Forum Replies Created
David,
Wasn't that an issue with the read/write tab on the card?My Sandisk 8gb Extreme class 10 SD card died in camera. I think the process was – review image, zoom image (red light flashing), then accidentally hit the shutter button – not acquiring an image. Then the card was dead – I could take another image but it would not record. The card could not be read in either Mac or PC. Could not even format the card in either platform.
Sandisk replaced the card.
David,
Here is a link to the international warranty upgrade. http://support.leica-camera.com/fileadmin/user_upload/docs/Warranty_e_M9_conditions.pdf It states that this program is transferrable for the M9. I do know that the laws for EU countries differ from the US warranty laws.As of today, the cost is $411 in US dollars. I will be getting this so that when/if within this year that I sell my M9, it will at least have a warranty for the new buyer.
-Al
David,
Is the warranty transferrable – like the one offered by Solms?ka7197;436 wrote: You're pretending the only possible reason for losing digital images was card failure. Maybe I'm just too clumsy but in my experience, other kinds of reasons are much more prevalent in real life.
In six years of shooting digitally, it happened three times that I lost images on a memory card before I could download them to some other media:
- Hardware error on a brand-new 1 GB flash card (as described above).
- Pulling a card from the camera while the red access light was still blinking, as I was in a hurry when the (small) card was full right in the middle of the unfolding action.
- Confusing two cards, being in a hurry again, and inadvertently formatting and re-using the wrong card.
Failures #2 and #3 were my own faults, not the card's—and that's my point: this kind of glitches will occur when you have to change cards in the middle of the job too often. Both failures would not have occurred if my cards had been bigger. I am more afraid of me to make a mistake than of the card to fail. After initial break-in, flash cards are pretty reliable in normal use. Heck, even my 6 GB Microdrive from Hitachi, being more sensitive to shock and vibration than any flash card, has never missed a byte. So—the less cards I have to juggle while shooting, the safer I am from losing images.
Doing something in a specific order – all of the time helps. When running low on disk space, replace before it fills completely. I have a different colored case for my spent cards. Not only that but it has a leash, waterproof and floats. Hey, blank cards can be bought new but loaded cards can't be replaced.
As far as MTBF, the card that failed me last was used about 40 cycles before failure. The one before, about 60 cycles, I have yet to have one fail early in it's life. The last card failure was due to a sequence of button pushing on my M9 and not from changing the cards, so stuff happens.
As with Las Vegas, I'll bet on myself any day before betting against the house.
David Farkas;433 wrote: Wow. From 100 shots to 6 (although you would get around 13 with lossless compressed DNG). Quite a change. And I remember when those 512MB cards cost $300. 😮
I still have some old Micro Drives that cost $$$$Just to play devil's advocate, with smaller cards and more CF card changes, you are putting more wear and tear on the connector pins, both in the camera and in the cards. I doubt with normal use you'd ever see a failure, but statistically…..
That is what you have a warranty for 😮 and a spare body.
A company called Photo Equip that makes a grip called MD-Grip which attaches to the bottom plate rather than replacing it. The grip is covered with neoprene and triangular in shape – much better to hold than the Leica round grip. Also the Megaperls 1.35 magnifier, it has a built in diopter! Artist and Artisan Silk strap, great to wrap around the wrist does not abrade the skin like nylon.
KA7197, welcome to the forum. Small vs large cards are relative to the number of images stored or lost. Yes, those “big” cards of yesteryear are small by today's comparison but did store a good number of images, a 512 mb card would store 93 5.47 mb images from my D1X but only 6 from my S2. So in relative terms, I would have to use a 8 gb card to equal the storage capacity of 100 images.
So it is more of a risk/reward proposition, just like gambling, do you put down $1000 on Red or $100? The pay off would be the same, even money, but the risk of losing $100 is 1/10th the loss of $1000. By nature, I am a cautious and do not gamble so I am only willing to “bet” 100 images that my card will not fail vs 500 images on a bigger card. My reward for using the bigger card is four less card changes saving some time but at the risk of losing all 500 images. Mind you, I marvel at those individuals who bet large sums of money at the gaming tables – but it is not my comfort level.
