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Why I sold my M-P240


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On 12/6/2020 at 10:50 AM, fotomas said:

...
No idea why the M 240 is so unpopular.

It must be that Leica owners are masochists and/or like to look at Leica through rose tinted glasses, hardly anyone rational would advocate M9 platform at the end of 2020. 

I had the M9P and as much as I loved it I was always on the edge never knowing if the camera is going to write image to the SD card or not, in the end only worked well with Panasonic Gold SD cards, which means it didn't work with most of other brands/models at the time.  The M9 started life with cracked sensor cover glass syndrome and ending it  with sensor cover glass corrosion fiasco. 

Once M240 came along it was real workhorse, reliable with well sized battery.  It was only let down by poor EVF implementation which was already obsolete at launch date.  My M240 is gone, it was part exchanged for SL601, eventually also part exchanged for Z7 (now that is versatile camera),  my M246 still going strong after 5 years. 

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vor 6 Stunden schrieb mike3996:

If you develop that finger instinct you're golden. I sometimes lose the instinct as I juggle between cameras. Not a big deal, many other cameras have similar wake up delays and photographers develop these habits.

Startup times could be better and I might have 2 or 3 shots therefore in the past 6 years. But I missed quite more shots with other cameras before due to several other reasons too. But you can optimize it a bit. Format your card with the SDFormatter and format it not as FAT-16 but as exFAT. That nearly cut's the wakeup-time for me to a half. No big issue any more, if you not switch off the camera completely.

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The real reason I'm shooting with the M9, Kodak's Sensor, I love the color. Here a shot I took early this morning at a stop light.  I can live with the fact its not as fast as a newer Leica,  but then again, either am I 😁

M9 Summicron 50mm ASPH

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Edited by Henry Taylor
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Big thank you to OP from M-E 220 user. The only reason I have this camera is because it was cheapest new digital M, back at the end of 2016. It was nice experience to get new M. Colors were OK, until I got latest Leica sensor glass. Now I'm not impressed with its colors. AWB is terrible way too often. BW... nothing special.

So, I'm glad were are still those who thinks M9 is better and how no IBIS, no dust shake 4K USD even used M10 are better than used M240 for as low as 2400 USD.

I'll keep M-E 220 for some time. Any M is better than no M after all. But if price trend on used M240 will continue, I'll switch to it. 

Will need extra money for spare M240 battery. While M8/9 series have working and normally priced third party batteries, here is none for M240. But giving its capacity not so many are needed :).

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No idea what is so bad with the colors from the 240. I like them.

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M 240, 50 mm Cron V

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Ah come on guys, a little nocking here isn't all that bad. If I didn't own previously an M9 I wouldn't be complaining. 😁

Probably my main problem for me was with the M240 :

Shooting lag, when camera is first activated (lost shots )This was my number one complaint I found,  the M9 is faster - turn it on and ready to  shoot. I could live with  indoor white balance inconsistency  and  unnatural skin tone with the M240   by correcting  with "LR".

I know  there were problems with the M9  and many made the switch  to  the M240 and I am happy for them, but for me I'll stay with my old reliable friend.

Have a nice day and thanks for your comments.

Hank

 

 

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On 12/9/2020 at 10:39 PM, RayD28 said:

Have you considered keeping your M9 and buying a 240?  Dealers are listing 240s in the $3,000 range.  

Yes, I've definitely considered getting a secondhand M 240. I'm also thinking about getting a secondhand SL as a gateway to the L mount system, with the added benefit of being able to use M mount lenses. A Panasonic S1 or S5 would be cheaper new than a secondhand SL, but the M mount compatibility is a distinct benefit that may be worth it to me. But that's a story for another subforum.

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On 12/12/2020 at 1:38 AM, Henry Taylor said:

Ah come on guys, a little nocking here isn't all that bad. If I didn't own previously an M9 I wouldn't be complaining. 😁

Probably my main problem for me was with the M240 :

Shooting lag, when camera is first activated (lost shots )This was my number one complaint I found,  the M9 is faster - turn it on and ready to  shoot. I could live with  indoor white balance inconsistency  and  unnatural skin tone with the M240   by correcting  with "LR".

I had forgotten about the startup time shooting lag difference with the M 240. I wonder if this was corrected with firmware updates, or by using the fastest card possible.

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On 12/10/2020 at 2:17 AM, mmradman said:

It must be that Leica owners are masochists and/or like to look at Leica through rose tinted glasses, hardly anyone rational would advocate M9 platform at the end of 2020. 

