperienced user, and talk it up over the next couple of posts into a major gripe about quality issues in Leica's build processes...

 

I don't know whether this is a case of completely missing the target, or just choosing the wrong target in the first place.

[ramarren]

I am amazed by the ability of some of these forum threads to take a minor issue, that could well have been caused by an inexperienced user, and talk it up over the next couple of posts into a major gripe about quality issues in Leica's build processes...

 

 

I have been using Leica digital cameras for over 16 years, including weirdos like the original Digital S1 archival camera, so hardly an inexperienced user. If the menu says that the function has been changed but the button retains its previous function, that is not down to experience or finger trouble it is an error. I am equally  amazed that you think that this is minor. This is the whole heart of the SL camera and I have reported it to Wetzlar as an error and a serious one at that. 

 

Sorry, Wilson and Peter H, but I completely agree with peterbkk on this.

 

I've had the exact same problems (configuration preferences corruption requiring a camera reset) occur on Nikon, Canon, Pentax, Panasonic, Olympus, Ricoh, Konica Minolta, and Sony cameras during the period of time when I was mucking about with settings repeatedly and learning the camera. It's absolutely no different from what I have seen with my Leica X2, X typ 113, M9, and M-P typ 240 cameras. 

 

Putting Leica on a pedestal and requiring that they should never have these kinds of problems is an unrealistic expectation. They are minor problems, pretty normal for most software—look at iOS, Android, Windows, and OS X consumer software: corrupted app preferences account for a huge percentage of the support call volume. Getting all bent out of shape about it is unwarranted. 

[wlaidlaw]

I have never had to do a reset on any of my other digital cameras let alone have to keep popping the battery out to unfreeze like I have on Leica digitals, other than the ones made by Panasonic. This was also on the first attempt to customise buttons and it did not work, as otherwise I had just been using the camera in the "as delivered" configuration. Therefore I had not been messing about in the deep reaches of the menu system but only trying to do what the whole SL is about - customisation of controls and setting of profiles.

 

I have in the meanwhile found something else that is not working properly - renaming of profiles. Try naming a profile say DNG A and see how many tries it takes to get the camera to accept this. There is something funny going on with the space bar. As far as I can see, you have to put in three spaces and then one backspace, before you can write the A of DNG A, whereas you should just be able to enter D N G Space A then push OK. This is not robust programming or as I suspect, I may have a rogue camera. 

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[ramarren]

I've never had to do the "popping battery out" business on *any* camera, Leicas included. I have had to do repeated resets on all of them except the SL, so far. Different experiences. I did reset the SL completely after I took it out of the box and fitted the battery; I do that with every camera and computer... 

 

The user setting naming stuff is quirky for sure. Why so few characters? But so far I've only created one profile—named RLens—and that worked fine. I'll name the next one "SLLns" as it will be for setups with the 24-90, where I'm pretty sure I'll want different button/favorites menu assignments for OIS and AF usage. 

 

I try to keep it simple.   

Edited November 25, 2015 by ramarren