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My new M11 is bricked... Leica Spain


Antonio Russell

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Thanks all your your suppport. I am happy to report that Leica Spain have done the right thing and sent me a new unit Fingers crossed I will not have to report any further issues. Its a wonderful camera and as a long time M4 user I cant imagine shooting anything else although I am sure there are equally valid options out there.

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vor 1 Stunde schrieb Antonio Russell:

Thanks all your your suppport. I am happy to report that Leica Spain have done the right thing and sent me a new unit Fingers crossed I will not have to report any further issues. Its a wonderful camera and as a long time M4 user I cant imagine shooting anything else although I am sure there are equally valid options out there.

Well that is very good news. Even though I did not expect anything else.

Edited by M11 for me
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7 hours ago, Antonio Russell said:

Thanks all your your suppport. I am happy to report that Leica Spain have done the right thing and sent me a new unit Fingers crossed I will not have to report any further issues. Its a wonderful camera and as a long time M4 user I cant imagine shooting anything else although I am sure there are equally valid options out there.

Great news antonio, glad it worked out for you for now, sorry i might be ignorant, but how new was the M11 before it kind of bricked? 

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11 hours ago, OThomas said:

@M11 for me ...

I can understand not all M11s are having issues, but the numerous reports are off putting for those new to Leica as a brand.

I count three. Hugh Brownstone reported on his YouTube channel that it happened to him, and I've counted two on this forum, which includes this one. Maybe I missed some, though.

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My first M11 bought in June had the same red light issue and bricked. Leica Manchester replaced it. The only other person I know to have an M11, Neil Hodge a photo journalist friend had the same issues and has now also received a replacement. Yesterday Neil called me to say his 2nd M11 has had issues and weirdly in the evening I got a File Unreadable error when reviewing a picture on my replacement M11, then what seemed like a lock up where the camera had to be switched off and on again before it would fire. This maybe because I had previously removed the card putting it in my MacBook Pro 16 inch’s card reader to import a single shot directly into Adobe Camera Raw. This is not an unusual workflow step to check an image and doesn’t affect files on my Leica SL, Fuji or Canon cameras.  Seems to me that Leica have a genuine firmware issue, or I have another faulty M11. I would note that there is a quality difference in terms of fit and finish between my original and replacement M11, the battery door is better fit / action on the replacement, but the replacement has more play on the ISO dial, neither is as well made as my SL Type 601. Again this is not re-assuring.

So I’ll be writing a note to Leica on Monday after I test the camera. As it is I certainly wouldn’t recommend to use the camera for professional use, far too buggy IMO at this stage which is seriously disappointing / frustrating.

What I would like is a grown up response from Leica, something like, “thank you for alerting us to this problem, please accept our apologies and here’s a firmware fix”. Where as before I was being fobbed off with…” Leica’s are very sensitive to SD cards” no they’re not, my SL is bomb proof, must naturally I am meticulous with cards and workflow, so I am fairly sure the problem is with the M11 firmware which isn’t good enough 6 months after launch. I am running firmware 1.4 which was loaded on the camera at the factory as I don’t want to change anything just yet so I can manage the variables around the product.

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1 minute ago, Mac Sinclair said:

This maybe because I had previously removed the card putting it in my MacBook Pro 16 inch’s card reader to import a single shot directly into Adobe Camera Raw. This is not an unusual workflow step to check an image and doesn’t affect files on my Leica SL, Fuji or Canon cameras.  

did you "copy" the file to the computer First and THEN import it or was it imported directly from the card?

that might make a difference [ridiculous but ive seen this before] to the metadata of the file on the card

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30 minutes ago, MrPaulK said:

Could also be related to the various files macOS adds to the card, which possibly the camera isn’t handling well. Just musing here. 

Little chance given that all my cards are formatted by SD Card Formatter for Mac. The only issue i got was with a corrupted card. My experience is limited to about 4,000 shots though.

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10 minutes ago, lct said:

Little chance given that all my cards are formatted by SD Card Formatter for Mac. The only issue i got was with a corrupted card. My experience is limited to about 4,000 shots though.

The various files aren't put there at formatting, they are put when there is content and you use the card/stick/etc in the mac. Spotlight files, thumbnails, etc. Exactly when the mac puts them there tends to be a crap shoot. I'm not saying the camera shouldn't handle it (even if one of those files was corrupt), just saying the mac has some 'extra' hidden sauce that can, occasionally, cause trouble.

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3 minutes ago, MrPaulK said:

The various files aren't put there at formatting, they are put when there is content and you use the card/stick/etc in the mac. Spotlight files, thumbnails, etc. Exactly when the mac puts them there tends to be a crap shoot. I'm not saying the camera shouldn't handle it (even if one of those files was corrupt), just saying the mac has some 'extra' hidden sauce that can, occasionally, cause trouble.

All i can say is all my cards have been formatted by SD Card Formatter for Mac for several years and it always worked fine for me so i doubt the use of a Mac may have some influence on the issue. I'm no techie at all though so i may be wrong, in theory a least.

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Oh, clearly the M11 has some early firmware issues. I don’t particularly mind, but my expectations are clearly different than many. I’ll mind if in a year its still in this state :) I’ve seen a few things trip over the extra files; it is also possible you had a one time, actual file corruption issue. Have you been able to reproduce it?

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1 hour ago, lct said:

All i can say is all my cards have been formatted by SD Card Formatter for Mac for several years and it always worked fine for me so i doubt the use of a Mac may have some influence on the issue. I'm no techie at all though so i may be wrong, in theory a least.

formatting is fine, i use sd formatter as well, but when a sd card is plugged into a mac, some files are generated automatically especially when one clicks inside that finder window and/or  touches/loads/previews any file.

 

if the M11 is "sensitive" to something so basic that's totally a firmware issue.

>>

on a side note, on the early SL601 firmware, i once transferred a processed jpg file back into the sd card, i wanted to see if the camera loads it, and it crashed the SL badly

 

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25 minutes ago, frame-it said:

on a side note, on the early SL601 firmware, i once transferred a processed jpg file back into the sd card, i wanted to see if the camera loads it, and it crashed the SL badly

Just tried this with no problem on my M11 (FW 1.5.0.1). FWIW.

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4 minutes ago, Antonio Russell said:

I dont think it is related to the cards as I always reformat the card in-camera after importing photos into Lightroom on my mac.

i think this card discussion is more about the camera showing an file unreadable error, in you case its probably a more serious issue

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