M8 write Lag

[tbarker13]

My experience is the same as Jaapv's.
Once I fill the buffer, it'll shoot again once the buffer clears a bit. But just at a much slower pace.
This is definitely one of the weaknesses of this camera.
I also use mine for documentary work, as well as portraiture. And the relatively slow write speed is one of reasons I also use a Nikon D300. Rarely do I run into the same problem with that camera.

 

[sepiareverb]

I'd give Leica an email describing the symptoms and including some files. They've always been very responsive with me from a simple question to the dreaded dead pixel line problem.

I find shooting DNG + JPG does slow this camera down a LOT. When I did the test drive I thought I'd broken it shooting in Continuous mode when it went for ten or twelve frames in JPG mode then locked up. I'll guess you've got the latest firmware? I've not tried shooting only DNG in a long time, when I first tried this I couldn't get the card to be recognized by my computer. May give that another go with the next card.

Batteries can also cause trouble I've found. Low battery power creates errors with mine when pushing the camera- you might try a new battery if your batteries are of unknown history. Just yesterday I had a battery go from fine to dead over a few shots in somewhat rapid succession, and the final file is not complete- plus the image locked up the whole camera all three times I landed on it scrolling through the card. Too often the battery dying will screw things up on the card. I really dislike running the battery out for this reason, and so am likely messing with my long-term battery capacity.

I'm both looking forward to and wondering about the arrival of my M9...

 

[jaapv]

The M9 behaves exactly like the M8 (should), except the buffer is 7 images instead of 12.

 

[Symeon]

Yeah, you got the wrong camera. Get a dSLR.
regards.

 

[Symeon]

A dSLR will suit you best, or a video camera!

 

[MCTuomey]

wooly, do you shoot jpgs, either with DNG or without? i find that leica's jpg engine to be slo-o-oow compared to the average dSLR. not at all helpful at higher frame rates. as mentioned above, it'd make sense to try shooting DNG only, if you've been spec'ing jpgs, to see if performance improves. if it doesn't then i'd contact leica service.

 

[squinza]

DPreview has timed the M8: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/LeicaM8/page9.asp (please note that probably newer firmwares have improved writing speed)
Seems like JPG is actually much slower than DNG mode, but I don't see any reason for using JPG, the Leica jpg engine being the worst on earth...

 

[sepiareverb]

Shooting DNG only this morning I had much faster write times, and the card was there on my desktop when I plugged it in, after a quick test last night that it would be. Couldn't shoot enough at todays job to cram the buffer- got enough nasty looks for shooting as much as I did. One QUIET room.