Leica M11/M11-M/M11-P/M11-D: Firmware Update v.2.1.3 with further improvements

[aficionados]

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I found a new issue that I had never experienced before with 2.1.3

I finally updated the camera to 2.1.3, did a factory reset afterwards and didn’t load the old user profiles (I never use profile anyways). Dust protection is off.

Occasionally when the camera was turned on the “stapler” sound didn’t occur meaning the shutter didn’t open, the frame lines didn’t appear in the viewfinder either. However everything else worked fine including accessing the menus. When I half pressed the shutter the “stapler” sound occurred and the shutter was open with frame lines lit up. It’s almost like the camera was awaken from sleep, but it’s not the case since I just turned it on. Of course it could also be fixed by turning off and on the camera again.

What puzzles me is that this issue only happened when an uncoded lens was mounted and happened about 1 out of 10 times. It never happened to a coded lens.

So technically it’s not a freeze but an issue I never met before. I feel like when the camera is turned on it tries to detect the lens by reading the codes when it couldn’t find the code it refuses to open the shutter (and light up the frame lines). But as I observed it doesn’t always happen.

Edited November 11, 2024 by aficionados

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[kiwidad]

11 minutes ago, aficionados said:

I found a new issue that I had never experienced before with 2.1.3

I finally updated the camera to 2.1.3, did a factory reset afterwards and didn’t load the old user profiles (I never use profile anyways). Dust protection is off.

Occasionally when the camera was turned on the “stapler” sound didn’t occur meaning the shutter didn’t open, the frame lines didn’t appear in the viewfinder either. However everything else worked fine including accessing the menus. When I half pressed the shutter the “stapler” sound occurred and the shutter was open with frame lines lit up. It’s almost like the camera was awaken from sleep, but it’s not the case since I just turned it on. Of course it could also be fixed by turning off and on the camera again.

What puzzles me is that this issue only happened when an uncoded lens was mounted and happened about 1 out of 10 times. It never happened to a coded lens.

So technically it’s not a freeze but an issue I never met before. I feel like when the camera is turned on it tries to detect the lens by reading the codes when it couldn’t find the code it refuses to open the shutter (and light up the frame lines). But as I observed it doesn’t always happen.

I had this prior to the update but it was introduced by the prior update. It’s almost like the camera powers on in sleep mode. Not a big deal really but rather odd

[aficionados]

8 minutes ago, kiwidad said:

I had this prior to the update but it was introduced by the prior update. It’s almost like the camera powers on in sleep mode. Not a big deal really but rather odd

My anecdote case says this bug still exists in the latest firmware 2.1.3

I’m not sure yet if it’s related the coded/uncoded lens, but so far it hasn’t occurred to coded lenses and only to the uncoded lenses. Now I’m mounted a coded lens to it and will do more test in the coming days.

It’s not as a big issue as freeze but rather inconvenience and odd.

I suspect this bug stems from the dust protection feature combined with failing to read the 6-bit code on the lens. The camera functions as it should close the shutter when the lens is removed. However this bug occurred when I set the dust protection to be off (I always leave it off)

Edited November 11, 2024 by aficionados

[lct]

Uncoded lenses used in auto detection mode?

[aficionados]

35 minutes ago, lct said:

Uncoded lenses used in auto detection mode?

No it's not. Lens type is manually selected.

 

 

Edited November 11, 2024 by aficionados

[lct]

15 minutes ago, aficionados said:

No it's not. Lens type is manually selected.

This is not normal then. Which lens profile is displayed by the camera, the one you selected manually or does it say "uncoded" or anything else?

Edited November 11, 2024 by lct

[aficionados]

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39 minutes ago, lct said:

This is not normal then. Which lens profile is displayed by the camera, the one you selected manually or does it say "uncoded" or anything else?

The one I selected manually. I have never seen the word "uncoded", have you?

Of course it's not normal. I am not asking if the camera shutter refusing to open when being turned on is normal. I am reporting a bug.

What I think is that the camera somehow still wants to read the code even when the lens profile is set to one I manually selected prior. And when it couldn't read the code it initiates the dust protection feature to not open the shutter even though the dust protection is set to be off.

