MF Grip FINALLY shipping to me Monday

[AlanJW]

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I'm sure this is a dumb questions but will we be able to use the Leica C Image Shuttle app at some point for the M? I could see this app being very useful. Thanks.

 

Such an app could be useful indeed. But my understanding is the C uses wifi to communicate. The M does not. I think the app would need some rewriting and software has not exactly been Leica's forte.

 

My Olympus e-P5 has wifi and an app, but frankly it is hard to get it to work and is quite unintuitive. It is not just a matter of having a connection. I hope the Image Shuttle works better (I don't have a Leica C to compare).

[algrove]

Leica's locked-up philosophy is just so stupid.

 

Where is their head?

 

In the sand perhaps.

[JoeGraham]

For those still looking for their MFG to ship, mine shipped today from B&H. Ordered 12/25/12.

[algrove]

For those still looking for their MFG to ship, mine shipped today from B&H. Ordered 12/25/12.

 

Congrats Joe.

 

You only waited about 11 months you lucky dog! I waited 14 months.

[wlaidlaw]

See my thread of today here http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/leica-m-type-240/311985-image-shuttle-2-2-available-owners.html . Image shuttle 2.2 is now available and works just fine with the M240 and MF grip.

 

Wilson

[JCR33]

I am in Sydney and got my MF grip from a local dealer.

 

The GPS is not working and yet to check if the tethering works! Spoke to the local rep and he told me his stock grip also does not work.

 

Do you guys have similar problems?

[wlaidlaw]

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I am in Sydney and got my MF grip from a local dealer.

 

The GPS is not working and yet to check if the tethering works! Spoke to the local rep and he told me his stock grip also does not work.

 

Do you guys have similar problems?

 

I had to change the power settings in my camera to “always on” and leave it on a window sill yesterday, about 15 minutes before it said “hello”. This might have been a bit quicker outside, away from any buildings or tall trees. Now it seems quicker to find a satellite (about 2 to 3 minutes). My guess is it has to initialise an internal clock or something like that. Hopefully the super accurate satellite clock will keep the hopeless internal clock in better time, if you set the GPS time zone to “auto”. When the cheapest quartz watch is accurate to a couple of seconds a week, it is strange that the M240 clock loses time so badly.

 

Earlier this year, we did a classic car rally in Switzerland, using a GPS driven rally navigation device, which gives you turn by turn, “Tulip Road Book,” instructions, called a “Tripy”. It had an interesting supplementary display, showing how many satellites it was currently receiving. As soon as you got into a built up or hilly/mountainous area, the number of satellites dropped very quickly from three or four, often to one or none.

 

Wilson

[JCR33]

I had to change the power settings in my camera to “always on” and leave it on a window sill yesterday, about 15 minutes before it said “hello”. This might have been a bit quicker outside, away from any buildings or tall trees. Now it seems quicker to find a satellite (about 2 to 3 minutes). My guess is it has to initialise an internal clock or something like that. Hopefully the super accurate satellite clock will keep the hopeless internal clock in better time, if you set the GPS time zone to “auto”. When the cheapest quartz watch is accurate to a couple of seconds a week, it is strange that the M240 clock loses time so badly.

 

Earlier this year, we did a classic car rally in Switzerland, using a GPS driven rally navigation device, which gives you turn by turn, “Tulip Road Book,” instructions, called a “Tripy”. It had an interesting supplementary display, showing how many satellites it was currently receiving. As soon as you got into a built up or hilly/mountainous area, the number of satellites dropped very quickly from three or four, often to one or none.

 

Wilson

 

Hi Wilson,

 

Thanks for sharing your experience. I will follow your steps and see if it will come on.

 

Jack

[pajamies]

Ok, got my RRS MC-L, L bracket machined by my race shop and here are some images.

 

This one shoes where I had the flange machined flush with the base in two locations.

 

[ATTACH]408006[/ATTACH]

 

This shows the end where I decided to machine maybe ⅛" from the base so the thumb wheel on the grip would not bind up or rub.

 

[ATTACH]408007[/ATTACH]

 

The last photo shows where I had machining done on the base of the bracket closest to the L itself. This is view looking straight down at the base of the L bracket.

 

[ATTACH]408008[/ATTACH]

 

Trust this helps.

 

Just got the Leica Multifunction Grip M.

While waiting for the grip, I got used to the RRS BM240 base plate as a conveniently quick way to attach the M to a tripod head (or to the Arca Swiss Cube). That, of course, does not work with the MFG M

Now I'm thinking of getting the RRS MC-L plate.

Is it possible at all to attach the plate to the Leica M MFG without the machining described by algrove ?

[01af]

Hopefully the super-accurate satellite clock will keep the hopeless internal clock in better time, if you set the GPS time zone to “auto”.

Uh oh. Get ready for an unpleasant surprise. With the time zone set to Auto, the camera's internal clock will be even less accurate than usual.

