Time to say hello....

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1 hour ago, 84bravo said:

What's the odd behavior? I've been using a couple of M8.2 bodies for the last two years that I purchased used, so I'm not really familiar with the issues that may have been discussed when this camera was still current. So far I've had no problems or issues. I do find that I seldom get more than 200 frames on a fully charged Leica battery (some brand new, others used and unknown). When the battery is fully drained the camera just stops until I replace it with a fresh one. I haven't experienced any odd behavior that I'm aware of.

I will err on the side of caution.  But being a thick-headed German I will also test this.  The camera which arrives today (!!!) comes with a Leica battery.  And I have two aftermarket batteries which I will test.  I have read they must be fully discharged in order to take a full charge.  I am also testing the "only Leica can fix an M8/M8.2" story.  New thread starts. 

[farnz]

@84bravo I'm glad to hear that you haven'y experienced any problems and hopefully you won't.

The odd behaviour is mostly camera lock ups when the M8 goes to sleep and the battery needs pulling and putting back in to wake it up.  That's annoying but not the end of the world.

What's much worse, and fortunately it hasn't happened to me, is that there were a number of reports of the shutter locking up permanently and the M8/M8.2 needing a trip back to the mothership to get sorted out.  It seems that when the M8 or M8.2 are low on power they can cock the shutter half-way but then run out of power so can't finish the cocking process but the flag in the register has already been set to 'shutter cocked'.  At that stage the processor has a false input and doesn't know how to proceed because it can't start the shutter cocking motor because the flag says the shutter's already cocked.  Changing the battery can't rectify the problem so a trip to Solms (now Wetzlar) is needed.

Pete.

Edited September 25, 2020 by farnz

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15 minutes ago, farnz said:

@84bravo I'm glad to hear that you haven'y experienced any problems and hopefully you won't.

The odd behaviour is mostly camera lock ups when the M8 goes to sleep and the battery needs pulling and putting back in to wake it up.  That's annoying but not the end of the world.

What's much worse, and fortunately it hasn't happened to me, is that there were a number of reports of the shutter locking up permanently and the M8/M8.2 needing a trip back to the mothership to get sorted out.  It seems that when the M8 or M8.2 are low on power they can cock the shutter half-way but then run out of power so can't finish the cocking process but the flag in the register has already been set to 'shutter cocked'.  At that stage the processor has a false input and doesn't know how to proceed because it can't start the shutter cocking motor because the flag says the shutter's already cocked.  Changing the battery can't rectify the problem so a trip to Solms (now Wetzlar) is needed.

Pete.

This sounds like something that can be fixed in the firmware.  This sounds like something that should have been fixed in the firmware.  What you describe would require a simple re-write of an "IF THEN ... ELSE" test.  It is not rocket surgery. 

I'm grumbling already and have not yet received the camera.  LMAO

[farnz]

Looking at it simplistically you might be right but it might not be as simple as it seems.  It's the sort of scenario that would be unlikely to occur during testing because it's doubtful they'd be able to test for long enough to deplete a battery particularly in light of a tight deadline to get the camera into production as there was with the M8.  

As an Engineer my opinion is that the 'shutter cocked' register flag shouldn't be able to be raised until the motor had driven the linkage all the way through to the end point but I'm not privy to the design decisions of course and there might have been good reason why that didn't happen.

What I would say is that you have a very special camera coming to you so I hope you utterly enjoy using it and learn to live with its idiosyncrasies (character?) that others of us have. 😄 

Pete.

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52 minutes ago, farnz said:

 

 

52 minutes ago, farnz said:

<snip>

What I would say is that you have a very special camera coming to you so I hope you utterly enjoy using it and learn to live with its idiosyncrasies (character?) that others of us have. 😄 

Pete.

It has arrived.  I am thrilled.  It is a brick!  My little Pentax Q-S1 weighs nothing compared to the M8.2 yet they each have about the same sized sensor.  The camera is beautifully made - no surprise - and in the couple of photos I have taken gives very nice color and definition. No waiting for the film to be developed.  It does seem to combine attributes film and digital well.  I just have to get the wall-to-charger cord so that I can charge batteries somewhere besides in my car.  LOL  It came with the 12V adapter and the Japanese wall outlet configuration.

And, and, the card has some photos of the guys in Tokyo who packed it and had lunch from a shabby bento box and ate with a spoon.  Also a string of pics from a Slavic country, some with women and a baby carriage and a bunch taken in the woods of either Japan or some place Slavic.  I say Slavic because one pic has a sign with BUDO and underneath FABER.  Czech?  I'll poke around and see what I can find.  And I am looking through the DNG files.  There are some fun color pics from Tokyo and some nice B&W from who knows where. More fun than a scavenger hunt.   

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5 hours ago, farnz said:

Looking at it simplistically you might be right but it might not be as simple as it seems.  It's the sort of scenario that would be unlikely to occur during testing because it's doubtful they'd be able to test for long enough to deplete a battery particularly in light of a tight deadline to get the camera into production as there was with the M8.  

As an Engineer my opinion is that the 'shutter cocked' register flag shouldn't be able to be raised until the motor had driven the linkage all the way through to the end point but I'm not privy to the design decisions of course and there might have been good reason why that didn't happen.

What I would say is that you have a very special camera coming to you so I hope you utterly enjoy using it and learn to live with its idiosyncrasies (character?) that others of us have. 😄 

Pete.

I wrote software for ~20 years and have seen hearts broken and careers derailed in project stress testing.  The worst was a company-wide change adding the last four digits to the zip code as appearing in bills.  Every app in the company had zip code so the whole company, largest employer in the state, was therefore affected.  After a year of testing and a final parallel stress test a fellow up in the printing branch tapped the envelope with its contained bill on each of its four sides.  You could not read the last four in one tapped side.  Project stopped because now legal, marketing and regulatory would get involved from a larger envelope window.  The project leader's career stopped.  We all went back to other things.  The point: this Leica software was not well tested.  A good project leader would have said, "Hmm, how does it work on a less-than-full battery?"  Because that is how it will work 99% of the time,  I would expect better from Leica.  

And they can still fix it.