"Unknown Lens" when switching user profiles

[Aktenschrank]

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Hi everyone, 

I've encountered a strange issue on my SL2 and am wondering if anyone experiences the same or has found a solution/workaround for it. The issue is that when I'm switching to a user profile with an M-lens attached to the camera using the Leica M-L adapter, the lens profiles section shows "Unknown Lens" and IBIS etc does not work properly. The camera for some strange reason is also stuck in ISO 100.

Steps to reproduce the issue:

1. Create a user profile with an L-mount lens attached to the camera
2. Switch the camera off (also happens when switching lenses on-the-fly though)
3. Mount an M lens using the Leica M>L adapter
4. Turn camera on and switch to your user profile. In the lens selection menu it shows unknown lens.
5. Selecting "Auto" in the Lens profiles menu fixes the issue and the M lens is properly detected.

I have to do this last step each time I switch user profiles with an M lens attached to get the lens correctly recognised, which is quite inconvenient. Has anyone experienced the same or found a solution/workaround?

Many thanks for your help!

 

[Pedrocolonia]

Hi Aktenschrank, 

its a bug. The same with my SL2.

Add #6. The focus symbol e.g. little cross is still visible when a M lens is mounted.

Peter

 

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[Aktenschrank]

4 minutes ago, Pedrocolonia said:

Add #6. The focus symbol e.g. little cross is still visible when a M lens is mounted.

Thanks for confirmation! I´ll write to Leica CS to let them know. As for #6, I think this is actually a feature. When you magnify the screen it will magnify at the position of the cursor, which is what I would expect it to do. When there's no cursor visible, me as a user would not know where the magnification is going to happen.

[Pedrocolonia]

The SL does not have this "feature". It's new for me. Thanks for contacting Leica CS.

[jonoslack]

1 hour ago, Pedrocolonia said:

Hi Aktenschrank, 

its a bug. The same with my SL2.

Add #6. The focus symbol e.g. little cross is still visible when a M lens is mounted.

Peter

 

HI Peter

The SL did have this feature in the beginning (at least partially) . . . . I’ve no idea why it was removed, but it was a real pain!

The cross hair brilliant - you can  move it around and zoom in at the point where it is (and the spot metering follows the cross as well). The SL always zoomed in at the centre (although you could move it around afterwards) and the zoomed point was not associated with spot metering.

This is certainly intentional behavior - at one point it was going to be put back on the SL, but it never happened sadly. 

In my opinion it makes using M lenses on the SL2 a much better experience

All the best

Jon

[thighslapper]

Have you tried creating a specific M lens profile with an M lens attached ? ...... presumably creating the profile with an L lens does not save any of the M lens options as they are inactive.

Just a thought .... it may work. 

The S1R is much better in this regard as it saves just about everything you could possibly set ..... including submenu options, when you create a custom profile. The only downside is that with so many potentially choosable variables creating a uniformity amongst your set profiles takes a lot of careful planning ....

 

Edited January 3, 2020 by thighslapper

[Aktenschrank]

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I´m going to try what you suggest, albeit there's not enough user profile slots for all the duplicate profiles to work around the issues I´d like to have fixed😀 I´ve already created several crop version profiles, because you can neither assign crop factor nor aspect ratio to fn-buttons, favourites menu or quick menu.

To me the issue seems to be that when you save a profile the lens currently attached somehow gets "saved", instead of a simple "Auto" setting. This would explain why simply selecting "Auto" after switching a profile solves the issue. So maybe what needs to happen is that "Auto" is saved in the user profile and whenever you switch the lens is freshly determined. Btw, I also tried to create a user profile with NO lens attached in the hope that I could save the "Auto" setting with the profile...does not work, its greyed out.

Anyway, I wrote to Leica CS and hope they either a promise a fix or a workaround (that does not involve user profiles).

[scott kirkpatrick]

Even if you get "auto" lens detection of an M or R lens into a profile, switching profiles may not trigger the SL2 to check what lens is currently installed.  I changed M lenses with the power on, and found the camera thinking that it was still using the previous M lens.  This deserves more checking, but my hunch is that checking the lens ID has been positioned as one of the power-on initializing steps, and is not something that is done during operation.  Which could be a bug.

[jrp]

The initial firmware seems to have some v rough edges, particularly when used with the Photos app.

[Aktenschrank]

So, just to confirm I´ve tried what @thighslapper suggested and it indeed works fine (in a way) when you create a user profile with an M lens attached. The M lens is now detected properly when switching to the profile. If I attach another M lens, while the camera is off or in sleep mode, power the camera on again and switch to that profile the "new" M lens is also detected properly. 

