Firmware Updates for Leica Q2 (v.4.0) and Q2 Monochrom (v.2.0)

[Manual_Focus]

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5 hours ago, Manual_Focus said:

Sorry for this newbie post, but using my PC to update my Q2M firmware is not working.  I formatted my SD card, downloaded the firmware and copy/pasted to the root directory.  The card reader shows it was transferred to the card, but when I went to check the camera said 

Resolved the issue by deleting the first download and did another download.  The 2nd download worked.

[hdmesa]

5 hours ago, acg69 said:

It is odd that the file naming convention is retained through the upgrade process (if you export and reimport profiles - e.g. mine is Qxxx instead of Lxxx) but numbering is not. What are they thinking?

I always leave my last shot DNG files on the card then take another pic when done with the update – it will pick right up where the last DNG left off. But yeah, not good.

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[hdmesa]

4 hours ago, Dennis said:

I saved my user profile #1 on the SD card, then updated the import again in all my settings. It respects all of them, including the "L" name of files, but the number was reset, starting again from L000001. For me, it's not a big deal, but I can see it's frustrating for somebody.

Yes, but that pain can be avoided by simply leaving your last shot DNG files on the card. The Leica cameras alway start renumbering where the last ones left off if it sees the old files on the card and as long as the file name prefix was preserved by following what you mentioned above.

Edited May 5, 2022 by hdmesa

[hdmesa]

4 hours ago, gteague said:

glad someone else noticed this. it really improves skies at the cost of blacking out ground details. i'll try it on a contingency basis and see on what scenes it works best. 

i've gone through all the update settings and it looks like the new idr and the shadow/highlight additions to the film styles will allow you to tweak this new metering mode. it will take some trial and error but those seem very useful additions although setting up the styles is now more awkward and slower--at least until i get used to it i guess. and once i've set those, i don't tend to fuss with them.

/guy

Highlight weighted-metering is a god-send for even the color Q2 because the highlights are way too easy to blow on this sensor. Raising shadows on the Q2 is effortless in post, so unless you're trying to shoot JPEG-only, this new metering mode is amazing (YMMV of course  )

 

3 hours ago, Ba Erv said:

Might be a good idea to format the card too. As I recall the M11 had some issues after the firmware update unless the card was reformatted.

Noooo, that's what lets the camera reset the numbering, having the card blank with no images and only the firmware. Leave your current images on there and you're golden.

Edited May 5, 2022 by hdmesa

[gteague]

5 hours ago, gteague said:

update went smooth but the first thing i tried was to bump up my video resolution from c4k/24 to c4k/30. i think i was using m4p before but now .mov is the only format to allow the new frame rate. i was going to shoot a 12s test and i got an error message at 10s that my card was too slow. it was an 256gb adata u2 v90 card which had never given me any issues in a lumix s1 or the q2. 

[del]

i solved the issue neatly because in my s1 i have an 128gb xqd card and an 256gb sd card. i was pointing the jpg files to the sd card but just recently i changed the allocation method to shoot everything on the xqd card because it copies so much faster to my mac than the sd card. i set the sd card to pick up if i ran out of space on the xqd card.

i put the sandisk extreme u2 128gb card in the s1 sd slot and moved the angelbird 256gb card to the q2. which makes much more sense because the s1 has 256gb storage between the two cards and the q2 now has 256gb storage although the files of the q2 are nearly twice the size of the 24mp sensor on the s1. but i shoot a lot of cropped shots on the q2 which reduces most of the file sizes.

i tested the angelbird card with c4kp30 video for 12 seconds and no errors. 

/guy

 

[PhotoCruiser]

Just downloaded the 4.0 Firmware on my MacBook, copied it in the root directory of the SD card and and installed it.

All run flawless thru and my Baby has now Firmware 4.0

Chris

[pete757]

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What about us Leica 'Q' users!!! 🙄

[RobM]

It’s ok, Matic. I mentioned in a later post that I managed it. But thanks for your advice anyway. 

[AnikiMu]

16 hours ago, gteague said:

are you folks who are seeing the file numbers reset not saving your user profile and then reading it back in? or maybe have never created and saved a profile? perhaps that's the difference because mine didn't reset. /guy

Reset on my Q2 whatever the firmware update.

[musers]

Woa this camera has 10bit 422 internal now? Oh man this just opened up a lot of possibilities for me. If only it were also in LOG. 400mbs is a lot to play with though....

[Bazookajoe]

Updated flawlessly -with a couple of updates that'll probably never concern me.

For those of you with problems:

Do not try to open the firmware. You don't need to. It's not something you can read, it's simply coded instructions for the camera.

Drag and drop the firmware onto your card when it's plugged into your pc/mac. Do NOT put it in the DCIM folder -or any other folder. Drop it on the card BESIDE these folders, then insert the card into your camera.

Go into your camera menu and select 'camera information.' Select 'firmware.' It'll then ask if you want to update to ver.4

Voila!

[Joris Louwes]

On 5/5/2022 at 4:38 PM, jimleicam3 said:

I downloaded the firmware to my new iMac and I am unable to open it to save to a card.  It claims that I don't have an application to open it.  What am I doing wrong?

