Leica M240 & Co: Quicker Startup by exFAT Format?

[LUF Admin]

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Yesterday I received a hint by an user, how to speed up the start of current Leica M cameras (M240 / M262 / Monochrom 246) - by formatting the SD card in ExFAT.

 

Now I need your support as I can't test this myself, perhaps we can approve this trick.

 

I'd like to start with a small sample of users who test this „quick & dirty“ - and approve it or not.

 

My request: Can you carry out this test?

• Format your SD card as usual
• Clock the startup time of your Leica M (average of 3-5 samples)
• Format this SD card in exFAT format (Description for Windows and Mac OS X below - sorry German)
• Clock again your startup time

Please post your results here:

• Camera model
• SD card (manufacturer, size, type designation)
• Startup time before
• Startup time after ExFAT format

Thanks a lot!
 
ExFAT Format Windows
 
 

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ExFAT Format Mac OS X

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[LocalHero1953]

Short answer: my card appeared to be formatted as exFAT by default, and my start up time is about 1.75 secs.

 

Longer answer:

Leica M240 Sandisk Extreme Pro 64GB card

I formatted the card in camera and checked the start up time: 1.75 secs or thereabouts

I looked at formatting the card in SD Formatter as I normally do, but exFAT is not an option.

I looked at formatting the card in Windows (v10), and exFAT is set as the default option. I reformatted as NTFS and put the card back in the camera: the display said "Card unreadable".

I reformatted the card in Windows as exFAT and the start up time is the same as before: about 1.75secs.

 

So I think this is a bit of a dead end!

 

PS I checked start up time by holding down the shutter button, switching on and timing it to the first shot using my phone stop watch.

[chris_tribble]

Hi Andreas - there's been a lot of discussion on this.  I can remember being very disappointed by the M240 when I was testing pre-production, but found that start up was transformed the moment I started using the SD FORMATTER (https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter_4/).  Works for Windows and Mac and solves the problem...

Hope this helps.

Best

[pico]

I looked at formatting the card in Windows (v10), and exFAT is set as the default option. I reformatted as NTFS and put the card back in the camera: the display said "Card unreadable".

 

NTFS was not asked for in the directions, and for good reason as you found out.

Edited December 4, 2015 by pico

[LocalHero1953]

NTFS was not asked for in the directions, and for good reason as you found out.

Are you a moderator here?

 

Read my post. My card was already formatted as exFAT. I changed it to the only alternative to see what would happen. Then I changed it back to see what would happen. I reported it to Andreas. Now get off my case.

[sdk]

OK, with my Panasonic Gold 32GB SDHC C10 U3 Read90 Write 45MB/s card:

MS-DOS (FAT) formatted with Apple Disk Utility:

Leica M-P Startup: 7, 6, 6 seconds

 

exFAT formatted with Apple Disk Utility:

Leica M-P Startup: c. 1.2-1.5 seconds (too short to precisely measure)

exFat formatted card seems to record captured images fine with this card.Files import fine into Lightroom. Reformatting the card in the camera does not make it go back to plain FAT format. It remains exFAT, so whatever formatting the camera does isn't at the disk data format level.

My Lexar Professional 64GB 2000X SDXC card apparently has always been exFAT formatted, and also starts up c. 1.2-1.5 seconds.

I see no reason not to use exFAT, as the camera seems to support it, and it improves at least some speeds such as startup speed.



 

Edited December 8, 2015 by sdk

[Peter H]

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With a SanDisk Extreme Pro 64gb sd card in my M240, formatted only in-camera, timed by the stopwatch on my iPhone, the start up time is variously between 0.5 (or less, if I could react quickly enough) and 0.8 secs when I'm a bit slow. It is certainly measurably less than a full second, always. The actual times are not very accurate because I find it quite a tricky thing to do, especially since to all intents and purposes the start up time is instantaneous.

 

I double checked by setting a digital metronome to tick at one-second intervals and the start-up time is always comfortably within ticks.

