Leica SL, M lenses, blank display? - solution

[douglas fry]

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Nearly had a heart attack today, big client, art director, models, make up people blah blah, raise SL to eye with Noctilux attached - blank screen

 

Took out battery, reset camera no joy. All menus worked just nothing through the viewfinder and shutter button did nothing.

 

People were looking at me and waiting to get started as I was fiddling with the SL

 

Resorted to M240 with a flash trigger and live view for the first session, fine but not ideal

 

In a spare moment I took the lens off and put on another- still nothing, I assumed it was a dead camera.

 

For no reason at all I then took off the M lens adapter and put it back on, camera comes back to life in all respects. I must have very partially removed it by accident which (unbeknown to me) switches off the display and viewfinder.

 

All fine again but perhaps this will help someone else who suddenly finds they have a heart stopping camera moment.

[LD_50]

I've had this happen a few times.

 

I simply reset the camera or lens each time and everything worked again.

[darylgo]

Hi Doug,

Thanks for the post. That hasn't happened for me yet. I was shooting my SL with an S adapter, a Mamiya 645 adapter, a 2x converter and a Mamiya 300mm f2.8 Apo. I was surprised it worked, as I had heard the contax 645 adapter on top of the S adapter was not workable. Not only did it work but the images were surprisingly crisp. Despite owning all these adapters I'd rather shoot native lenses. At one time or another I've had all the hassles adapters could bestow, it's rather fun seeing what works and doesn't work adapting various parts but once in the field they misbehave all too frequently.

[geetee1972]

Aha, now this happened to me as well about four months ago after I got caught out in the rain. I thought it was water ingress and after a while it all returned to normal and I've not had any problems since. It caused quite a squeaky bum moment when someone suggested that the camera was now toast!

 

This is the original post: https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/272471-sensor-has-gone-black/

[ramarren]

I've never had it happen with my SL.

[IkarusJohn]

Yeah, I've had this with both the SL and the TL2.

[250swb]

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It caused quite a squeaky bum moment when someone suggested that the camera was now toast!

 

 

It wouldn't be the Leica Forum if somebody didn't pronounce doom, the need for a CLA, or say 'it's never happened to me'.

 

With my SL I only use manual lenses, of various types, and very infrequently the camera does stop working and I've never quite worked out what gets it going again. I'm to impatient to work through slowly trying one thing after another as the light is changing for the worse, so it's either switching on and off again, shaking it, or taking the lens off, one of which does the trick, but I do all three in a ritual dance around the tripod while muttering a curse. And then it works again for weeks on end with no further problems.