SL Firmware 3.0 update wishes

[SrMi]

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AF-C works with back button focus in MF mode with the current firmware on my camera with 24-90.

Can you please explain your setting.

 

Firmware 2.2 has Focus Mode: MF, AF-C or AF-S. How do you specify if pressing joystick in MF triggers AF-C or AF-S? With AF-Mode set to Static I see only AF-S behavior. With AF-Mode Dynamic (tracking) I see an AF-C-like behavior but that mode is not what I want to use.

 

Thanks!

[ramarren]

Can you please explain your setting.

 

Firmware 2.2 has Focus Mode: MF, AF-C or AF-S. How do you specify if pressing joystick in MF triggers AF-C or AF-S? With AF-Mode set to Static I see only AF-S behavior. With AF-Mode Dynamic (tracking) I see an AF-C-like behavior but that mode is not what I want to use.

 

Thanks!

 

In the menus: 

 

Setup > Customize Control > AE/AF Lock Button > AF Mode

Setup > Customize Control > AE/AF Lock Button > MF Mode

 

The MF Mode settings include five combinations of AFs, AFc, and AE-L. 

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[kiubabar]

Bug：long press the left upper button can't show the function you set when you are using the EVF, it became normal when your eye left the EVF. The other three buttons are normal even when you are using the EVF. Only my camera happen ?

 

Wish: You can choose the information you want to show in EVF during shooting, for example, I want focus picking and histogram, level,  both showed in MF mode and the histogram should be in some level of transparency.

[ramarren]

Bug：long press the left upper button can't show the function you set when you are using the EVF, it became normal when your eye left the EVF. The other three buttons are normal even when you are using the EVF. Only my camera happen ?

 

Wish: You can choose the information you want to show in EVF during shooting, for example, I want focus picking and histogram, level,  both showed in MF mode and the histogram should be in some level of transparency.

Not a bug, a feature. Read about it in the instruction manual, along with the option to enable menus when using the EVF.

[kiubabar]

Not a bug, a feature. Read about it in the instruction manual, along with the option to enable menus when using the EVF.

 

Sorry, my bad, forgot to set it on in my preset...so every time I load my preset, this happened. 

[thighslapper]

...... and therein lies the problems of having a camera that is too feature rich and too many options ....... you completely lose track of what is going on.

 

I hope Leica resolve the major issues and just add a few minor enhancements in the next firmware ....... and leave the majority of the other requests out ...... it is complicated enough as it is.

[LD_50]

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A better user manual and an option to setup the camera from a computer would help alleviate the complexity "issue".

 

I can't believe none of the camera manufacturers yet allow a simple setup option from a computer or mobile phone application. This would make setup much easier and eliminate some menu complexity if you could choose to hide menu items on the camera.

 

Leaving out features because many users don't read the existing manual doesn't make much sense. Every day on this forum there are questions about existing features that can be easily found in the existing manual.

[LocalHero1953]

This illustrates a problem I have with any camera that has user presets: how to make a change to one aspect and have it implemented across all your presets (and without introducing other changes accidentally along the way). Others may have the mental capacity to do this, but I have just one preset of default, ready-to-shoot settings that I can load when I've changed so many things that I can't remember which ones to change back.

 

Sorry, my bad, forgot to set it on in my preset...so every time I load my preset, this happened. 

[ramarren]

Sorry, my bad, forgot to set it on in my preset...so every time I load my preset, this happened. 

 

 

Load your preset, enable the button with the control, and save your preset again to fix that. 

[ramarren]

A better user manual and an option to setup the camera from a computer would help alleviate the complexity "issue".

 

I can't believe none of the camera manufacturers yet allow a simple setup option from a computer or mobile phone application. This would make setup much easier and eliminate some menu complexity if you could choose to hide menu items on the camera.

 

Leaving out features because many users don't read the existing manual doesn't make much sense. Every day on this forum there are questions about existing features that can be easily found in the existing manual.

 

 

This illustrates a problem I have with any camera that has user presets: how to make a change to one aspect and have it implemented across all your presets (and without introducing other changes accidentally along the way). Others may have the mental capacity to do this, but I have just one preset of default, ready-to-shoot settings that I can load when I've changed so many things that I can't remember which ones to change back.

 

The SL has a fine feature set and a remarkably well-restrained number of settings, nearly all laid out very logically. It does require reading, understanding, and remember the instruction manual, but is far far less of a task than, say, my Olympus E-M1 which has over 180 configuration/customization options, many of which link and cross-connect with other configuration options. A well-done configuration app on smartphone or computer *might* improve on the SL's in-camera setup, but frankly the SL is so simple and easy to learn I doubt it, and then you get into all the other nonsense about connection compatibility, OS compatibility, app updates as well as firmware updates, etc etc. Those things together generally cause more confusion and complexity, for most users, than the in-camera setup does. 

 

One simply has to accept that a modern, full-featured camera requires some study to use to best advantage and work at it for a day or two. It's not rocket science.