 

Are you referring to something other than the time between switching the camera on, and it being on?

Edited December 8, 2015 by Peter H

[jaapv]

The way to check startup times is to put a stopwatch on your computer screen, lock the shutter button with a cable release or keep depressed
Synchronously tap the space bar on the computer with one hand and switch the camera on with the other. The camera will record the exact time for startup.
Repeat ten times, discard obvious failures and average. You should get something in the order of 1.5 sec.

 

[Peter H]

Jaap, I'll try that ^^^ when I can, probably tomorrow, and report back. 

Edited December 8, 2015 by Peter H

[elmars]

The way to check startup times is to put a stopwatch on your computer screen, lock the shutter button with a cable release or keep depressed

Synchronously tap the space bar on the computer with one hand and switch the camera on with the other. The camera will record the exact time for startup.

Repeat ten times, discard obvious failures and average. You should get something in the order of 1.5 sec.

 

I cannot find any difference between FAT and EX-FAT.

Do You have any explanation for the different times that are measured. They differ from 0,5 to 3,5 seconds. Is it because of camera specifics or is because of wrong measurements.

 

By the way: A Leica official told me that there are no differences between the M240 and the M262.

 

Elmar

[Peter Kilmister]

I need more hands; one for the stopwatch, one to depress the shutter, two for synchronous tapping and switching, and another to press stop on the watch.

The more I think about it, the more it sounds like a team sport.

[jaapv]

The tapping is strting the stopwatch, the shutter is locked by a cable release (or your wife)

[Peter H]

Do You have any explanation for the different times that are measured. They differ from 0,5 to 3,5 seconds. Is it because of camera specifics or is because of wrong measurements.

 

By the way: A Leica official told me that there are no differences between the M240 and the M262.

 

Elmar

 

It sounds as though we may be measuring different things doesn't it?

 

I'm measuring the lapse between turning the on switch to on, and the camera being powered up and ready to fire.

 

Jaap's method suggests that he's measuring the lapse between turning it on and having recorded the stop-watch image on the screen, which would obviously be a slightly longer process involving the whole shutter release and recording process.

 

Jaap, does this sound correct to you?

Edited December 8, 2015 by Peter H

[Peter Kilmister]

Jaap, The wife isn't responsive enough! What cable release do you suggest for the M-P 240?

[pop]

I turned the camera on while pressing the shutter release with the same hand. The other hand holds the hardware stop watch and presses its start button at the same time as the camera is turned on.

 

Piano lessons might be helpful.

[jaapv]

The method was implemented by Lindolfi. The average time between turning on and taking the shot is about 1.5 sec. on a fast 16 GB card on my caera (and Lindolfi's)

[jaapv]

Jaap, The wife isn't responsive enough! What cable release do you suggest for the M-P 240?

Any with a locking screw.

[terrycym]

Wow!

Absolute result.

Only thing at the back of my mind is that is exFAT as reliable as a card formatted by the Leica firmware?

Anway, the results

Leica M 240

Sandisk 16 GB

95MB/s

Startup time with Leica format 3 seconds

Startup time with exFAT format 1.5 seconds

 

Thanks you!

 

BTW

I discovered before that a slower and smaller SD card (4GB 30MB/S) starts up in 1.5 seconds too with the Leica format

Don't know if the smaller size or slower speed made for a faster startup but the guys at Leica Mayfair don't recommend fast, large cards

Figure that one out!

Edited December 11, 2015 by terrycym

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Hallo,

Look here: Leica M

[pico]

the guys at Leica Mayfair don't recommend fast, large cards

Figure that one out!

 

The most cited reason is to avoid catastrophic losses from putting so many images on a card that might fail.

[indergaard]

My SanDisk 64GB Extreme Pro 95MB/s has always been formatted with exFAT.

exFAT is a requirement on ALL cards that are larger than 32GB.

 

Maybe thats why this specific card has always been considered to be faster than many other (smaller size card, and thus, formatted with the old FAT16/32 formats).