Power management with the Fotos app.

[scott kirkpatrick]

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I wanted to understand what are the components of power consumption with my M10 and M10-D when using them with live view  and WiFi as invoked by the new Fotos app.  For these experiments, I set auto power off to OFF instead of the normal 2, 5, or 10 minutes. I didn't use the VF20.  The natural units for results of this experiment are fully-charged Leica batteries consumed per hour of steady use. The smallest component is the LCD on the back of the M10 (and missing on the -D).  You can  run the LCD and little else by turning on the INFO screen and leaving it on.  It uses 1/6 of a battery per hour.  Running the WiFi just to view settings and to see the thumbnails of pictures on the SD card (LiveView not enabled) takes 1/3 of a battery per hour.  Running the LiveView circuitry with an image on the LCD uses 1/2 of a battery per hour.  If you add up the WiFi and the Live View power costs,  either M10, used with the LCD dark, will go a little over an hour.  I've tested this and confirmed it. Using the Optical viewfinder only, but keeping a WiFi link active for viewing thumbnails from time to time, or occasionally changing a setting on the -D, a battery should last more like three hours.

And of course, if you leave the phone at home, use only the OVF, and don't chimp with the M10 (you can't with the M10-D), you're good for all day, at least if it is not too cold out.

 

Edited December 18, 2018 by scott kirkpatrick

[scott kirkpatrick]

Things the M10-D will do but doesn't quite do yet...  I got my M10-D manual in the mail, and this was a good excuse to sit down and read it through again carefully. It's the same as the pdf.

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L8003577 by scott kirkpatrick, on Flickr

There are a few mysteries:

p.31 says you can move from playback mode into picture-taking mode with a half-press of the shutter, but how did you get into playback mode in the first place?  It says with the VF20 and the app, but as fas as I can tell the VF20 can only see the picture you are about to take, not the files on the SD card.  With the app you can determine the length of time that the shot just taken is held for review.

p. 33 says that the thumbwheel will let you set selected menu items, using the VF20, but I haven't found any examples in which this happens in the manual, much less on the camera.

and some promises:

pp 40-41 say that the camera will switch into auto lens ID recognition when a 6-bit coded lens is installed, but from what mode?  I think there must an incomplete solution for this problem waiting for a future firmware release once it is completed and tested.

The manual is pretty insistent that focus peaking and focus magnification can be independently turned on automatically or only manually, but I think not yet.

Filenames can be customized by renaming the folder, but it doesn't seem that you can change the first letter (default is "L").  But that doesn't work in the app just yet.  I was hoping to get the first letter on M10-D files changed to D, but I may have to settle for L9 or some other number not currently in use, in order to get completely unambiguous filenames.

There is some cool stuff for setting long exposures (up to 8 minutes) that I'll have to try.  But I have to wait twice the exposure time for dark frame subtraction.  No exceptions allowed.

 

 

 

Edited December 27, 2018 by scott kirkpatrick

[gunston]

i have not owned neither M10 nor M10-D, however it is a good read, thank you for sharing.

Currently a happer owner of M9-P since launched. 😉