I had the M9P and as much as I loved it I was always on the edge never knowing if the camera is going to write image to the SD card or not, in the end only worked well with Panasonic Gold SD cards, which means it didn't work with most of other brands/models at the time.  The M9 started life with cracked sensor cover glass syndrome and ending it  with sensor cover glass corrosion fiasco. 

Once M240 came along it was real workhorse, reliable with well sized battery.  It was only let down by poor EVF implementation which was already obsolete at launch date.  My M240 is gone, it was part exchanged for SL601, eventually also part exchanged for Z7 (now that is versatile camera),  my M246 still going strong after 5 years. 

I wonder if you got a dud M9, or if I have an exceptional one? In the past 10 years, my M9 has never had an issue writing files to the card, and happily uses Sandisk Ultra 32GB 30 MB/s cards. Last weekend, my M9 shot for a third of the time on a wedding job (one of three cameras), and performed perfectly throughout. Mine did suffer from a scrofulous sensor, but after it was replaced in 2017 it has been just fine.

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On 12/9/2020 at 9:13 AM, fotomas said:

Startup times could be better and I might have 2 or 3 shots therefore in the past 6 years. But I missed quite more shots with other cameras before due to several other reasons too. But you can optimize it a bit. Format your card with the SDFormatter and format it not as FAT-16 but as exFAT. That nearly cut's the wakeup-time for me to a half. No big issue any more, if you not switch off the camera completely.

I am not sure what the card format difference will make in an M240 but I have used Linux to format the card as exFAT and am reloading back onto it the files it had before.  I will see if there is a noticeable difference.  If it works, thank you.

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32 minutes ago, Archiver said:

I had forgotten about the startup time shooting lag difference with the M 240. I wonder if this was corrected with firmware updates, or by using the fastest card possible.

The start up lag gets better the smaller the card is.

With the exception of 32gb ones, they are always slow, even slower than 64!

I think 8gb would be the fastest, but I don’t have one too test with!

As long as the speed is relatively modern (90mbs) I doubt that there’s any benefit from faster cards (eg 280mbs) as these are faster than the camera

Personally I find 16gb to be the goldilocks spot between speed and capacity 

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4 hours ago, Archiver said:

I wonder if you got a dud M9, or if I have an exceptional one? In the past 10 years, my M9 has never had an issue writing files to the card, and happily uses Sandisk Ultra 32GB 30 MB/s cards. Last weekend, my M9 shot for a third of the time on a wedding job (one of three cameras), and performed perfectly throughout. Mine did suffer from a scrofulous sensor, but after it was replaced in 2017 it has been just fine.

It was a dud all right, no less than rest of them. Perhaps you got exceptional one or it could be lucky coincidence of SD card model and firmware in the camera. As I said I never had problems with Panasonic Gold SD cards, but those came later.

M9, despite being extremely popular and received as full frame savourer of the brand at the at time it was launched it was a flawed camera from the start. Three epic sets of problems in its operational history, cracking sensor cover glass at launch, cover glass corrosion towards the end compound by Leica’s cop out to support the model within the EU legal time requirements for spares and service following end of production of the last variant and temperamental firmware, which by the way was subcontracted to Jena Optik to develop and most probably support with firmware updates.

It seems  it took Leica year to master QC and production processes required to develop, manufacture and test digital cameras and probably still struggling at times. Even M240 at launch suffered from failing strap lugs.  Contemporary M cameras appear to be almost trouble free at launch, I said almost as we read about about niggling issues , fortunately firmware when it comes seem to be a adequate fix, perhaps best left to M10 variant owners to comment.

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What's the problem with video mode? If you don't want it, don't use it. I have never in 7 years accidentally shot video instead of taking a photo.

I am sticking with my 240 because of the video. I don't use it that often, but when I do I need it. I've even had it written into my insurance policy that it will be replaced by another 240 rather than a new-for-old .

I had a Q, I used it for video a lot. I didn't notice that the Q2 had no video button until I had bought it (I got it mail order during lock-down). It's a nightmare! Again, I had never accidentally shot video instead of taking a picture or the other way round with the Q. With the Q2 I have to put my glasses on and fumble through menus to change modes (due to the strange focus options I need to do more than just swap mode), and I have often forgotten which mode I am in and shot the wrong thing.

The curse of Leica is that they listen to owners who think that, if they don't use a feature, it should be removed from the camera. It makes the camera useless for those of us who do use the feature!

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