Leica M240 startup speed

[Herman Zhang]

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On my M240, with no card, I can almost instantly release the shutter right after startup

however, with my kingston 128 gb card in my M240, it will take around 5 seconds for it to properly start up(the framelines and meter shows instantly, but when I press the shutter release button, nothing happen. Nor did the info button do anything within 5 seconds after starting the camera up. 

I tried it with a different card(sandisk 64gb, new and empty) and it only takes 1 second of waiting time for both the release and the info page. 

I do have more than 60 GB of files on that kingston sd card, but I don't think the amount of storage left in the card has anything to do with the startup speed, does it?

Anyone having the same issues?

The 1 second worth of waiting time is acceptable as I would have to focus and compose the image anyways(and the light meter also functions), but 5 is a bit too long.

Edited March 10, 2024 by Herman Zhang

[sometimesmaybe]

1 hour ago, Herman Zhang said:

I tried it with a different card(sandisk 64gb, new and empty) and it only takes 1 second of waiting time for both the release and the info page

thats normal and thats why i only use 64GB cards on my m246

[Herman Zhang]

Just now, sometimesmaybe said:

thats normal and thats why i only use 64GB cards on my m246

Ok thanks. So I should just stop using my 128 gb card and use a new one? Is it prone to getting laggy due to the storage in the card? I have never had this problems in my other cameras.

[sometimesmaybe]

Just now, Herman Zhang said:

So I should just stop using my 128 gb card and use a new one? Is it prone to getting laggy due to the storage in the card? I have never had this problems in my other cameras

m240 is an old platform (2012), the slower start up time goes away when i use a SD card thats 64GB or smaller

[Herman Zhang]

9 minutes ago, sometimesmaybe said:

m240 is an old platform (2012), the slower start up time goes away when i use a SD card thats 64GB or smaller

So my sandisk 64 gb will be fine?

[Jaybob]

a card with 32gb or a 16gb may be preferable. Even with my MP240 cranked at the biggest file size, files go on the computer, never back in the camera.

[Herman Zhang]

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a problem would be that I wouldn't be able shoot that many photos at once though. A 16gb Card would only store ~300 photos as I shoot DNG(compressed, as I don't edit much anyways)+fine Jpeg(for the better colours and the "Leica look" unseen on the DNGs)

[fotomas]

My fastest card in mean of startup-time is my oldest 8 GB SanDisc card, with only 32 MB/sec. All the much „faster“, but larger cards are slower. You can optimize the card by formating with the special SD card-formater. Formating them as ExFat also makes startup faster, but I guess everything from 64 GB on allready comes ExFat formated.

[jaeger]

I used to put an UHSii sdcard on my MP240, but then after I tested a cheapest $7 micro so with adapter ; they both work exactly the same because the M240 is never fast enough to take the advantage of fast cards. These $7 sd cards have been used 24/7 in my security cameras for years. But today these UHSii cards are down to $60 for 64G (used to be $150) 

Personally I’ve never able to fill a 32G card in one day (RAW only).  Have you ever filled a 128G card, or you don’t download your card for weeks? 

[Jean-Michel]

I happen to have twenty 32gb cards that I use for both my M-P and my SL2, and my spouse’s GH2. I do not carry a laptop or other device when travelling and simply wait until I return to download the files onto my computer and backup drives. A 32 gb card saves 497 DNG + JPG images, that is a lot of images!

[espelt]

After a large memory card completely failed me on a trip and the pictures were irretrievably lost, I changed completely and always travel with a dozen small cards. 4 GB is roughly the number of images on a film. A few more... When the card is full, it goes into the pocket and it's the next person's turn. I'm coping very well with it. I still have the raw data from the images on the cards from some trips. An additional archive. It works because I use the M digital like an analog camera. Sometimes there are three pictures a day, sometimes 30. I've never tried the series photo function. The speed of the camera is fine for me.

[lct]

There is a solution called SD Card Formatter. It is free and will save you 2 sec. in average if you get the same results as i did on the M240 ten years ago.

 

[LocalHero1953]

There have been many discussions on this subject (e.g.). @lct listed the start up speeds for the M240 and various cards, but the spreadsheet is no longer available. The size of the card made a difference, but not (IIRC) the amount of remaining storage. I think Sandisk Extreme Pro 95mb/s 64Gb was one of the fastest, and 32Gb one of the slowest. It was important to format with SD Formatter, and use exFAT formatting.