[wlaidlaw]

Uh oh. Get ready for an unpleasant surprise. With the time zone set to Auto, the camera's internal clock will be even less accurate than usual.

 

Olaf,

 

Whereas given Leica’s electronic track record, I suspect you may be correct, why on earth should that be? The internal camera clock should be set to sync to satellite time, whenever it gets a connection. GPS time is accurate to ≤40 nanoseconds, which is just about good enough for most purposes . It does obviously sync, otherwise it could not reset to local time, unless they have done a totally hopeless job and only change the hour. I wonder if anyone has tried to see what happens in time zones like the middle east and Indian subcontinent, where the time zones change in half not whole hours. I know this is a pain in the watch I use for travelling, a Breitling Aerospace, where the time zone resetting changes whole hours, while retaining the minute and seconds timing correctly.

 

The camera/GPS sync should be a similar set up to my various computers, tablets and phones, which sync to an internet time server, every time they connect and every 30 minutes while connected. As long as you have the time zone set correctly, they will always be near enough 100% accurate, as the drift in 30 minutes is negligible.

 

Wilson

[pajamies]

Olaf,

 

Whereas given Leica’s electronic track record, I suspect you may be correct, why on earth should that be? The internal camera clock should be set to sync to satellite time, whenever it gets a connection. GPS time is accurate to ≤40 nanoseconds, which is just about good enough for most purposes . It does obviously sync, otherwise it could not reset to local time, unless they have done a totally hopeless job and only change the hour. I wonder if anyone has tried to see what happens in time zones like the middle east and Indian subcontinent, where the time zones change in half not whole hours. I know this is a pain in the watch I use for travelling, a Breitling Aerospace, where the time zone resetting changes whole hours, while retaining the minute and seconds timing correctly.

 

The camera/GPS sync should be a similar set up to my various computers, tablets and phones, which sync to an internet time server, every time they connect and every 30 minutes while connected. As long as you have the time zone set correctly, they will always be near enough 100% accurate, as the drift in 30 minutes is negligible.

 

Wilson

 

Had to try it today.

 

My Leica M clock was 20 seconds fast before GPS.

My Leica M clock is 20 seconds fast after syncing with GPS.

 

The Auto Time / Time Zone in the Menu is on and showing GPS Auto Time On.

 

Was the GPS connection too short lived (5 minutes ) or what's going on ?

[wlaidlaw]

See below from manual. It does say the time is updated from GPS. Well who knows

 

Wilson

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[01af]

My Leica M clock was 20 seconds fast before GPS. My Leica M clock is 20 seconds fast after syncing with GPS.

Yes, about 20 seconds ahead of the actual time. Same here ... mostly. I've also seen +30 s and even +40 s, but usually it's +20 s.

 

Switch off GPS time sync and manually set the camera's clock, then it will run properly until you switch GPS time sync on again. Then, whoosh, +20 s or thereabouts.

 

I wonder what's going on in an engineer's head to come up with such a crap ...

[wlaidlaw]

Yes, about 20 seconds ahead of the actual time. Same here ... mostly. I've also seen +30 s and even +40 s, but usually it's +20 s.

 

Switch off GPS time sync and manually set the camera's clock, then it will run properly until you switch GPS time sync on again. Then, whoosh, +20 s or thereabouts.

 

I wonder what’s going on in an engineer's head to come up with such a crap ...

 

I will get this reported via one of the beta testers. Doesn’t anyone at Solms test these things? Obviously the answer is no.

 

Wilson

[ModernMan]

Interesting that these issue weren't nailed down, as Leica Camera's brethren over at Leica Geosystems are GPS experts par excellence, by accounts I've heard. Perhaps the engineers at Solms should have consulted their corporate in-laws.

[marknorton]

My multi-function grip and R to M lens adapter arrive tomorrow so will be interesting to see how well they work. There's always this sense of foreboding when anything more complex than a cable release arrives. Wait, even some of those don't work...

[marknorton]

It's arrived, it's fine, comfortable to hold, power connector non-standard as far as I can see which means a compatible power unit is unlikely.

 

Haven't managed to get it to sport any satellites yet.

 

Interestingly, it has its own serial number, mine is in the low 1600's. They may have started from 1 or 1000 and, like the camera bodies, the serial number may give no clue as to how many produced.

[01af]

... it has its own serial number, mine is in the low 1600's. They may have started from 1 or 1000 ...

They definitely have not started at 1,000 because the serial number of mine (delivered approx. six weeks ago) is a three-figure number.

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Hallo,

Look here: Leica M

[wlaidlaw]

I have had an answer from Leica on the time sync to GPS. This only syncs at minute level, not seconds, so the actual second that the minute “rolls over” will be at random. The GPS should maintain the time accurate to the nearest minute, which is an improvement in the very inaccurate internal clock.

 

Wilson