Xmas Posted June 17, 2011 Share #21 Posted June 17, 2011 Advertisement (gone after registration) Batteries - not brilliant, but was it really that much of a problem? I usually get about 400-500 shots from one battery unless the temperature is very low. It's possible that if the camera was in standby mode in a bag that the shutter was regularly inadvertently pressed half way, waking the camera and wasting batteries. A question - did you have any problems with ... or any other environmental factors? The temperatures in Afgan can be really low, if you are planning on a battery dependent trip, you may need to take positive steps to keep them warm.. Noel Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted June 17, 2011 Posted June 17, 2011 Hi Xmas, Take a look here M9 in the Field.. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
Guest WPalank Posted June 17, 2011 Share #22 Posted June 17, 2011 Much respect to the work you have chosen. Maybe not Afghanistan, but I found the M9 to be very rugged and useable in the field, err....bush: William Palank: Ethiopian Portraits Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobertJRB Posted June 17, 2011 Share #23 Posted June 17, 2011 Sorry for you the M9 doesn't turn out you hoped it to be. Can't really think of any better solution than always use a back up on a job, and giving it a try for some longer time on more forgiving assignments. No winking Presidents at a one of a lifetime moment, but maybe even some family shots. Also start again with the battery's like someone told before in this topic. Charge and reload it some times. My M8 battery's never last as long as those of my canon's, but I still can use them for 2 a 3 days. One thing I noticed is the short time of getting information the battery isn't 100%, and a dead camera. There's no beeb info when the battery is dead with got me pretty nervous the first time. Thought the camera was broken. When you know those "faults" you can anticipate on them. I don't really get the post above the M9 is sort of hand build ferrari with should be used professional. All the special classic hand build ferrari's were used on the track. Leica even works together with Magnum Photo's so they should be proud photographers using their camera's professional. Charles, I would send this tekst in a letter leica and ask for a response. Don't think they will change anything but can be nice to get a response whats their idea about this. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
01af Posted June 17, 2011 Share #24 Posted June 17, 2011 Thought this was a professional forum—my mistake. Your list of mistakes is quickly growing: You thought his was a professional forum. Are you serious? No camera forum on the Internet is 'professional'. Most users here are hobbyists and enthusiasts, as in any camera forum. Some are collectors, and then a few of us are pros ... but these are not here to seek professional advice but rather for the fun of it. You wrote your rant in one single paragraph. Yeah, looks very professional. While I understand that your profession is photography, not writing, you still should be able to write in a way that others can read without getting a headache ... especially when you expect them to be helpful to you. If Bill hadn't jumped in, I wouldn't have read it at all. You brought a brand-new camera to a professional assignment. That's what no seasoned photojournalist would ever do ... so don't be surprised when you get suspected being a troll rather than a pro. In the meantime I have googled 'Charles Ommanney' and guess what—that's his real name indeed. So please accept my apology for mocking about it ... but all this really seemed fishy to me at first sight (especially after having mentioned Germany's Der Stern magazine). Regarding help, advice, and thoughts—well, my M9, which I have had for 15 months now, is working just fine and reliably. But then, I've never been to Afghanistan yet. The image files it creates don't require any more post-processing as any other digital camera's. Auto white balance is a no-no with any digital camera anyway; dial in the Daylight preset and call it a day (note the pun? ) This way you'd get the same behaviour, with regard to colour rendition, as with colour slide film. Memory card compatibility is a well-known problem with the M9. Just use compatible cards, and the issue goes away. I suspect that many of the issues arise from using fake SanDisk cards. Just recently, a SanDisk engineer said in an interview that about 30 % of all SanDisk memory cards floating around in the world are counterfeit. Are you really sure your SanDisk Ultra cards are genuine? The battery capacity is significantly lower than in a pro-level Canon or Nikon DSLR, sure ... but you knew that before you left for Afghanistan. The situation still is far from 'absolutely terrible'. One battery is good for several hundred frames (including the occasional chimping), just as advertising is promising. And in stand-by mode, there is no significant drain to speak of. I switch my M9 off when I