erl Posted September 30, 2009 Share #21 Posted September 30, 2009 Advertisement (gone after registration) Point taken about working in the dark, the display also shows manual shutter speed. My M9 arrived a couple of months back so I've been pining for that LCD for a while now. Brett, sometimes by 'seeing' the change as an improvement, regardless of your impulse, you can adopt the reality as an improvement. The manually set shutter speed display in the 'info' is a step forward, but now needs to be shown in the VF, again when working in the dark manual setiings, for me are frequent and VF readout would be efficient. Hopefully it will come, eventually, "as manuel says". Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted September 30, 2009 Posted September 30, 2009 Hi erl, Take a look here One thing I would like to see on the M9. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
lars_bergquist Posted October 1, 2009 Share #22 Posted October 1, 2009 The battery problem (which may indeed be a problem for some users) could be dealt with by a battery pack to replace the regular baseplate, and with a coupling prong up into the battery compartment. This in itself would not require any modification whatever to the standard body -- unless of course you insist on also having an extra shutter release there. But while Canikon bricks and the S2 are unwieldy enough to require that 'portrait format release', the M is definitely not. Another improvement which would require no hardware modification would be exposure biasing. When I put a roll of Kodachrome 64 in any of my SLRs, I used to set the exposure meter to 80, in order to hold highlights better, and have more colour saturation. Most pros did that. And that was that. There was no Japanese imp constantly hitting me over my head with a baseball bat and screaming "your-meter-setting-is-wrong-yourmetersettingiswrongyourmeter setting ..." But in order to do the same with a M8 or M9, I must use exposure compensation permanently, and accept having a German imp around, behaving just like his Japanese brother. -- So there should be a 'Bias Exposure' item under MENU where I could trim my settings permanently, completely distinct from any momentary exposure compensation. Is there anybody around here who knows enough about exposure to understand what I am speaking of? The old man from the Age of Kodachrome Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
erl Posted October 1, 2009 Share #23 Posted October 1, 2009 Lars , see my reply to you in the 'other' thread, what was it called, "things I would Like on the M9/10" or something like that. No, M9 and blown highlights? Yes, that's it! "The old man who can't remember" Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mhoersch Posted October 1, 2009 Share #24 Posted October 1, 2009 On the risk of being flamed for adding complexity Now that I have started using my M9 for real, I find that I do miss shots due to an unexpectedly empty battery - I never had that problem on the M8, but the loss of the top LCD and the higher power consumption have left me with a dead camera twice already. Hear, hear! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lars_bergquist Posted October 1, 2009 Share #25 Posted October 1, 2009 Lars , see my reply to you in the 'other' thread, what was it called, "things I would Like on the M9/10" or something like that. No, M9 and blown highlights? Yes, that's it! "The old man who can't remember" Yes -- and there I also answered your objection. The old man from the Age of Anscochrome Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest EarlBurrellPhoto Posted October 1, 2009 Share #26 Posted October 1, 2009 On the risk of being flamed for adding complexity Now that I have started using my M9 for real, I find that I do miss shots due to an unexpectedly empty battery - I never had that problem on the M8, but the loss of the top LCD and the higher power consumption have left me with a dead camera twice already.Leica, if you are listening, please add some indication in the viewfinder (blinking?) or even a beep (yuck!) to warn that the battery is about to run down. I agree and I was appalled to see that they eliminated it. Giving it more accuracy would've been an improvement. Giving the frame counter the the capacity to indicate more than 999 shots would've been an improvement. Making it so it could light up in the dark would've been an improvement. Eliminating it, like eliminating the sapphire screen, was Leica trying to keep costs down. Seems as if they gave the bean-counters final say over the engineers, and, I have to believe, the input of real photographers who were the first round of beta testers (prior to the early-adopters). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
luigi bertolotti Posted October 1, 2009 Share #27 Posted October 1, 2009 Advertisement (gone after registration) The idea of a handgrip - not bigger than std. accessory already available, with an additional battery inside and proper baseplate to connect this 2nd battery to the power circuit, maybe wouldn't be silly... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
hx911 Posted October 2, 2009 Share #28 Posted October 2, 2009 But is not the small size one of the big features? Complaints of it being a few mm biggerthan a m3 are so often voiced, so if you then fit another grip and battery ... I say this because I too would like to see the top LCD - I do not have an M9 yet, but I carry my M8 in a Luigi Case, and the back LCD is covered. A quick check on battery and SD card condition, and the preliminary 'is the camera on or on standby' is possible without raising the camera to the eye or having to remove the rear cover. It will not be a dealbreaker for me, for sure, but nevertheless ... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