[lct]

26 minutes ago, LocalHero1953 said:

 @lct listed the start up speeds for the M240 and various cards, but the spreadsheet is no longer available.

Hope it works but it is not updated.

M240-M82_sdcards_times.xls.pdf

[Ernstk]

On 3/10/2024 at 12:01 PM, Herman Zhang said:

a problem would be that I wouldn't be able shoot that many photos at once though. A 16gb Card would only store ~300 photos as I shoot DNG(compressed, as I don't edit much anyways)+fine Jpeg(for the better colours and the "Leica look" unseen on the DNGs)

The answer is simple; just use a 64GB card. as others have suggested.

[Julian Paren]

My M 240 has been getting slower on start-up.  The card is a Sandisk 64GB Extreme.  I timed it, and every time it came to 9.5s.  I had used 48GB. On reading the Forum this did seem far too slow.

So, I have reformatted the card (the full treatment) with SD Card Formatter, and the now empty card, with it reformatted also in camera, gives a start-up time of 2s. My MacBook confirms the format is Ex-FAT.

 

I post this with interest whether

1  Whether anyone else has tolerated 9 s start up times?

2 Whether the full reformatting (rather than the Quick I have used before) is the reason for the better start-up time?

3 Whether all reformatted "empty" cards have faster start-up times than when they contain some GB of data?

 

 

 

[lct]

5 hours ago, Julian Paren said:

My M 240 has been getting slower on start-up.  The card is a Sandisk 64GB Extreme.  I timed it, and every time it came to 9.5s.  I had used 48GB. On reading the Forum this did seem far too slow.

So, I have reformatted the card (the full treatment) with SD Card Formatter, and the now empty card, with it reformatted also in camera, gives a start-up time of 2s. My MacBook confirms the format is Ex-FAT.

 

I post this with interest whether

1  Whether anyone else has tolerated 9 s start up times?

2 Whether the full reformatting (rather than the Quick I have used before) is the reason for the better start-up time?

3 Whether all reformatted "empty" cards have faster start-up times than when they contain some GB of data?

1. I would never tolerate this. 2s startup time is the average result one can expect from the M240.

2. Not really. Even the "Quick format" option of SD Card Formatter did it for me. Does no harm to use the "Overwrite format" of same anyway.

3. I don't know. All my measures have been done on empty cards. See link below.

 

 

[sometimesmaybe]

On 3/20/2025 at 8:41 PM, Julian Paren said:

The card is a Sandisk 64GB Extreme.  I timed it, and every time it came to 9.5s

could signs of a failing SD card, best to test with another 64gb card

[hjddd]

also we hope for new firmware of M240/262 series

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Hallo,

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[rscheffler]

On 3/20/2025 at 5:41 AM, Julian Paren said:

My M 240 has been getting slower on start-up.  The card is a Sandisk 64GB Extreme.  I timed it, and every time it came to 9.5s.  I had used 48GB. On reading the Forum this did seem far too slow.

So, I have reformatted the card (the full treatment) with SD Card Formatter, and the now empty card, with it reformatted also in camera, gives a start-up time of 2s. My MacBook confirms the format is Ex-FAT.

 

I post this with interest whether

3 Whether all reformatted "empty" cards have faster start-up times than when they contain some GB of data?

 

 

Your point number 3: This has generally been my experience, including with other systems. There are various factors but it seems the more files on the card, particularly if they are very small and very numerous, will slow down initial start up because the camera appears to 'poll' the card for its contents. I assume this is some sort of verification process to determine what is already on the card, remaining capacity, etc.

On my other system I will often use 256GB cards that will hold in the range of 20,000 raw images. When these cards get into the range of around 10,000 files on them, start up slows down and the read/write indictor lamp on the back of the camera will be on (rapidly flashing on/off) for maybe 15+ seconds (but usually the camera is ready to use in a few seconds). In contrast to the last point, the M240 appears to be locked out of image capture until the card has been fully polled/evaluated by the start-up procedure.

I always found the M240's start up much too slow and typically disabled sleep completely so that it would always be ready for a spontaneous moment while out and about. It has massive battery capacity (compared to the M9), which meant disabling sleep didn't affect usability, for me at least.