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M9 Black frame


vladik

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In 15 month of using M9 this occured about 6 times: the shutter fires but it does not soud normal. The frame is compleatly black. In play and info it indicates the shutter speed and all the usual info but no histogram or immage. Has anyone on this forum experienced same error? Previous and next exposures are mormal.

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If I were you I would pick a time when I didn't need the camera for a couple of weeks and make an appointment with CS Solms to check out the shutter.

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In 15 month of using M9 this occured about 6 times: the shutter fires but it does not soud normal. The frame is compleatly black. In play and info it indicates the shutter speed and all the usual info but no histogram or immage. Has anyone on this forum experienced same error? Previous and next exposures are mormal.

 

Happens to mine every now and then, too. Doesn´t seem to be correlated with battery status, but whenever it happens, it´s always just after waking the camera from sleep in a hurry to get a shot. It misses the first one (producing an all-black image), but from then on everything´s OK.

 

Suppose it´s some sub-system that takes a few milliseconds more to wake up than the rest of the camera. The obvious remedy: wake it up as soon as there´s a chance a shot MIGHT be developing.

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M8 used to have an issue that if you fired a shot very quickly when the meter had passivated, then the exposure used would be the last metered exposure before the meter passivated. Possibly something similar is happening here, I have learned to tap the shutter obsessively to keep the meter alive when I'm shooting...

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I had a black frame just once, and because of that never could work out what caused it. It may have been something to do with switching the camera on and off then making a quick exposure.

 

Steve

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I’ve had my M9 for 6 weeks now and I have to admit I love it but I too have been getting black frames. The fact that you have posted this thread, in a strange way, makes me feel better as it looks like this could be a problem with most M9s. I realise now that I get the black frames when I grab the camera from under my arm and try and fire off a shot really quickly. This is the one thing that I’m taking time getting used to as I have spent the last 6 years shooting street scenes with an MP and before that 4 years with an M6TTL. With these cameras sneaking a super fast shot of someone right in front of them has always, till now, been easy. I’m now realising that I have to keep the camera ready, my auto power off is set to 10 minutes which for most of the time is fine but I must admit I have missed the ‘decisive moment’ a few times in the last month and that’s a ‘bit’ frustrating. Last night I shot 40 frames and found 3 that were black, the strange thing is I was using a Summicron 35 and in the meta data it says that the aperture shot was f1.0 & f1.7 and didn’t know what lens was attached even though I hadn’t touched the iso or removed the lens. Does anyone leave the auto power off set to ‘OFF’? and if so do you find the battery just disappears in no time?

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I’ve had my M9 for 6 weeks now and I have to admit I love it but I too have been getting black frames. The fact that you have posted this thread, in a strange way, makes me feel better as it looks like this could be a problem with most M9s. I realise now that I get the black frames when I grab the camera from under my arm and try and fire off a shot really quickly. This is the one thing that I’m taking time getting used to as I have spent the last 6 years shooting street scenes with an MP and before that 4 years with an M6TTL. With these cameras sneaking a super fast shot of someone right in front of them has always, till now, been easy. I’m now realising that I have to keep the camera ready, my auto power off is set to 10 minutes which for most of the time is fine but I must admit I have missed the ‘decisive moment’ a few times in the last month and that’s a ‘bit’ frustrating. Last night I shot 40 frames and found 3 that were black, the strange thing is I was using a Summicron 35 and in the meta data it says that the aperture shot was f1.0 & f1.7 and didn’t know what lens was attached even though I hadn’t touched the iso or removed the lens. Does anyone leave the auto power off set to ‘OFF’? and if so do you find the battery just disappears in no time?

 

Yes, I turn off my Auto-Power-Off, and yes, the battery does drain quicker. But I prefer that to missing shots, which had happened to me once or twice.

 

I also set the self-timer to OFF, because twice I missed shots when I'd accidentally moved the switch round to the far position and not realised until after I'd pressed the shutter release and nothing happened......for a long time.....and then it did.

 

OK, I know I'm stupid, but at least I'm trying to fight it!

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  • 4 weeks later...
In 15 month of using M9 this occured about 6 times: the shutter fires but it does not soud normal. The frame is compleatly black. In play and info it indicates the shutter speed and all the usual info but no histogram or immage. Has anyone on this forum experienced same error? Previous and next exposures are mormal.

 

Also mine. I contacted Leica, and they suggested I send my M9 in for inspection, which I did. The technician indicated that there are two errors to differentiate. If the image file is normal size, all data present, but black, then it points to shutter, if the file is small, then there is an electrical component likely to be at fault. Anyway, Solms did not find a fault (my black files are normal size). No parts used (they did adjust the rangefinder, which was slightly off at infinity).

 

I am able to generate the error myself after 60 to 200+ frames (usually at least 200 or so....twice I have shot a series of 2-300 images, generating the error at least once in each series). After 6000 shots in total with the camera, it has happened about 20 times (plus minus a handfull). The behavior (when it happens) is so repeatable (same sound....a whirring noise, not the usual multi-stage cocking of the shutter, frame before and afterwards always OK etc). It is so repeatable (the symptoms) that I suspect a firmware control issue (as opposed to something mechanical getting stuck).

 

It is not due to the camera waking up (I don't use power save), or the white balance bug in earlier firmware..search forum on "black frame white balance"..I have the latest FW, or rapid shooting, or memory card, or battery (all excluded).

 

It's not critical, but would be nice to solve the issue at some point. Sounds like it is not isolated to my camera (which sort of makes me feel better too :).

 

Mark

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I had this happen just once since Nov 2009. The shutter made a strange noise and the frame was black. Has not happened again, and it is not going to cause me to send the camera in.

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Happened to me yesterday!. Thought I had done the classic "lens cap on" scenerio...but no all was set up correctly.

Took the battery out and replaced it and all was ok...shutter did sound louder than normal on the "black" shot however.:o

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It just happened to me yesterday and today. I was shooting in normal mode, taking photos every few minutes, when the weird sound ( not the usual shutter click ) and then black frame. As if its skipped or something. Then again today the same thing. This is starting to get worrisome.

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It occasionally happens on my M9 as well.

 

One scenario is described already by several folks here, post #5, 8 ,12.

 

The other was when it was around 0 Celsius temperature and I shot 7 shots at a time with bracketing on.

The M9 does all 7 shots automatically. I had to press the shutter only once. I saw repeatedly a series of black frames intermittently. No cap on, battery nearly full.

 

When I get black frames, the shutter sound is definitely different from normal non-faulty shots.

 

K-H.

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