Leica M9p glitch

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The battery won't be fully conditioned yet, so it may not last long, but that doesn't explain the red light coming on when the camera is switched off.

 

If nothing else is causing the problem, like a faulty card, then the camera must be faulty. The difficulty is that nothing will be learned by comparing a Leica to a Canon and expecting it to behave in the same way. If your Canon battery lasts all day, it doesn't mean anything significant to explain your problem if the Leica battery doesn't last all day. It is a smaller battery. Likewise running your card to the very last image and then having it lock up doesn't mean anything because in that case you are the cause, not the card or camera. The camera can only estimate the amount of space left but it doesn't know what the next image will require in terms of memory. You give it an impossible task.

 

So, try a new card, and just use your battery normally, then send it back if it keeps failing.

 

 

Steve

[Hanson Leatherby]

Actually, as reported on this forum a number of times, some M9s blink briefly the red LED in the back when the shutter is pressed while camera is switched off. Others don't.

 

Leica seems to ignore this, even when you send in your camera for repair (primarily other issues) as I did. In general, folks seem to have stopped worrying about this.

 

K-H.

 

this seems rather worrying to me that some leicas have an active buffer light when the power switch is off and some, (the majority) dont, and customers after spending five grand should be happy wth this. I have been told by a reputable london leica dealer that the digital m system should not have power to the camera when the power switch is off. How can there purposefully be two types of activity in different cameras with the switch turned to off? There must be a correct and single design and it makes perfect sense that off means off. With a camera that has a flickering memory card light with shutter pressed with the camera off is causing unwanted activity and battery drain, which could be occuring in transit.

[IkarusJohn]

I've noticed that "Off" on the M9 doesn't not mean off right now, nor does it mean that on most other equipment with lots of electronics. My car, for instance, does lots of things after I take out the key and lock it.

 

Thorsten leaves his M9 turned on all the time, if I recall correctly (he also doesn't use lens caps - I'm far too anal to do that). I find that if I do that, I forget to touch the shutter release early enough to wake the camera up as I lift it, and I then lose pictures because I'm too slow. I do also try to take pictures with it turned off, so there is no logic to this.

 

I tend to turn the camera off between shots. It's automatic, dating from my first cameras with batteries. I've noticed that when I take a picture, and turn the camera off, the red buffer LED keeps flashing until the camera has finished writing to the card. The LCD screen can also stay on for a moment while the camera finishes whatever it was doing.

 

The buffer can hold 7 shots (couldn't find confirmation of this in the manual), so if you're in the habit of firing off lots of images in C mode, conceivably it may take a while to write, and so the light may keep flashing for some time after you turn the camera off.

 

I do find the camera will turn itself on in the bag (it does in my little Billingham Combination).

 

Cheers

John

[Hanson Leatherby]

I realise that the camera off switch will allow the camera to finish operations beforw everything shuts down. However my camera simply had an actve light at all times when the camera was off, which would cause the camera to freeze when the camera wad turned on. I have just got a replacement m9p in chrome directly from leica. And i must say the service was very good. However i still have some issues. I have in my leica collection a black leica m9, a chrome m9p, and a single stroke m3.

Regarding the m9 and the m9p, the cameras will allow me to shoot on the memory card when there is one frame left, but then freeze. I would then have to pull the battery, and the image shot would be lost. I cant use the final frame in any of my cards on both cameras. I also pulled the memory card, and then tried to fire the last frame shot off on the camera and managed to fire two even though before it would fire only one shot and then freeze. When it fired two it froze, i pulled the battery and then reset the camera to find that the memory card is corrupt.

Also my new battery that came with the replacement camera only charges in one of my two leica m9 chargers even though my other leica battery charges in both chargers!!

I love leica but this is one annoying glitch after another, and it seems like the digital side of the camera is problematic

[Hanson Leatherby]

mean anything[/i] significant to explain your problem if the Leica battery doesn't last all day. It is a smaller battery. Likewise running your card to the very last image and then having it lock up doesn't mean anything because in that case you are the cause, not the card or camera. The camera can only estimate the amount of space left but it doesn't know what the next image will require in terms of memory. You give it an impossible task.

 

 

 

Steve

 

i was making comparisons of battery life from one pro camera to another in terms of design for practical use. Im sure nikon, olympus, canon or any other company has very similiar expectations of battery life, from their customers.

Also i dont know any camera that tells you that you have a certain number of shots left on your memory card, but is not accurate in this figure and blames it on the user if they continue to fire. It should be fail safe. It should tell you how many shots you have left, let you fire to that final shot, and then after prevent you from firing, whilst giving you a memory full reading in the viewfinder.