luigi bertolotti Posted October 2, 2009 Share #29 Posted October 2, 2009 But is not the small size one of the big features? Complaints of it being a few mm biggerthan a m3 are so often voiced, so if you then fit another grip and battery ... I say this because I too would like to see the top LCD - I do not have an M9 yet, but I carry my M8 in a Luigi Case, and the back LCD is covered. A quick check on battery and SD card condition, and the preliminary 'is the camera on or on standby' is possible without raising the camera to the eye or having to remove the rear cover. It will not be a dealbreaker for me, for sure, but nevertheless ... Me too wouldn't like to trade compactness for more power... but I have noticed that the handgrip is appreciated by many M8 user (and there is even a Luigi Case for the camera so equipped...) : an additional battery could be a smart way to capitalize its volume ( but maybe too costly: you had to find a manufacturer that makes a battery that fits exactly its volume-shape... very unusual if we think of the typical batteries of today's devices...) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
anupmc Posted October 2, 2009 Share #30 Posted October 2, 2009 Me too wouldn't like to trade compactness for more power... but I have noticed that the handgrip is appreciated by many M8 user (and there is even a Luigi Case for the camera so equipped...) : an additional battery could be a smart way to capitalize its volume ( but maybe too costly: you had to find a manufacturer that makes a battery that fits exactly its volume-shape... very unusual if we think of the typical batteries of today's devices...) I was actually surprised that Leica didn't move forward to the newer Lithium-Ion Polymer batteries instead - these tend to have larger number of charge-discharge cycles before they start to lose storage capacity, plus they can in fact be moulded into any shape the manufacturer wants. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaapv Posted October 2, 2009 Author Share #31 Posted October 2, 2009 Jaap, it's a bit ironic that you were hoping that the M9 would have the same old battery. Would it not have been better if Leica had offered an improved battery, so that you could have better battery performance than in the M8? The cost would have been having to buy new and different batteries. But the perceived advantage of "same battery" for M8 and M9 has a cost too. It's also ironic that ModernMan got blasted in the other thread for, among other things, suggesting a grip that can hold multiple batteries. It seems that everyone is against some new feature or improvement until they actually need it. :D Well, with an other size battery I would be sunk now, stuck in the Mozambiquan bush without spares . In any case my complaint was not about the capacity per se, but about the lack of warning. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mhoersch Posted October 2, 2009 Share #32 Posted October 2, 2009 In any case my complaint was not about the capacity per se, but about the lack of warning. May I remind you of your posts in two others threads (Wake up! and The little top LCD debate!) in defense of Leica's removal of the top LCD? "I found it was a royal pain in the behind, as it had no illumination, so it was impossible to check battery and shots in anything but fairly bright light." "If you have to take time off to check the status of the camera you will have missed the shot anyway. Just give the shutter release a quick brush when you see a situation coming up." I assume a quick brush on the shutter release won't help much when the battery is dead, right? So, perhaps my question " How can you tell that the M9 is ready to shoot?" - which has remained unanswered in this forum to this day, by the way - was not that stupid after all, was it? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
fotografr Posted October 2, 2009 Share #33 Posted October 2, 2009 On the risk of being flamed for adding complexity Now that I have started using my M9 for real, I find that I do miss shots due to an unexpectedly empty battery - I never had that problem on the M8, but the loss of the top LCD and the higher power consumption have left me with a dead camera twice already.Leica, if you are listening, please add some indication in the viewfinder (blinking?) or even a beep (yuck!) to warn that the battery is about to run down. Blasphemer! How dare you suggest making the M9 even more complex! The idea of a handgrip - not bigger than std. accessory already available, with an additional battery inside and proper baseplate to connect this 2nd battery to the power circuit, maybe wouldn't be silly... Better look what happened to ModernMan before you make such audacious suggestions. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
diogenis Posted October 3, 2009 Share #34 Posted October 3, 2009 What happened to modernman? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
hoppyman Posted October 3, 2009 Share #35 Posted October 3, 2009 I was actually surprised that Leica didn't move forward to the newer Lithium-Ion Polymer batteries instead - these tend to have larger number of charge-discharge cycles before they start to lose storage capacity, plus they can in fact be moulded into any shape the manufacturer wants. You may like to watch the video interview with Stefan Daniel which deals with design issues and realities. That newer battery technology is specifically mentioned too. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
anupmc Posted October 4, 2009 Share #36 Posted October 4, 2009 You may like to watch the video interview with Stefan Daniel which deals with design issues and realities. That newer battery technology is specifically mentioned too. Thanks Hoppyman, I missed the discussion on the battery the first time I watched the video, but caught it this time. While its true that the original Lithium Polymer batteries have a poorer charge-cycle rate (as mentioned by one of the interviewer's on the video), the current thin-film version of Li-Poly batteries are fantastic and can handle more than 10,000 cycles, significantly more than traditional Li-ion batteries - this is why Apple switched to these new batteries and have shipped millions of MacBooks with them. Plus the benefits, of faster charge time (90% of full charge within 5mins), lighter, mouldable to any shape, and 20% higher energy density makes these Li-poly batteries a no-brainer. That said though, I suppose it's not too late for Leica to look into these batteries now, even if the M9s are shipping with current batteries, they can easily be switched to new Li-poly batteries at some point in the future. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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