Stuart,
I have the adapter that David produced and can attest that it can handle the 350 FE lens that you have. I briefly had a 350 FE but did not end up keeping the lens as it had some separating elements and returned it to the seller. In difference to the 350 CF f5.6 and the 350 FE, the fact that the lens has a tripod mount really helps balance and keeps the stress off of the mount. Like you I did find a little CA with the 350 FE but it is correctable in Lightroom and is better handled than the 350 CF f5.6. The 350 SA is another story altogether, great imaging, at a cost.Cheers,
AlMarc,
I agree with your observations that the S series of lenses are by far the best out there. The ability to use other brands of lenses opens up the possibilities for specialty lenses and lower cost alternatives till one can save up the funds to purchase one of those gems. While the Hassey 120 is not as crisp as the 120 S, it does put up a good fight and the cost of mine was $300 or one S hood and lens cap :). The 35 S is scary sharp, in the comparison with the Hassey 40 FLE, what I first thought was noise artifact in the shot actually was the texture of the plastic. That was pixel peeping, at normal display settings, they did not appear that different. Each image held it's own ground, but side by side you could tell the difference.In the end, it is nice to be able to entertain other options while I wait for the supply chain to open up for S lenses. Sort of like the Zeiss and CV lenses for the M9, lower cost and a steady supply give users a lot more options.
Doug,
Pike Place Market is my backyard so to speak, I enjoy going there mainly to do my grocery shopping and doing some people work. I am working on a project shooting the flowers in the market through the seasons.If you are planning a trip to Seattle drop me a line and we can get together.
Al
Mark,
Converting to B&W is a subjective thing and it really depends on what your final statement will be. I have used most of the different techniques, LR, PS, and now Silver effects 2 and found that to be the closest B&W conversion tool.When I am doing a B&W conversion, I want it to look like a B&W print in both tonality and texture. My early experiments with B&W digital were less than satisfying, so I sat down and reviewed a great deal of my older B&W prints. The one common thing that I found in the silver gelatin process was the grain from the film emulsion was always sharp, regardless of the image sharpness. My light bulb moment so to speak, because when reviewing the digital conversions, the grain was not that apparent and had too smooth of a look. Also, when doing a B&W conversion you want to treat the scene just like you would taking a B&W shot from the get go. My normal filter was a yellow filter to add some contrast in the sky or at times an orange filter for added contrast. So I start with those, then I add the tonal characteristics from the different emulsions, my favorite is Tri-X 400. I adjust the contrast so that I have a full toned print with both detail in the highlights and shadows. Then finally I add some grain to the shot to give it some texture. If I am doing a still life with smooth textures, I scale back the grain, but I still want a hint of it there.
We had over 100 visitors celebrating the opening of the exhibit on Saturday. One visitor came all the way from Texas to see the work. Overall, a fun time was had by all.
+1 on the noise reduction!
How about focus confirmation with the “dot” I know the are linked to the lens but at least a confirmation with non Leica lenses.
Your back up of images to two drives is a good one. My point of the posting was when cards die, how many images are lost and how much impact will it be? I choose to use smaller cards, ones that would store a quarter day's shooting for me so that if it did fail I would not be out a lot of images. This is at the expense of having to carry four cards for a day's shooting and taking 15 seconds to change the card out periodically, instead of one in the camera. So if 32 gb is what you shoot in a quarter of a day, then use a 32 gb card by all means.
This is a similar strategy used in the data storage world, save data in small increments so that any machine/device failure will result in the smallest impact. If a business waited till the end of the day to tally the tills and had a device failure, all of the transactions that took place during the day would be lost. If they constantly polled the tills at one minute increments, and a failure were to happen, only one minutes' data would be lost. Think of those polls as a memory card, how much data are you willing to lose?
The technology for SD and CF cards use “bubble” memory where each cell is numbered and holds a bit of information, they have a finite life. The header of the card, keeps track of the bad cells and controls where each bit of information is stored on the card. If the header fails, then the entire card is toast and that is what happened to my card.
