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Had a brief problem with my M8 tonight... (uh oh)


DRabbit

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I was out shooting tonight trying to practice at my rangefinder focusing (and hopefully get some good shots on a perfect evening) and I had a brief problem with the metering.

 

Wearing camera around my neck...

Shot for about 30 minutes at one beach, then went for a short drive to another... camera went into standby mode.

When we got to the 2nd beach and I tried to shoot in Aperture Priority mode it would NOT change shutter speeds... no matter what I pointed at, no matter what fstop I chose... it wanted to shoot everything at a 32 second exposure!

I tried manually changing the shutter speed and no matter which one I selected the meter was telling me is was not slow enough.

 

I shut the cam off, took the battery out, waited a few seconds, put the battery back and turned it on... same thing! I was a little scared (this is only day 2 with the camera) but shut it off and put it in the car to "rest". I took out my Oly e410 and shot with my new Leica 25mm f/1.4 lens for a while.

 

About 20 minutes later I went back and got the Leica and turned it on... she was fine!

 

Anyone else have this problem?

 

I DID upgrade the firmware last night before I went to bed to the latest...

 

Amy

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x
Please forgive me for asking - it did happen to me, that's how I know. Did you take off the lenscap?

 

HAHAHAHAHAHA - that may just be it... I don't know for sure since I can't remember, but it's highly possible - and probable (coming from a dSLR I'm not used to being able to see anything if you don't take the lens cap off!)

 

LOL HAHAHAH!

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It can get even worse. If you do take a picture with the lenscap on, the camera will go into another 30 seconds of noise reduction during which you can only watch the blinking red light in frustration.

 

And it's not the camera's fault for sure. I can't help but wonder how many sudden-this or sudden-that events were blamed on this simple cause.

 

Been there, done that - a few times.:)

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Amy,

 

Yep, been there, done that!

 

Hopefully Leica's next software upgrade will contain a feature that automatically removes the lenscap whan the shutter button is depressed. :rolleyes::D

 

 

-->Larry "Sudden Lenscap Syndrome" ROFL.

 

Pete.

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Bwahaha! Yup, I've done this, too. Actually I did this with my M7. It was flashing a strange symbol in the bottom of the viewfinder attempting to alert me to the "problem". Of course I immediately assumed there was an electronic failure. Boy, did I feel like the south end of a north-bound horse when I figure out the problem.

 

It's just a rite of initiation, Amy. Welcome to the club.

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LOL Well I'm glad to hear it's not the terminal "rangefinder newbie syndrome" as much as a much more common, and treatable, "sudden lenscap syndrome" ;)

 

And yeah, I didn't wait either of the times I snapped a picture... I just turned the camera off rather than sit there and watch it blink for 32, 31, 30, 29... seconds. LOL

 

Do love the camera though!

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Nope, never happened to me before :D :D :D. Yeah, right! . The embarrassing thing was, I didn't realize it until somebody from the other side pointed it out to me when I looked puzzled at the camera. So far, only once though.

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Guest Bernd Banken

when I was a young boy without money, film was expensive for me. So I kept the cap in front of the lens of my Agfa Isolette I in order to save film.....:D

 

Bernd

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LOL. Happend to me also several times -- not to mention the numerous occasions when my wife or daughters said before I took a shot of them "Sweety/Dad -- the lenscap!"

 

Boy, did I feel like the south end of a north-bound horse when I figure out the problem.

 

Great line! Never heard that before.

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Why I've always use filters (UV - or 486 in the case of the M8) and hoods on all of my cameras and stayed away from "neveready " cases. Lens caps IMO exist only to be lost or ruin the shot.

 

Except they were useful with the film Leicas and the cloth shutter blinds which could be burnt if you placed the camera on it's back pointing up to a hot sun. I wonder what the situation is with the M8 metal shutter. Could it still be damaged?

 

Oh, and I've tried to take a couple of shots "through" the lenscap too.

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Yep, me too. What was so funny about your post though was the obvious confusion that you had about why it happened. Took me a while to figure it out too, sat there like an idiot going through hi-tech solutions like firmware, in-camera noise reduction, wehre it was metering from (it was metering deep space or the bottom of a coal mine). :)

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There's a supposedly true story in (I think) one of the Osterloh books on the M camera about one of the German leaders--Kaiser, Chancellor, don't remember which--who despised having his picture taken.

 

One day a Leica user is out taking a walk down the same path the Chancellor is using. As the two parties approach, the fellow has pre-focused and lifts the camera to his eye and snaps the picture. No reaction from the Chancellor, just a slightly perplexed look. The cameraman figures he's got a picture he can treasure and maybe even sell--till he realizes the lenscap is still on.

 

--HC

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