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So where is that 1.160 M9 firmware upgrade?


M. Valdemar

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Let's go, I need some excitement in my miserable life and updating firmware is a very good time-wasting little project. Where is that firmware upgrade already?

 

Enough with that silly beta testing and dawdling. Get on the stick and release it.

 

Stop futzing around. Everything with Leica takes forever.

 

How about some action here, Leica?

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It is absolutely mandatory that you stop using your M9 between now and the date of the next firmware release. The reason is, the current firmware has gone stale and hence, thunderbolt will struck you when you try shooting with it from now on. The results wouldn't be usable anyway.

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Perhaps it was a mistake to whet our appetites with the story of new firmware in "a few days". Should we substitute weeks or months? Will we notice any difference anyway?

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I heard the expiration date of the last firmware update was 05/01/2011....but mine appears to still be working..;)

 

I'll take likalar's suggestion and go paint a button while I wait.

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You assume that 1.60 will be the released version. That was the last public beta, but I am sure they are still working on it. The last rumor I have heard is it MAY be released with the June announcement.

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Let's go, I need some excitement in my miserable life and updating firmware is a very good time-wasting little project. Where is that firmware upgrade already?

 

Enough with that silly beta testing and dawdling. Get on the stick and release it.

 

Stop futzing around. Everything with Leica takes forever.

 

How about some action here, Leica?

my camera works just fine

while a firmware upgrade is welcome, I only want one that has been well tested before I upload it to my camera

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my camera works just fine

while a firmware upgrade is welcome, I only want one that has been well tested before I upload it to my camera

 

Irony doesn't always communicate itself very effectively online does it?

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Although you'll have to wait for the new firmware to get the edges done properly !

 

A black Leica dot with red and blue edging sounds kind of cool, almost retro. Better get out my airbrush :D

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IF (and that is a big "IF") Leica is planning to introduce a new M lens soon (June or otherwise) they may well hold otherwise-ready firmware until the announcement - to avoid code-peepers finding the new lens in the code.

 

It would be a pain for Leica to have to issue FW 1.16(final) now, and then deliver a 1.17 revision, including a hypothetical new lens, in 3 weeks.

 

It would also be a pain to issue FW 1.16 now, and have some user reveal next week "Oh, I found a 21 f/3.8 (or 14 f/3.8 of 75 f/1.4 APO) lens listed in the new firmware!!!"

 

Of course - it could also be that the beta users found enough bugs, or recommended enough changes - that it is simply taking a while to rewrite the code from 1.160b anyway.

 

Leica outsources the M9 code-writing to Jenoptik, and the corporate back-and-forth adds some time.

 

And - someone has to 'beta-test" the revised code to check that no new bugs were introduced during the rewrite.

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IF (and that is a big "IF") Leica is planning to introduce a new M lens soon (June or otherwise) they may well hold otherwise-ready firmware until the announcement - to avoid code-peepers finding the new lens in the code.

 

It would be a pain for Leica to have to issue FW 1.16(final) now, and then deliver a 1.17 revision, including a hypothetical new lens, in 3 weeks.

 

It would also be a pain to issue FW 1.16 now, and have some user reveal next week "Oh, I found a 21 f/3.8 (or 14 f/3.8 of 75 f/1.4 APO) lens listed in the new firmware!!!"...

 

 

Well, since all new lenses are coded and therefore have no manual code, it won't be obvious that a new lens is approaching. Someone even detected a 3.8/14mm in the present firmware.

 

Premature rumours could only cause some "pain" if they would cause harm on present sales. I don't see this.

 

On the other hand: if they had a new firmware just for a new lens, release of a second version on short notice should be no problem.

 

As I don't think, that the new firmware will bring big changements - it is just version 1.16, not 1.2 and certainly not version 2.0 - I can wait.

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"Well, since all new lenses are coded and therefore have no manual code, it won't be obvious that a new lens is approaching. Someone even detected a 3.8/14mm in the present firmware."

 

Exactly. I was not talking about the "menu" list of lenses, but the deeper hidden list of lens corrections/IDs. I'm sure Leica would have preferrred no one see the "14 f/3.8" lens until they had made their own announcement - who knows, it may have been a project they dropped, but got into the FW by mistake.

 

Every time Leica has a new firmware version, it costs them money paid out to Jenoptik. With no additional income, since they do not charge users for the updates. Therefore, it is not good business to be cranking out a new version for every little fix or change. Once a year is about what Leica can afford - so they save up the various proposed changes (including new lens data) and do them all at once, not as a dribble of 1.16, 1.161, 1.163, etc. every 3 months.

 

Email Stefan Daniel on the subject of firmware - he'll tell you that even small changes in actual operation can cause a lot of parts to move around in the FW, which is tightly written code to fit into relatively small ROM space.

 

Same reason Leica would not add a lens menu or reassign the buttons on M8s for faster ISO access - even those small changes would have required a top-to-bottom rewrite (which Leica did not want to pay for once the M8 was no longer a current product).

 

What looks simple to the user is not necessarily simple or easy (or inexpensive) for the code-writers.

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I think Leica should wait till they are ready for it, maybe internet communities get sometimes to much influence (push, push, push)..... I can still use my M9 today:D

 

Am i the only one?

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To me, it's all about expectation management: when I heard about the beta test, my assumption was that it will take months for the next version to be made available; once I read the forum newsletter, this expectation got reduced to days, which have passed since... :-((

 

Best,

Michael

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According to the contents preview of the 5/2011 issue of LFI in the current issue, it will contain an article on new Leica products introduced during the first half of 2011.

 

The next issue of LFI is scheduled to appear 22.06.2011.

 

Therefore, for the reasons expressed above, it's reasonable to expect the new software about that time.

 

Just reasonable speculation, of course. :)

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