I say "in a way" above, because when you then attach an L-Mount lens and switch to that profile you also get all the other automated changes that are done when attaching an M mount lens (for example A mode etc..), the L mount lens is recognised properly though.

Anyway, what I asked Leica CS for is a way to not having to hit "Auto" each time I'm switching profiles with an M Lens attached. I'm personally reasonably ok with having to power off the camera to switch M lenses and have them properly recognised, but that should be it. And I would like to use ONE set of profiles for all kinds of different lenses, so the only things that should happen when using the profiles with an M lens are the switch to A mode, the AF mode changes etc. (which I'm very happy the SL2 applies automatically when the M>L adapter is detected!).

 

 

Edited January 3, 2020 by Aktenschrank

[Aktenschrank]

Just to confirm on this thread. Leica CS has responded: "We could reproduce the issue and added it for future firmware updates."

[scott kirkpatrick]

I was trying out a set of M lenses on my SL2 shooting a wall of books across a small room, so the camera was positioned on my desk on a tabletop tripod, LCD and viewfinder not accessible, using Fotos remote to focus (with magnification).  Several gnarly things happened.  I'll relate them as I remember, in case others have seen the same problems.  Before reporting stuff to customer service I would have to check repeatability of each one.  The worst was a camera hang that occurred after using focus magnification.  Fotos doesn't have a magnify control, so magnify has to be initiated at the camera. Try to take a picture from Fotos without restoring magnification to normal and/or shut the camera down with magnification on and either the next lens installed might not get recognized or the camera might hang.  Because of the apparent requirement to switch the camera off before changing lenses, I tried to use Fotos' remote start up capability -- set the SL2 to permit BTLE to start it up even when the switch says OFF.  That works.  The lens that is mounted is recognized.  Shutdown Fotos and the camera shuts off, mount a new lens, and reconnection is difficult.  So use the Fotos "disconnect" command as well, then reconnect with a new lens.  That worked better.  Anyway I gave up on using remote start with the camera set switched off and switched it on and off myself.  Incidentally, leave remote startup enabled, then switching the camera off and leaving it for a day will give you a very low battery, so this feature should normally be left OFF.

Edited January 7, 2020 by scott kirkpatrick

[Aktenschrank]

Hi Scott, 

I can reproduce what looks like the camera "freeze" you were mentioning with the following steps:

1. With the M>L Adapter and an M Lens attached, connect the SL2 to the Fotos App
2. Enter remote control in the Fotos App
3. Magnify the screen on the camera (since Fotos has no magnify function)
4. From this point it is neither possible to release the shutter using the app nor the shutter button on the camera. It is also not possible to leave magnified view using camera controls. Disconnecting the SL2 using the Fotos App also does not work. Essentially the camera is stalled and you cannot control it via buttons nor the Fotos App.
5. Switch the camera off and on again to get it back to work.

Sorry for the weird step-by-step writing. I´m so used to describing software issues in easy to digest steps from my day job, that I probably cannot do it any other way anymore😀

 

[scott kirkpatrick]

18 hours ago, Aktenschrank said:

Hi Scott, 

I can reproduce what looks like the camera "freeze" you were mentioning with the following steps:

1. With the M>L Adapter and an M Lens attached, connect the SL2 to the Fotos App
2. Enter remote control in the Fotos App
3. Magnify the screen on the camera (since Fotos has no magnify function)
4. From this point it is neither possible to release the shutter using the app nor the shutter button on the camera. It is also not possible to leave magnified view using camera controls. Disconnecting the SL2 using the Fotos App also does not work. Essentially the camera is stalled and you cannot control it via buttons nor the Fotos App.
5. Switch the camera off and on again to get it back to work.

Sorry for the weird step-by-step writing. I´m so used to describing software issues in easy to digest steps from my day job, that I probably cannot do it any other way anymore😀

 

Thanks, that's beta-test writeup style.  I'm perfectly comfortable with it, and it is helpful.  There are a set of pits you can fall into with Fotos when you have to mix camera controls with remote controls.  This one sounds like something the user has a perfect right to do (no other way to accomplish something useful).  I'll try to clarify just which steps put you into an unrecoverable state, and report it.  Lumix Synch and the S1R seem to get around this problem by 

(a) having a lot more controls that you can reach from the remote app, and 

(b) letting you specify at the camera whether you want to allow only remote controls or only on-camera controls (except for the shutter button press).  The latter choice reduces the app to a cable release, which is perfectly OK.

[scott kirkpatrick]

I'll start a thread for reporting FOTOS/SL2 bugs.  I've reported a trivial one (coming up in A mode when the camera is set to allow remote starting, the aperture can't be controlled from FOTOS), and found that the magnification problems also occur with L prime lenses.