tuck it away and go to bed; when in use, it's on all day. If your camera is draining the battery in stand-by mode then off with it to Customer Service. Regarding the framelines' accuracy in the viewfinder—that's no better and no worse than it always was in most M models. As a pro who was allegedly using M6 cameras for many years, you should know that, and you should also know why that is (if not, do a forum search on this topic). The M9 is a wonderful tool for many applications but not for all. I am not saying the M9 should be the perfect photojournalist's tool for a territory like war-time Afghanistan. Maybe it's not. But as an old hand, you shouldn't have to find out the hardest way whether it matches your needs and expectations or not. As an electronic device, it sure is not quite as easy to use in a part of the world where you have access to electric power for only a few hours per week. Use it for lighter assignments for a while and let it grow on you. Stop using auto white balance (you didn't use that on your M6, did you?), get a couple of good memory cards, have the battery drain problem fixed, and get used to the way a rangefinder's framelines work—then maybe you'll get friends with the M9 eventually. Or maybe not ... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pico Posted June 17, 2011 Share #25 Posted June 17, 2011 I took one 16gb Sandisk Extreme Pro with me and two Sandisk 16gb Ultra 2's and guess what neither of the Ultra's would work (images simply vanished) after about frame 6 (and yes of course I tested and formatted them fully before leaving but not over a couple of frames). Leica recommends the Extreme Pro and makes no claims for other SD cards. Regardless, I wonder if your failed cards might be counterfeits. They seem to behave like counterfeits. I cannot comment competently upon the battery problem because I don't do the kind of work you do (and do so well.) And welcome back home. It is good to know you are safe, at least for now. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ommanney Posted June 17, 2011 Author Share #26 Posted June 17, 2011 Thanks everyone for all your responses - All taken in - I have only been back a few days after a grueling 27hrs of flying to get out of there so I guess I should say sorry if my 'rant' was not very legible to some - I have to say to the member 01-AF I cannot for the life of me understand why you would be frankly a bit abrasive - I am sorry if in some way you took offense to my post personally? Why would I say someone I am not? I would never 'attack' someone on a web forum the way you did? Very strange to me. Oh wellAgain Thx Charles Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pop Posted June 17, 2011 Share #27 Posted June 17, 2011 Advertisement (gone after registration) ... member 01-AF I cannot for the life of me understand why you would be frankly a bit abrasive Don't take it personal. It's his way of posting. He's one of the resources in this forum when it comes to factual things or things related to numbers, units and measures. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
01af Posted June 17, 2011 Share #28 Posted June 17, 2011 I have to say to the member 01af I cannot for the life of me understand why you would be frankly a bit abrasive—I am sorry if in some way you took offense to my post personally? No, I didn't take any personal offense; no apology required from your side. It's just that I got the initial impression, for various reasons, that there was a troll posting. But now I see I was wrong. Sorry again. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wildlightphoto Posted June 17, 2011 Share #29 Posted June 17, 2011 ... Why would I say someone I am not? Unfortunately it happens on internet forums often enough that some are suspicious of a new "voice" on a forum. Glad you're back safely & I hope your issues with the M9 are worked out to your satisfaction, one way or another. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JATA Posted June 17, 2011 Share #30 Posted June 17, 2011 Hey Charles, I couldn't agree more with your views on the M9. I've sent you a private message expanding on this. What a shame people get so defensive about an electronic device, and feel they have to insult others who have a genuine real world point of view...is it to cover up some sort of inadequacy, I wonder how their pictures compare....I'm sure they don't. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamie Roberts Posted June 17, 2011 Share #31 Posted June 17, 2011 One thing I wrote to Charles O. and have confirmed that is a problem with the M9 (at least my M9--even after the firmware upgrade) is this: 1) turn camera on 2) press shutter button before the full second it take for the camera to come on 3) camera is now "locked" from shooting for several, long seconds as it un-confuses itself from initial fast shutter request. That's not nice if you're grabbing and shooting. Having said that, after the firmware update, the camera itself seems to turn on faster than before, just like Charles reported; it's only a second to shoot but you can still beat that time and confuse the camera. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter H Posted June 17, 2011 Share #32 Posted June 17, 2011 Hey Charles, I couldn't agree more with your views on the M9. I've sent you a private message expanding on this. What a shame people get so defensive about an electronic device, and feel they have to insult others who have a genuine real world point of view...is it to cover up some sort of inadequacy, I wonder how their pictures compare....I'm sure they don't. Since most people seem to agree that there are some things an M9 does supremely well and others it doesn't do very well at all, it seems equally immoderate, not to say foolish, to praise it as the perfect camera, or to call it terrible. And since either view is equally extreme, neither really deserves much of a defense, except against rudeness. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaapv Posted June 17, 2011 Share #33 Posted June 17, 2011 I managed to replicate that one with the new firmware. In retrospect it has happened to me before. Not being a PJ, it did not strike me at the time. It is highly surprising it has not cropped up in the forum before. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
denoir Posted June 17, 2011 Share #34 Posted June 17, 2011 Hmm, strange. I can't replicate it. It takes the shot immediately. That's actually a big improvement over the previous version. However if I directly after the first shot turn it off and then turn it on and press the shutter - while it's still writing to the SD card - then it locks up for 2-3 seconds. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest raoul1 Posted June 17, 2011 Share #35 Posted June 17, 2011 Charles is right. Batteries, frame lines, turn on delay, rear screen, and indeed the white balance which is every time different...and so on. He did not even mentioned the ISO issue, and the slowness of the camera. It's what I wrote here several times: the M9 is a camera for amateurs. Not for professionals who have to work quick, and can't spend too much time in post processing, which is indeed necessary if you have a M9. I worked with several M's. Since Leica went digital most of its advantages are gone. Sure, it is small, light, and the lenses are great ( but not that greater as for example Zeiss lenses, or equal). But the camera? Indeed, often a pain in the ass. I missed several pictures because of the slow buffer, while others just went on, I always have to spend more time on pp, until you get so tired of it that you decide not to use it any longer. For professionals who have to work each day in several light conditions, who have to work fast sometimes, who have to pp quick before they send their work to the agencies, newspapers or magazines, the Leica is no longer the right tool. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sblitz Posted June 17, 2011 Share #36 Posted June 17, 2011 is this digilloyd posting? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaapv Posted June 17, 2011 Share #37 Posted June 17, 2011 Strange to see then that there are several serious professionals responding here and are having a good discussion with Charles without aggro. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest raoul1 Posted June 17, 2011 Share #38 Posted June 17, 2011 Strange to see then that there are several serious professionals responding here and are having a good discussion with Charles without aggro. Here is Jaap again. Well allright, answer this: is the M9 fast? Is the buffer fast? Is the rear screen very good? The white balance stable? The dynamic range very good? The high ISO performance as good as, let's say the D3? Things that can be asked concerning the price of the camera, I should say. Don't trouble yourself. All answers are: no. Therefore Charles is right. And one does not have to experience it in Afgh. For any photojournalist the M9 is in a lot of cases a bad tool. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lindolfi Posted June 17, 2011 Share #39 Posted June 17, 2011 Jamie, just did some tests, but when I use my right index finger to turn the camera on and move as quickly as I can to the release button, the camera exposes fast and correctly. No confusion, but function. (firmware 1.162) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ho_co Posted June 17, 2011 Share #40 Posted June 17, 2011 I'm also among those curious about the M9's inaccurate finder frames. They're supposedly the same as those in the film cameras, though the finder has lower magnification. What lenses were you using, Charles? External finders? 135/3.4 or f/4? I'm sorry for the problems you experienced, particularly for the bad taste the camera clearly left. But I'm sorrier for the people who decided to attack you rather than consider the issues you raised. I'm glad that you have enough interest in the camera to mention its performance here. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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