 

The way I configured and keep my settings current: 

 

1. Clear the user settings to their defaults. 
2. Work through all the settings I want for use with R lenses. This includes button assignments, etc, that will be used for all configurations.
3. Set those into User Config 1. 
4. Name that one "R Lens".
5. Load "R Lenses" and modify those things I want for my "ultrawide squares" shooting (crop, render to B&W, set for 15mm lens)
6. Set those into User Config 2
7. Name that one "SWC"
8. Load R lenses 
9. Fit SL24-90 lens
10. Set up my usual configuration for MF with back button AF-on-demand, etc.
11. Set those into User Config 3
12. Name that one "SL-MF"
13. Change focus mode from MF to AF, configure AF settings
14. Set those into User Config 4
15. Name that one SL-AF
16. Export the settings to card. 

 

It takes about five minutes to walk through the whole sequence and set up the camera from scratch this way; takes much longer to write the procedure down than to do it!

There simply aren't that many settings, there are just enough.

 

When I change a setting in either of the first two, I switch to the other and change it there too. Same for the latter two, other than AF/MF changes. I usually work with a new configuration for a while to be sure it's right and what I want, then update the Exported settings on the card. That way I can restore the earlier settings in one step if my mod didn't quite go the way I'd hoped. 

[FlashGordonPhotography]

Persoanlly, I'm not a fan of having buttons change functions (one of my annoyances with the SL dials) so I tended not to use the profiles. But now I have set up a simple change from AF to MF mode, because I use adapted lenses a lot and so it is simple to restore the camera to a set place after I've changed a bunch of settings.

 

It's also great being able to save/load profiles to a card if you have two bodies, like I do, to make sure they're exactly the same.

 

Gordoon

[ramarren]

Persoanlly, I'm not a fan of having buttons change functions (one of my annoyances with the SL dials) so I tended not to use the profiles. But now I have set up a simple change from AF to MF mode, because I use adapted lenses a lot and so it is simple to restore the camera to a set place after I've changed a bunch of settings.

 

It's also great being able to save/load profiles to a card if you have two bodies, like I do, to make sure they're exactly the same.

 

 

I'm not fond of buttons changing function either. If you notice, I set up my button customizations, etc, in the first User Setting and propagate that through all the others. I only change functions assigned when it is sensible to do so ... like, when I'm on either of the SL lens configs, the FN button controls image stabilization rather than lens profile, because lens profile is 100% automatic in that case. Everything else stays the same with rare exception.

[Joshua Lowe]

Can we pretty please have auto zoom when manually focusing?

[FlashGordonPhotography]

Didficult as, unlike the M, the SL isn't mechanically linked to the lens. So it has no idea you are turning the focus ring. Except for natives.

 

Would be nice though.

 

Gordon

Edited April 8, 2017 by FlashGordonPhotography

[LD_50]

I believe the camera can see the contrast change when manually focusing non-native lenses and therefore could trigger magnification when it sees the contrast change associated with changing focus.

 

This is essentially what the CDAF system does already, except it also issues commands to the lens to move elements to autofocus back and forth.

 

To avoid having it trigger inadvertently it could be limited to activate only when half pressing the shutter (the same way the DOF scale on the top screen only activates with half shutter press with native lenses).

[Joshua Lowe]

I had assumed it was a change in contrast that activated focus assist on the M240. Never considered it might be activated via the rangefinder.

Edited April 9, 2017 by Joshua Lowe

[FlashGordonPhotography]

I had assumed it was a change in contrast that activated focus assist on the M240. Never considered it might be activated via the rangefinder.

 

Yep. That's why non coupled lenses don't trigger magnification on the M. There's a sensor near the little wheel in the RF.

 

Gordon

[Joshua Lowe]

Steffen Skopp (SL product mgr) posted a photo of an SL body with a prototype of the 75mm lens. I noticed the display showed the camera to be in "S" mode. I asked what that was and he responded with only a wink. New mode coming? Just a debug mode for testing new lenses? Very curious.

 

https://instagram.com/p/BSoDnEoAXvo/

[panoreserve]

Maybe "S" stands for "Silent" (electronic) shutter??!!

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Hallo,

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[ramarren]

I believe the camera can see the contrast change when manually focusing non-native lenses and therefore could trigger magnification when it sees the contrast change associated with changing focus.

 

This is essentially what the CDAF system does already, except it also issues commands to the lens to move elements to autofocus back and forth.

 

To avoid having it trigger inadvertently it could be limited to activate only when half pressing the shutter (the same way the DOF scale on the top screen only activates with half shutter press with native lenses).

 

 

The CDAF mechanism has no feedback mechanism that can tell the camera that the shift in contrast is due to an attempt at focusing, and therefore to enable peaking or zooming. The camera can detect when the focus is being changed on the native lenses through the electronic connection to the focusing mechanism, when it is being manually turned, and turns on peaking. It would use the same mechanism to enable auto-zoom-in assist if they implemented that. 

 

(The M definitely enables peaking based on movement of the rangefinder cam mechanism.)

 

Now, based on my use of other TTL-EVF cameras that do implement this functionality, it's actually something that I nearly always disabled. It's convenient with wide lenses, but with longer focal lengths having the focus jump in and out every time I touch the focusing ring is not only distracting, it's counter productive. I'd much rather enable peaking and then have a manual "zoom in" button that at the same time disabled peaking. That would work better. 

 

I do appreciate that others might feel differently. It's good to have a variety of viewpoints on this issue.