 

Thanks

Don't double click the file. Just drag it onto the sd card 

[dnease]

Had a glitch on my first attempt. (Have applied multiple firmware updates prior to this...)

After dropping the firmware file onto the SD card icon on my Mac and then inserting the card back in the camera and turning on, the camera hung at the Leica red dot logo.

Had to reformat the card in my Mac, reinsert and format in the camera, then things returned to normal and I was able to install the update.

Tricky. May be because I erased files via Lightroom on my iPad after my last import.

[acg69]

18 hours ago, hdmesa said:

Highlight weighted-metering is a god-send for even the color Q2 because the highlights are way too easy to blow on this sensor. Raising shadows on the Q2 is effortless in post, so unless you're trying to shoot JPEG-only, this new metering mode is amazing (YMMV of course  )

 

Noooo, that's what lets the camera reset the numbering, having the card blank with no images and only the firmware. Leave your current images on there and you're golden.

I always thought that you have to format the card and that's what i have been doing. This has resulted in file numbering going back to the beginning. But ig what you are saying works, then that's fine - they should just say so in the instructions and let the user choose what they want. Anyway, THANK you for this!

[tuna]

On 5/5/2022 at 10:38 AM, jimleicam3 said:

I downloaded the firmware to my new iMac and I am unable to open it to save to a card.  It claims that I don't have an application to open it.  What am I doing wrong?

 

Thanks

Same problem here with a Mac - not Mac friendly? Any advice on how to get the firmware on an sd using a Mac?

Thanks

[hdmesa]

1 hour ago, acg69 said:

I always thought that you have to format the card and that's what i have been doing. This has resulted in file numbering going back to the beginning. But ig what you are saying works, then that's fine - they should just say so in the instructions and let the user choose what they want. Anyway, THANK you for this!

It probably is best practice to reformat the card first. If you want to do that, just throw your last few DNGs back onto the card right after formatting.

[hdmesa]

11 minutes ago, tuna said:

Same problem here with a Mac - not Mac friendly? Any advice on how to get the firmware on an sd using a Mac?

Thanks

Mac people: You don't try to "open" the firmware file! Just copy it to the SD card. Done.

If the Mac tries to open the file automatically you get an error message, just disregard and copy the downloaded file over to the SD card.

[gteague]

1 hour ago, dnease said:

Had a glitch on my first attempt. (Have applied multiple firmware updates prior to this...)

After dropping the firmware file onto the SD card icon on my Mac and then inserting the card back in the camera and turning on, the camera hung at the Leica red dot logo.

Had to reformat the card in my Mac, reinsert and format in the camera, then things returned to normal and I was able to install the update.

Tricky. May be because I erased files via Lightroom on my iPad after my last import.

one thing that, after hundreds of such updates on cameras and radios and other gadgets, gets me occasionally is that i have left a previous firmware file on the root of the sd card. and the update will fail on that every single time. i suspect leica tells you to format because that's easier than telling people how to check for a previous file on the card.    

but seriously (referring to a more recent post) are folks still trying to open the file? good luck with that.

/guy

[gteague]

if you feel you must reformat and don't want to reset the file numbering you can easily copy your files on the current sd card by mounting it on the mac desktop and then right clicking and selecting 'duplicate'. or just select the card and drag to another location on the desktop holding down the /option/ key.

then unmount it and format it in the camera and mount it on the desktop again and copy the data you just copied to the new card either replacing the file structure the camera created or simply dropping your files in the right folders on the card. don't forget the ics (settings file if you have one). you can do the firmware update either before your copy or after you do it. 

/guy

Edited May 6, 2022 by gteague

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[hdmesa]

If anyone runs into a situation where their image file numbering got messed up*

1. If you use a custom file name letter prefix, change the setting in camera to what you've been using ("L" is the default)
2. Format the SD card(s) (for M11 also format the internal memory)
3. M11 only: Change your camera settings for images to write only to the SD card (don't want the camera grabbing anything off the internal memory)
4. Remove the SD card from the camera (card 1 for dual card cameras)
5. Reset image numbering in camera but don't take a photo yet
6. On your computer, find your last shot DNG file that had the right numbering and note the first three numbers after the letter
7. Put the SD card into your computer, open it and then open the "DCIM" folder
8. Rename the "XXXLEICA" folder so that it matches those first three numbers of your file names:
9. If your file name is "L1010357.DNG" then your folder should be renamed to "101LEICA" and so on
10. Copy your last used DNG into the folder you just renamed
11. File structure should be: LEICA Q2 (card name) > DCIM > 101LEICA > L1010357.DNG
12. Remove SD card from computer and put it in the camera
13. Take a photo, and it should pick up where you left off with your last DNG and will name the next image "L1010358"
14. M11 only: Change your camera setting for writing images to whatever it was before, "Internal + SD" or whatever you want

*If you have a situation where between your last correctly-numbered shot and now you've taken a bunch of photos with different names, you can batch-fix the wrong file names using a file renaming program. If you have a Mac using MacOS Monterrey, you can do this natively in the Finder, which is pretty cool. Maybe Win10 can do this now natively, I don't know.

Edited May 6, 2022 by hdmesa