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M8 stucked when saving pictures


nilstgmd

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Hi,

 

For some weeks, I'm a proud owner of an awesome M8. While I'm really happy with the overall performance, there is a strange behaviour which I can not get a hand of.

 

While the actual capturing works great, the camera sometimes gets stuck while storing the images. The shutter will no work anymore, the red progress light keep blinking, turning off and on will just cause the top-display to switch off, only removing the batterie and restart will solve this weird state. The saved image will appear as damaged in Lightroom.

 

The camera has 16k activations, the battery is an original Leica one (but I guess the first), it is running the latest firmware and an 8GB SDHC is attached.

 

So far I couldn't find any similar issue when searching for a solution. So any advice is very welcome! Thanks in advance.

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Welcome to our forum.

 

There are two areas I'd consider first:

 

The camera can take pictures faster than it can store to the card. Hence, having shot a series of frames, it will not do anything but flash that red LED light for a while. I don't know anymore how long this can take but I'd suggest waiting for about twenty or thirty seconds after doing a series of shots. Others here will know better than I do.

 

The second might be the card. It might not be properly formatted. As a matter of fact, having been pulled from the camera while writing was in progress makes it much more likely that there now are formatting issues. I'd try another card first; then, I'd re-format the card using the SDFORMAT utility which can be had free of charge. Use the formatting option which actually overwrites all of the card. That will take quite some time, so don't do that when you're in a hurry to leave the house.

 

Actually, pulling the card or the battery while writing operations are going on is a very good way to introduce errors in the card which need a thorough formatting job as outlined above. It's been that way since the time of the floppy disk. Do not interrupt the writing processs unless you absolutely have to for other reasons.

 

Your problem might have other reasons, of course, but those two tips would remove the most obvious cases.

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i expierienced this kind of problems when using an aftermarket-type of battery. getting a new and original one solved the problem. so maybe the battery is just worn out-

 

but of course the M8 is not made for continous shooting. if you shoot 5 or 6 pics in a row you end up with a filled internal storingspace. this will cause long processing times of up to 2 or even 3 minutes. so be patient and don't turn of the cam or even remove the battery for this sure will kill the file it is about to store.

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Thanks both of you and you are totally right that removing the battery can introduce those issues.

 

However, even reformatting or putting in a totally new card hasn't solved it yet. It just happened again after about 15 pictures after which the preview appeared at the display and never was going away. Additionally the red LED stayed turned on and the top-display turned off.

I definitely wait long enough to write those files back, and if not there would be a display message. I waited 30 min the other day without success.

 

I was wondering if there is a way to reinstall the Firmware? Or if any other steps need to be done , in Order to come closer to a solution. How good are chances that contacting the service could  help?

 

Buying a new battery could be an option, but how possible is that it will solve The issue? 

 

Thx

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Ok, Finally I bought a new battery from the Leica Store. After charging it completely, I did some tests but immediately reproduced the issues after around 20 images.

 

I also replaced the SD-Card, formatted it appropriately and still had the issue. After that I reset all settings, installed the firmware 2.024 again and still had the issue. So I downgraded to firmware 2.014, formatted the SD Card and still had the issue.

 

Tomorrow I will visit a Leica Store...

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ok, the M8 is now on its way to Wetzlar. Keep fingers crossed.

 

An interesting side information was told me at the store: Some M8's have problems with the time battery which also could lead to such a state, but it wasn't in my case. So, if you are in a similar situation, please check that the time keeps the same and is not set to 01/01/1970.

 

I'll keep you posted on the process of my M8.

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  • 4 months later...

All, today I can finally give you an update regarding the issue.

 

After 4 month I just got my repaired M8 back. It turned out that the logic board was the cause of my issue. Leica replaced it with no cost for the part itself (would have been 1300€) and "just" billed me the working hours, 800€.

 

On the one side I'm happy to have the M8 back, on the other side that is still expensive, considersting others got refurbished M9 offers at that price range. I waited 4 month, had back-and-forth conversations with Leica since no one seemed to take notes about the actual problem, my custom leather was replaced by the default griptape and they not even offered me another M for that time (though Meister Kamera did After two month).

 

Well, I Hope that with that repair and inspection the M8 will work for another thousends of pictures. Cheers.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

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  • 2 weeks later...

800 is quite a price. it seems that leica just bills this price to anyone who sends in an M8 - no mater whats actually wrong with it. at least it is good to know that. because you wont get any better camera than a freshly serviced M8 for 800 bucks.

 

but it still ist quite a lot of money.

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