rscheffler
Offline
• • • • • •
Upload & Sell: Off
|
 p.840 #3 · Leica M/X/T/S/Q/CL/SL Picture Thread | |
Sure Ash, mention it now AFTER you've bought it for that price!  That's pretty remarkable considering it's now around that much for the Summarit. Still one on the future acquisitions list, but probably not in the near future, even though Leonas is showing a lot of nice work with it. (I really like the dog photo.)
I think the consensus is the 18 isn't quite as perfectly remarkable as the 21 and 24, but it's up there too. Biggest pain might be the weird filter adapter, if you need to use filters much. The 21 and 24 at least use the standard 46mm.
Nice Doug - I've also been out looking for patterns in the snow...
Joakim - the first one, of the stairs, does it for me!
Katie - I especially like the B&W of the two portraits.
Andrew, that's quite a diverse set! Love the Sonnar rendering in some of those... reminds me I need to use my Opton Sonnar again.
Gary - good example of the SEM's transparent quality.
Charlie - very cool location! Surprised you were allowed to roam around on such short notice. Seems like the owner might be an eclectic individual!
I'm starting to give the M240 more serious consideration. Yesterday and today I went out for 3-4 hours down to the woods near home where there's a large wetlands area including a large frozen body of water. I was looking for patterns in the snowdrifts, etc... It was cold, under -10C and very windy. When I made the mistake to use my phone for 30 seconds bare handed, I could barely use my hand afterwards and it took 10-15 minutes to recover... But I was loving the blowing snow, kind of like sand dunes, but without having to worry about getting sand in the equipment and bags, etc. It was so peaceful too. While I was sitting out on the ice, shooting sequences of blowing snow, filling the buffer... the camera went unresponsive. I'd shot a sequence, so there must have been ~5 image in the buffer, but the red card activity LED was off. Had to pull the battery to regain functionality. I figured it was my fault because I broke my own rule reviewing images while the camera was writing to the card... So I stopped doing that, but the camera froze again every so often. It was getting frustrating. By the end of the walk, I could only shoot two photos, and the camera would not write the second to the card.
Today's conditions were very similar. My phone said it was -11 and it very windy again out on the open ice. Not so much sun for setting off the patterns in the snow, so I got off to a slow start shooting. Looking at today's images, I got off about 85 before the first lock-up happened. The second happened after 15 images. The third after five. the fourth after another five and the fifth happened two frames later. Kind of the same acceleration of freezes as yesterday.
So this is what happened....
Whether it's really a full buffer, or only a few images, the camera will show the three horizontal flashing LEDs that normally indicate a full buffer and writing to the card, but the regular exposure metering symbols never return to indicate free buffer space. I think the red light is still flashing during this.. or maybe it's not. I don't remember exactly. Pulling the battery resets the camera.
As the lock ups increased, I noticed it was a bit different. I'd shoot a frame and the card writing light would simply never light. The normal metering LED in the viewfinder stays on, never turning off and the shutter will not fire. Pulling the battery resets the camera.
After both of these kinds of lock-ups, I would turn on the camera and press the info button. The bar indicating available memory card space will show fully red and with zero frames available. This lasts for 5-10 seconds, then it seems to reset and shows the correct used and available card space. Earlier during the freezes yesterday I assumed there was a problem with the card and would pull it without waiting long enough for the camera to figure out the correct card usage. This ended up resetting the frame numbering a few hundred positions earlier. After I figured out to wait the 5-10 seconds, the renumber problem didn't happen again.
As an aside, the last time something like this happened, where I actually lost frames, was during a wedding. When I saw zero frames available after resetting the camera, I assumed the card was toast (which naturally got me quite worried). But now I think I realize that the camera scans the card and hits the last 'bad' frame that was lost when the camera froze, but is still referenced to on the card as a zero bytes 'ghost' file
After downloading the card via Photo Mechanic, there will be a zero bytes DNG file with the correct file name of the image that was lost each time the camera froze. Photo Mechanic puts these bad and unknown files into a separate folder.
I'm curious if anyone else has had similar or better experiences with the M9 in such cold conditions? Last winter around this time I spent 4-5 hours out during a very windy blizzard without any problems. As usual, I never made any attempt to protect the equipment, other than keeping the lenses in a satchel. The camera was out and around my neck the whole time. I noticed the shutter recocking sound would sometimes vary. Often it was normal but from time to time it would sound different... either slower or slightly different sounds.
Maybe my camera is simply wearing out? I'm not a typical contemplative, slow-paced rangefinder shooter, I guess.  The camera is currently at near 143,000 shutter actuations, according to M9Info app.
M9Info also reports sensor temperature and I've noticed that the freezes all happen under -7C. Today the sensor temperature went only as low as -8 when I stopped the camera it out of frustration. Yesterday it reached -11 at the end of the walk. Not sure whether temperature is related or a coincidence...
I haven't been out in the cold much this winter, so I don't have much comparative data available. The coldest the sensor reached on other outings was -5 and the camera never had lock-ups. Looking at the images from the blizzard last winter, the sensor only went as low as -5... If it is temperature related, maybe I should tape a couple hand warmers to the body...
FWIW, while out these past couple days, I also had a loaner Sony RX10 with me... and I was surprised it made it through the cold A-OK. I only have one battery for it, and it was only down to 40% after 300 frames today. Not bad, considering it's a live view camera...
Here's one from yesterday; M9 & 28 Cron
|
