Jump to content

Anyone figure out why the 240 freezes up?


dant

Recommended Posts

Advertisement (gone after registration)

I have a lock-up about once a month but experienced a new variant yesterday: the camera paused for about 20 seconds. Nothing worked and just as I was starting to think about opening the camera and removing the battery for a few seconds to fix the freeze, the camera (M240 delivered August 2013) started working again. That's better than a complete freeze but still awkward. Like the normal freezes, it only happens with heavy use (like yesterday shooting an outdoors sports game). If I do street photography (or otherwise shoot with the same slow pace as my M6) it never freezes. Hopefully, Leica engineers will find a fix as it is annoying and detracts the from the otherwise superb Leica experience.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • Replies 429
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Not for a moment do I apologize for any failing or defect in the M240. I agree it needs to be addressed. Moreso, now that I have an M9 with a possible 'death sentence' hanging over it and may (one day) need to move up to the M240.

 

What has me curious is that so often Leica's shortcomings are compared to say canon, of which I have no experience. We are told that Canon, and others, are better at 'this 'n that', which is, I am sure, quite true. So why would a craftsman who knows the most suitable tool choose what is perceived to be a lesser tool, as some apparently do?

 

Specifically, Leica IMO has it's strengths in it's compactness, low visible profile, excellent glass, especially at large apertures and simplicity of function. To me this clearly channels the camera into a niche suitability which I have worked out. All this leads to my question of maybe some of the practitioners are demanding more of the M240 than it is capable of or designed for.

 

OTOH I could be quite wrong and certainly don't run away from the reality of the reported problems. Maybe if/when I graduate to an M240 my useage, quite demanding but not extreme, will be OK.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Maybe CC should take the problem on as a consultant to Leica since he appears to have some expertise in the field. If he fixes the problem or even identifies a way to find the source, I would vote to bestow upon him The Order of Magnitude with oak leaf cluster.

 

Thanks for your confidence in me, but I already have a job :)

However, if Leica released the firmware source code as OSS (which I recommended in another thread), I would be glad to contribute in my spare time.

 

In any case, the best way to approach the problem is to reproduce the lockup and then break into the code with an ICE (certainly available for the Milbeaut platform). It is not an easy task, but people able to do this do exist.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Not for a moment do I apologize for any failing or defect in the M240. I agree it needs to be addressed. Moreso, now that I have an M9 with a possible 'death sentence' hanging over it and may (one day) need to move up to the M240.

 

What has me curious is that so often Leica's shortcomings are compared to say canon, of which I have no experience. We are told that Canon, and others, are better at 'this 'n that', which is, I am sure, quite true. So why would a craftsman who knows the most suitable tool choose what is perceived to be a lesser tool, as some apparently do?

 

Specifically, Leica IMO has it's strengths in it's compactness, low visible profile, excellent glass, especially at large apertures and simplicity of function. To me this clearly channels the camera into a niche suitability which I have worked out. All this leads to my question of maybe some of the practitioners are demanding more of the M240 than it is capable of or designed for.

 

OTOH I could be quite wrong and certainly don't run away from the reality of the reported problems. Maybe if/when I graduate to an M240 my useage, quite demanding but not extreme, will be OK.

 

John,

 

I suspect there are two main factors why we persist with our "flaky" Leicas. Firstly the less young folk like you and I, are so familiar with the way they operate that we can take photos pretty much instinctively and subject to start up times, very quickly. The second factor is rangefinder + manual focus. Other than using long lenses on moving subjects, I thoroughly dislike autofocus. It never seems to work quite like it either ought to or you would expect it to, unless you fiddle around with the settings and focus points. With MF you know exactly what you are getting every time you take a photo. At a rough guess, when using my wife's C112 or my Olympus EP-5, I would get two to three times as many mis-focuses as I get with my M's or LTM's.

 

However there are a lot of people who have bought M9's and M240's, who are not Leica enthusiasts and their patience or tolerance is a lot less than many of the members of this forum. Unless Leica comes up with a better solution for the M9 sensor problem and the M240 lock ups, they will walk from the brand and bad mouth it as they leave. Leica cannot survive on the Leica enthusiast market alone, so for its long term survival, it has to sort both of these issues and soon. As someone else said "what on earth have the software people been doing in the two years since the M240 first was announced?" One and a half firmware updates does not look like an impressive work rate.

 

Wilson

Link to post
Share on other sites

Advertisement (gone after registration)

When I said it was cold when I got the light-out freeze, I meant it wasn't hot. Midday in Paris last week - about 10 degrees Celsius. Proberly not a chilled out battery.

