Leica M9 at 25% battery decides to "do nothing?"

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Vickko

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Leica M9 at 25% battery decides to "do nothing?"

Anyone else have similar experience?

Pulling and re-inserting battery solves, for a few shots.
 
I suspect one of the M9s shortcomings is that the DC-DC converter immediately following the battery struggles a bit a low voltages, pulling more current; generating more ripple , leading to banding.

Swapping the battery at 25% is probably a good idea.
What F/W version ?

1.196 changes incude :

"Improved power management.
The camera is now measuring battery stability internally. In case of weak battery stability, the camera switches off automatically.
Using old batteries could have lead to camera crashes and banding stripes under certain conditions with the previous firmware versions. Especially the usage of nearly 6 years old M8 batteries proved to be critical."
 
Thanks. I'm at 1.138.

Maybe time to upgrade FW.

Anyway, I changed batteries, and the "old one" is recharging.
 
OEM or third party battery? In the latter case, false meter readings can be due to the fact that the battery has not been fully discharged before recharging.
 
JSU said:
Consider studying the different FW upgrades. 1.196 is the latest for the M9, it is not without issues, not the least of which, perhaps, is a bug associated with "discrete" mode.

My preference is 1.176 but it is not possible to retro load older versions of FW on some M9 bodies. I have one delivered with 1.196 and try as I might, it will not accept 1.176 even though it "sees" the FW on the media card.
Click to expand...

What does FW stand for, and how can I tell which version my M9 has?
 
Vickko said:
Thanks. I'm at 1.138.

Maybe time to upgrade FW.

Anyway, I changed batteries, and the "old one" is recharging.
Click to expand...

Yes. Upgrade firmware. The latest firmware is a bit of catch. What it does is report your batteries as dead sooner. What happens with the M8/M9 batteries is that when the power gets low the camera becomes unreliable. The latest firmware marks your batteries as dead sooner so while it will seem like your battery life decreased, it's actually about the same since the batteries will work reliably until they're dead.

Also M8's and M9's are kinda long in the tooth. Batteries only last so long. The M9 is 3 years old, and the M8 is 6 years old. If you purchased yours used, the battery is already well beyond it's useful life and should be replaced.
 
Great, looks like I now have the "discrete mode" bug. I guess testing the new FW update was just too costly.
 
I think it was Jaap that previous pointed out that there is something "component wise" in the M9-P's that might be different than the M9, so that some (or all?)
M9-Ps cannot revert back to an older firmware from the latest (last one), while most M9's can! If true and what is interesting is I heard from one individual who recently purchased a new M-E, who becuase he had the silent-descrete issue, decided to revert to an older firmware and was successful in doing so.

be interesting to hear from those unsuccessful in not reverting to an earlier firmware as to what body they are using.

Dave (D&A)
 
Meanwhile, in the world of real Leica photography, my Leica 11 purrs along taking photographs just as quietly and effectively as it did when new in 1932.

Batteries ? Firmware ? Sheeeeesh... (!)
 
One of my 2006 M8 batteries still holds enough charge to bother -- though not for many more cycles, I think. But the other is dead.

Cheers,

R.
 
Gary Sandhu said:
Yeah, the battery indicators in the M8 and M9 just tells you that a battery is present. That's about it.
Click to expand...

? I've had my M8 since January 2007, with batteries bought that same month, and the indicator has always been (reasonably) accurate.

I don't let my batteries cycle, and let them fully discharge before I recharge them; I think this is also why my batteries last me longer than most have reported: for example, shooting all day, during my last trip, each battery lasted me a day-and-a-half or two. Little chimping.
 
It is quite impossible to have a accurate battery gauge for lithium cells that works across all usage and age conditions. Lithium cells have no discernible discharge pattern that indicates their current state, so all electronic device makers make do by measuring current draw and computing/memorizing the capacity from the last charge - but unless you discharge to shutdown each and every time, that approach tends to be quite inaccurate for the last 30% or so, even more so after the battery has been through a few dozen cycles or has been used in varying temperatures.

Leica might theoretically alter the firmware to give a more pessimistic guesstimate - i.e. your camera could tell you that the battery is flat where it now tells you 25% left, but it won't make those apparent 25% usable, as these don't exist. But that would also down-rate fresh cells which still hold these extra 25% - and most makers prefer to sell a new cell rather than advertise a lower capacity for fresh cells...
 
sevo said:
most makers prefer to sell a new cell rather than advertise a lower capacity for fresh cells...
Click to expand...

They mostly rely on people's lack of knowledge on battery cycling. I've observed that rechargeable battery abuse is directly proportional to resistance to technology and its knowledge.
 
I have the new firmware and my battery is down to 10 percent. I get a warning that the battery needs to be charged and then I can use the camera. Seems to be working the same as before the update.
 
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