This is the only logical explanation because so far I have not experienced it with coded lenses.

Edited November 11, 2024 by aficionados

[lct]

7 hours ago, aficionados said:

What I think is that the camera somehow still wants to read the code even when the lens profile is set to one I manually selected prior. And when it couldn't read the code it initiates the dust protection feature to not open the shutter even though the dust protection is set to be off.

The M11 gives priority to coded lenses, and indeed reads or tries to read the code of the lens in the first place. Not a bug, a feature of the camera. What can and did happen in the past is the camera seeing a dirt or or a badly painted code on the flange of the lens and then freezing accordingly. You may wish to check that the flange of the lens and the camera mount are perfectly clean. Best way to avoid this is doing that cleaning and pen coding the lens if you can. Its easy with VM and ZM lenses that have a groove in the flange for 6bit coding, less so with old M-mount or LTM lenses  that have not that groove.

Edited November 11, 2024 by lct

[aficionados]

1 hour ago, lct said:

The M11 gives priority to coded lenses, and indeed reads or tries to read the code of the lens in the first place. Not a bug, a feature of the camera. What can and did happen in the past is the camera seeing a dirt or or a badly painted code on the flange of the lens and then freezing accordingly. You may wish to check that the flange of the lens and the camera mount are perfectly clean. Best way to avoid this is doing that cleaning and pen coding the lens if you can. Its easy with VM and ZM lenses that have a groove in the flange for 6bit coding, less so with old M-mount or LTM lenses  that have not that groove.

When dust protection is off and lens detection is set to be manual, camera still closed the shutter when an uncoded lens is mounted, it is a bug no matter how you sugarcoat it.

Flange is super clean no dust or speck of anything, I made sure of it by wiping it clean.

Edited November 11, 2024 by aficionados

[hdmesa]

2 hours ago, aficionados said:

When dust protection is off and lens detection is set to be manual, camera still closed the shutter when an uncoded lens is mounted, it is a bug no matter how you sugarcoat it.

Flange is super clean no dust or speck of anything, I made sure of it by wiping it clean.

Does the uncoded lens have a black mount by any chance? It’s a long shot, but some Voigtlander lenses with black mounts mess with the 6-bit code reader.

If not, you might try resetting the camera one more time just in case that fixes it. 

[aficionados]

1 hour ago, hdmesa said:

Does the uncoded lens have a black mount by any chance? It’s a long shot, but some Voigtlander lenses with black mounts mess with the 6-bit code reader.

If not, you might try resetting the camera one more time just in case that fixes it. 

I don't know what black mount means, I never owned any lenses with black mounts. The flange is silver. It's an old Leica Summilux 50/f1.4 v2 in v1 house. The flange is super clean without any speck of dirt I made sure of it by wiping it with an alcohol pad. I reset the camera and so far it doesn't occur yet, but who knows the issue is intermittent anyway.

[lct]

With black LTM to M adapters the camera says "No lens" here. With silver uncoded flanges, it selects the last lens profile that has been entered manually under the user profile in use if any.

Edited November 11, 2024 by lct

[hdmesa]

37 minutes ago, aficionados said:

I don't know what black mount means, I never owned any lenses with black mounts. The flange is silver. It's an old Leica Summilux 50/f1.4 v2 in v1 house. The flange is super clean without any speck of dirt I made sure of it by wiping it with an alcohol pad. I reset the camera and so far it doesn't occur yet, but who knows the issue is intermittent anyway.

Hopefully the reset fixed it.

Re: black mount, some lenses have black lens mounts, so I was just checking to rule that out.

[mbmoore]

On 10/18/2024 at 10:47 AM, Derbyshire Man said:

When I've had situations like this I've left the camera on, popped out the battery in on mode, waiting 5 seconds and then turned off, re-inserted the battery and then switched on and it righted itself. Only happened a couple of times in probably 20,000 images however.

 

Thanks - it's thankfully not happened again so I can't test your solution. But I appreciate the advice.