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Leica T App Problems and Camera Lock Ups


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I have just posted a number of images from my trip to the Alpujarra Mountains in Southern Spain last week, it was terribly frustrating and I'm unsure whether some of it can be resolved.

 

I purchased the T as I have triple slipped discs in my lower spine and need to keep the weight of the camera equipment I carry down to a minimum.

 

My trip was predominately to photograph the Milky Way as the skies from my previous trips are legendary with the Milky Way always clearly visible.

 

I had a Motorised mount that I bought with me and as the T doesn't have a bulb setting my aim was to get as much light into the CCD without make the images too grainy, so I planned to shoot at around F3.8 ISO 800 for 30seconds.

 

I had set up two profiles, Profile 1 for day time photography and Profile 2 for Astrophotography.

 

The first problem was that after about 5 or 6 shots my 11/23 lens would lock up completely and the only way to reset after setting up the polar alignment and getting every perfect was to dissemble and remove the battery and restart the session, an absolute pain in the backside when it is pitch black and you are trying to make tiny adjustments without putting any white light on.

 

Anyway after having this happen a few times I gave up and went to bed. The following day I switched on the camera and discovered that the lens was flashing up "lens error" so I thought well at least I have my 18/56 to try and carry on.

 

A couple of night s later with my 18/56 fitted to attempt some more photography I was noticing that my iPhone and the T were locking up when using the remote release for the Astro stuff, typically after half a dozen shots and again you could only reset by removing the battery, so rather than mess around I switched to using a 2 sec time delay to take images using Profile 2, not the best option but at least it worked.

 

The following day when switching to Profile 1 for day time photography the screen was washed out as though the auto preview was locked to the Profile 2, indeed if I covered my hand over the lens I could see that the screen was over exposing, and yes I had set my setting down to the correct light settings on manual as that was still visible in the view finder. Again the only resolution was to do a factory reset and keep your profiles and Wi-Fi settings.

 

Now when I had a chat with Leica UK yesterday, they seemed to think that the App problems were probably as a result of the CCD getting warm after a number of images being taken as it was never Leica's intention to allow a bulb setting for probably this very reason, taking day shots without long exposures works fine but as soon as you throw long exposures into the equation the problems start.

 

With regards to switching from a long exposure profile to a more regular day time profile would seem to indicate a software issue that could probably be rectified with a firmware update.

 

Has anyone else experienced such an issue?

 

How can I report issues like this to Leica?

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I think you are possibly on to something.  I had a number of similar issues (camera lock ups requiring battery eject, visoflex and screen freezes, and some lens error issues perhaps more unique to the M-T adapter), and these did start to emerge (and persist) during nighttime photography.  My exposures were more in the vicinity of a couple of seconds, and only rarely up to 15" or 30".  But some sensor overheating could have been contributing to my issues as well.   My problems did start transferring over into day time photography, so watch out for that.  Ultimately the Leica repair center in NJ replaced the body, and I've had no major problems going forward since then.  Admittedly, I haven't been back out at night as much either, though.  While I would really like a bulb setting on a T or an M, your post has me wondering how sustainable this is.  Perhaps some other folks who have done nighttime and especially astro-photography can weigh in on this and the impacts on their camera.

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Thanks Nocturnal1

 

When I spoke to Jimmy at Leica UK yesterday, he advised that Leica never intended the cameras to be used in the true sense of the word for Bulb/long exposures, so I think the issue may lay with Leica's design not the user,he intimated that there have been issues with other models as well.

 

If so, maybe I have to start saving up for a Hasselblad X1D and lenses

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Well, that explains why Leica, which incorporated cable release threads in almost every camera they ever made and still make, decided to leave it out on the Leica T. And I was planning to do some night shooting.

Balderdash!

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Well Jimmy at Leica UK asked me to provide details of the lock-ups and errors and he will pass that onto Leica as apparently Leica don't like giving out an email address!

 

Leica have confirmed that they had to replace the Circuit Board in the 11/23 so hopefully will have that back shortly, so 1 out of 3 problems resolved, I have the feeling the other two will present some complications.

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