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My experience with the M240 - with some negative points


nik_nik9

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Thank you John. That's the first time anyone has explained this properly: I was under the impression that the wake-up tap took a couple of seconds to take effect. But since it doesn't, virtually the whole problem is removed.

 

I'm very grateful and relieved!

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Wilson

 

For those of us still without any direst experience of the M, would you be able to answer the simple question that everyone else seems to be avoiding please?

 

Does the long (2-3 seconds) start-up time apply only when starting from "Off", or also when waking the camera from standby? How does it compare with the M9 in this respect, which seems much quicker? This could be a very important consideration.

 

Many thanks.

 

Peter,

 

Using my trusty old Tick-a-Tick digital Timex stop watch (all my fancy Oregon rally timers' batteries have gone flat), I make the times as follows. It would be much more accurate with two people doing it but it should give an idea. Times are to shutter firing.

 

Power Up - LV on 2.82 secs

Power Up - LV off 2.48 secs

Wake Up - LV on 2.42 secs

Wake Up - LV off 0.5 secs

 

So it would appear that if the LV is set to on, there is very little difference between Power Up and Wake Up from stand-by. If the LV is set to off the last time the camera was used, it feels that the shutter fires almost immediately on pressing the shutter button from stand-by.

 

Wilson

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So it would appear that if the LV is set to on, there is very little difference between Power Up and Wake Up from stand-by. If the LV is set to off the last time the camera was used, it feels that the shutter fires almost immediately on pressing the shutter button from stand-by.

 

For my purposes, anyway, this is all that matters. Which makes this a complete non-issue for me. I would be surprised if the lag when turning the camera from "off" to "on" is really an issue for most photographers most of the time. You are more likely to miss a shot from being inattentive to your surroundings than you are because of a 2.5 second shutter lag after turning your camera on. Honestly, the camera is probably ready to shoot faster than most people can get it to their eye and get it focused accurately on the subject.

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Peter,

 

Using my trusty old Tick-a-Tick digital Timex stop watch (all my fancy Oregon rally timers' batteries have gone flat), I make the times as follows. It would be much more accurate with two people doing it but it should give an idea. Times are to shutter firing.

 

Power Up - LV on 2.82 secs

Power Up - LV off 2.48 secs

Wake Up - LV on 2.42 secs

Wake Up - LV off 0.5 secs

 

So it would appear that if the LV is set to on, there is very little difference between Power Up and Wake Up from stand-by. If the LV is set to off the last time the camera was used, it feels that the shutter fires almost immediately on pressing the shutter button from stand-by.

 

Wilson

 

That sounds right to me. In normal use, with LV not on, it takes half of a second to come to life. The Decisive Moment may have come and gone in that time, but it's pretty quick!

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I think there is a misunderstanding here. Yes, there's a lag after switching the camera on. But if you leave it on, and go out on the street, and tap the shutter as you are bringing it to your eye, there is no lag. You just activate the shutter with a gentle tap of your finger.

 

If you walk around with the camera turned off, of course there's a brief interval after you turn it on before you can take a picture. But that's why one should keep the camera turned on when taking pictures; it may sleep if you don't use it, but it wakes instantly. At least that's my experience, with the M9 and the M240.

 

Okay, thanks. I understood it as from standby/sleep mode from some of the reviews I read. So seems about same as M9.

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We have moved on a long way from the Contax TVS Digital, which I got after my Digilux 1 was stolen. The TVS-D took over 10 seconds from power on to ready. I got one trade price from Contax UK, so was not going to look a gift horse in the mouth, while I was waiting for the Digilux 2 to come out.

 

Wilson

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Okay, thanks. I understood it as from standby/sleep mode from some of the reviews I read. So seems about same as M9.

 

No, it's not the same like with the M9. When the M goes to sleep mode after 2 minutes (as I've chosen in the menu) it needs about the same time (approx. 2 seconds) to get ready to shoot - similar like startup time from Off. The M9 was ready almost instantly.

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I think there is a misunderstanding here. Yes, there's a lag after switching the camera on. But if you leave it on, and go out on the street, and tap the shutter as you are bringing it to your eye, there is no lag. You just activate the shutter with a gentle tap of your finger.

 

If you walk around with the camera turned off, of course there's a brief interval after you turn it on before you can take a picture. But that's why one should keep the camera turned on when taking pictures; it may sleep if you don't use it, but it wakes instantly. At least that's my experience, with the M9 and the M240.

 

Hi John - how did you set the automatic turnoff for your shooting in the menu (OFF - 2 Min - 5 Min - 10 Min)?

 

Thanks, Nik

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I have set the camera to sleep after 10 minutes , and when it sleeps ... it sleeps , you have to reactivate the body and it take as much time as to open it, and if you were in liveview mode , it's even a little longer

 

my 2 negative points actually are :

focus peaking at x1 is useless

impossible to get the level in the viewer when shooting (or I couldn't find how)

the EVF is not automatically connected with the LC liveview you have to press the small button on and off

 

the battery is very good but with the liveview always on you can shoot only 300 photos

 

the first positive point : the files !

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Just looked at my battery state, after having been in LV-on stand-by all night. Still at 100%. The 80% of yesterday morning is even more puzzling now.

 

Wilson

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I realize that other M(240) owners are reporting that their cameras are waking from sleep mode in 0.5 sec when Live View is not activated, but I just checked mine and it's taking over 2.0 seconds to wake (again no Live View). During the wake cycle no shutter activation is possible. Am I missing something?

 

Just tested again and I come closer to 3 seconds from sleep to shutter fire (no Live View, press and hold shutter to wake).

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I realize that other M(240) owners are reporting that their cameras are waking from sleep mode in 0.5 sec when Live View is not activated, but I just checked mine and it's taking over 2.0 seconds to wake (again no Live View). During the wake cycle no shutter activation is possible. Am I missing something?

 

Just tested again and I come closer to 3 seconds from sleep to shutter fire (no Live View, press and hold shutter to wake).

exactly the same for me
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Because Live View and these new "advanced" metering modes take more power. Not scientific but I did the old "one one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand, four one thousand, click". I'm definitely not getting 0.5 sec, and not 2.5. This is with a freshly formatted card and again, Live View OFF.

 

Could this be card speed related? My SD cards are not blazing fast (but always good enough for the M9 with no lock ups). SD HC Class 10 from Transcend. I did notice some others saying they were getting more than six frames in continuous before slowing to one frame per second.

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On a sidenote, I do not get the impression from the reports that there is a need to switch it off or put it to sleep during a shoot. Correct?

 

My experience is identical to Wilsons.

 

Set with auto sleep after 2mins, battery drain is nearly zero between wake up calls....

Wake up is half a second unless LV has been set before auto sleep.

 

No idea why others seem to be finding things different .......

 

I will run some tests with auto sleep switched off to let you know what effect this has .... camera metering switches off after 30 seconds.... but I've no idea what else goes on in the background........

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