 

I've always taken Moore's law to be an electronics industry wide collusion - if you only double the performance/capacity every 18 months the punters will update; don't piss in the soup by producing a faster rate of progress.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I've always taken Moore's law to be an electronics industry wide collusion - if you only double the performance/capacity every 18 months the punters will update; don't piss in the soup by producing a faster rate of progress.

 

Not even that. All is needed is just a couple nice features more, and people will buy ;)

Link to post
Share on other sites

When I said it was cold when I got the light-out freeze, I meant it wasn't hot. Midday in Paris last week - about 10 degrees Celsius. Proberly not a chilled out battery.

 

I've always taken Moore's law to be an electronics industry wide collusion - if you only double the performance/capacity every 18 months the punters will update; don't piss in the soup by producing a faster rate of progress.

 

 

Well, I see this differently. May be I am not as jaded as you seem to be. To keep up this exponential growth over several decades is quite an achievement and the basis for many of the gadgets everybody is using, including cell phones and cameras.

 

For example, during my professional life the cost of a multiply went down by a factor of over 10 million. This and increased power efficiences enable todays unprecedented large scale simulations with unheard of resolution and detail.

 

And it looks like we will be able to keep up Moore's law for awhile longer.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I have a lock-up about once a month but experienced a new variant yesterday: the camera paused for about 20 seconds. Nothing worked and just as I was starting to think about opening the camera and removing the battery for a few seconds to fix the freeze, the camera (M240 delivered August 2013) started working again. That's better than a complete freeze but still awkward. Like the normal freezes, it only happens with heavy use (like yesterday shooting an outdoors sports game). If I do street photography (or otherwise shoot with the same slow pace as my M6) it never freezes. Hopefully, Leica engineers will find a fix as it is annoying and detracts the from the otherwise superb Leica experience.

 

This is the only kind of freezes I have been getting with mine. The one that works by itself without removing the battery. Note that it helps to turn the camera off, then on, but maybe it's just an illusion I have :) I noticed every time it happens, the camera is asleep and I try to take a shot immediately without waiting for it to wake up, it happens very consistently. The easiest way I found is to half press the shutter release when I see a photo opportunity. It only takes 1 second to wake up, the frame lines appear, and its ready to shoot.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I have a freeze once in a blue moon - 2-3 times since I bought the M in January.

Having seen Jaap's comments on a parallel thread (http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/leica-m-type-240/352416-off-wetzlar-3.html - post 45 and following), and hearing that Leica's responses in some cases have been to replace the shutter, I'm wondering if some freezes are a sticky shutter or cocking mechanism, rather than a software/firmware problem.

I still have a year to go on my passport, so there's plenty of time; I will wait to see if it happens again and whether a sticky shutter would be a likely cause e.g. occurring when the trigger is pressed, accompanied by an odd sound etc.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • 7 months later...

Axel, Your post was the first in this thread since December 2014. This suggests that either the lock-up problem has been solved or, of course, that people have got fed up complaining about it. I have no personal experience as my M240 which is nearly two years old has never locked up.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I thought 'they' will simply not adress the problem, and I think all the others also... and now we have an update directly adressing this - so it could be....

Just came back from a travel, and had some stalling, loosing some shots, which sometimes is too bad, but as I'm not earning my life with photography and the M is still the camera which fits my needs best, I did continue with 'her' ...

let's see.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I changed out both M240 that Leica replaced the shutters on and also sold one M-P. I have now used SD Formatter as many suggested for months and it seems to have helped (I guess). Have not yet installed lastest FW until most seem to have no problems with it. I believe SD Formatter worked better than anything Leica did for me although I did sell the cameras in which Leica replaced shutters without using them after shutter replacements.

Link to post
Share on other sites

As you seemed to be the most troubled by the freeze I always thought you were our best hope for a solution. However you seem to have adopted a strategy of randomising to the max - buying cameras by the score, having Leica change them willy nilly, selling cameras haphazardly. I understand you only wanted what you thought was best for you, but crickey.

As this is my five hundredth post, I will take the liberty of using a rude word (not at all related to the topic).

Buttocks.

Link to post
Share on other sites

As you seemed to be the most troubled by the freeze I always thought you were our best hope for a solution. However you seem to have adopted a strategy of randomising to the max - buying cameras by the score, having Leica change them willy nilly, selling cameras haphazardly. I understand you only wanted what you thought was best for you, but crickey.

As this is my five hundredth post, I will take the liberty of using a rude word (not at all related to the topic).

Buttocks.

If we are dabbling in the intricacies of the King's English Language the two words are "Crikey" and "Bollocks".

Link to post
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...