Need advice on dlux-4 please

[CatWorthy]

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Hi all,

My first post on this forum...

 

Just became a new and proud owner of the dlux-4, which is my first Leica. I have a couple of questions someone on this board may know:

 

- My first impression of the build is not all that great. When the camera is first turned on and the lense is fully extended, I can rock the lense stack a bit (now I did this VERY gently. There's more mechanical play than I expected from a Japanese-built gadget, and the play was enough to generate a sound, which was very plasticsy. Feels very cheap. Is this the norm for this camera or do I have a bad copy?

 

- I want to upload to the 1.2 FW, but am having some problems. The camera didn't go thru the format routine with a blank SD mem. It asked if I wanted to delete all data, when I said yes, nothing happened. The camera went back to shooting mode on its own, and didn't do any formatting. Did anyone have this problem and how did you get around it? The SD card I used is brand new.

 

- The FW upgrade instructions want you to do the FW upgrade in 2 steps - dl from their server onto your SD card, then from your card onto your camera. I'm wondering if I can do this in one shot - just dl it directly onto the camera via the USB cable. I haven't tried it yet, and am holding off on it until I hear some positive affirmations.

 

Thanks in advance.

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[cliffm]

re: usb. you can copy the firmware using the usb.

 

It probably did format the card. If the card is usable, it is formatted. You can tell by looking to see if it has the two folders on it (one of them is DCIM).

[farnz]

Welcome to the forum, Fates (and cliffm).

 

Congratulations on your new camera! My lens stack has a little play when extended but no more than I'd expect for the tolerances needed to prevent the segments from binding as they extend. Personally I think the build is pretty good and certainly better than other similar cameras on the market but YMMV.

 

When updating the firmware you need to down load to your computer's hard drive, and if using Windoze, unzip the downloaded file and extract the DLX4_120.bin file and copy that onto your SD card. (I don't use a Mac but others on the forum report that Macs don't need the unzipping step.)

 

So, mine was done in 3 basic steps (4 if you count the extraction from the zipped file):

1. Leica website -> hard drive

2. Hard drive -> SD

3. SD to camera.

 

(Leica's instructions split the operation into 5 steps.)

 

You should format your SD card in the camera before loading the DLX4_120.bin file onto it, and because the M8 requires a 5 second wait after it asks whether you want to update the firmware, I did the same with the D-Lux 4.

 

Make sure that your D-Lux 4 is in Record mode by pushing up the little switch to the left of the thumb pad at the top right on the back of the camera and make sure the camera is in "P" mode on the dial on the top. If it's in Playback mode or other than Program mode the new firmware won't load.

 

I hope this helps and please post some pictures in the Photo forums when your ready, we'd love to see them!

 

Pete.

[CatWorthy]

Thanks cliffm & farnz. I figured what I did wrong and got it done. User error was the cause as suspected.

 

farnz - I got it done in Playback mode (per instructions) and it worked. Well, may be it works both ways.

 

Thanks again. I appreciate your help.

[farnz]

Fates,

 

Thanks or letting us know about Playback mode; the instruction came directly from the installation instructions pdf on the Leica AG website. Others have also reported not being to install the firmware when their D-Lux 4 was in playback so there you go.

 

Glad you managed to update your fw and happy shooting!

 

Pete.

[cliffm]

Thing that tripped me up the first time was the battery wasn't quite fully charged, and it won't start the upgrade w/o a full charge.