Leica Monochrom M246

Jan Pedersen said:
Or the model after ��
No, life's to short to wait for something that may never happen.
I remember waiting to buy my first PC, the next one will be better, faster and all that so it took a long time before i bought one.
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In 1987 the hard drive of my research PC, an original IBM, crashed. When my thesis supervisor heard that I had ordered another 10MB hard drive he chided me for not getting a 20MB hard drive. "Then you would never need to buy another hard drive again." I felt bad for a year or two, but not more. And, yes, I had backed up, obsessionally, with 51/4 floppy discs, AM in the top drawer, PM in the bottom drawer of the desk, end of the day in my bag to home in the same suburb, and weekend a set of floppy disks to my parents' house 10k away. A nuclear bomb could have obliterated my thesis data but nothing else.

I have not worried about being caught with yesterday's Monochrom. I bought it after the M came out. I was happy with the M9, and still happy with my 1958 M2 and my 1932 Leica II. I can live with a couple of years out of date quite happily.
 
I waited after the initial release and had to wait 5 months for my MM9. In my case I wanted to support one of our sponsors (PopFlash), and I didn't mind the wait because I didn't have the money.

Seems like the wait now will likely be about half of what I experienced by Godfrey's post.

Cal
 
I need a bit of advice here, and hopefully those of you who have an M240 might be able to impart some wisdom....

I have only shot about 47 pictures with the camera so far with my 246. When I want to review the photos in the camera, I press ‘PLAY’ and the first photo appears. I then press the right arrow on the wheel that surrounds the ‘INFO’ button to go to the next photo. Then I press that button again to go to the 3rd and 4th photo. When I press the right button a 5th time to view the 5th photo, the red light on the back of the camera starts flashing (like it’s ‘thinking’), and after about 10 seconds it does go to the 5th photo. But rather than showing me the 5th photo, it displays the filename (like L100005.DNG). If I press the right arrow again to go to the 6th photo, the red light flashes again for about 10 seconds, then it will go to the 6th photo (and will show me the actual photo). Attempting to look at the 7th photo will result in more red light flashing, and then the filename of the 7th photo shows on the screen, not the photo. And so on and so on.

My question is this: Could the SD card be the culprit? I've been using SanDisk Ultra SDHC 16GB, 30MB/s, Class 10 cards. I did format this particular card in the camera. The battery is at about 96% charge.

For those of you who have an M240, what speed/class SD cards are you using?

Many thanks in advance.
 
You really need the 95mb/s sd cards for m240. It will faster the start up speed too. Also it is advisable to use a free software "sd card formatter" to format the card if needed.
 
Yes I think you're right, now that I've looked at SanDisk's site and saw their SD card selection. Geez, I am definitely behind the curve on SD cards! 280MB/s -- yikes!

Maybe they assume that you're supposed to know, but the owner's manual does not make any specific recommendation regarding SD card choice and related camera performance. They do, however, recommend using a 'high write speed' card for video.
 
I don't think it is the card speed, it doesn't freese up during normal operation, so, the speed being the bottleneck seems unlikely to me. Even if the camera would be faster, it shouldn't freese and should just show the picture with a slower card.

Did you try to look at the picture on a computer? Use a cardreader. It sounds to me like a faulty card and the camera being unable to read the file.
 
I waited after the initial release and had to wait 5 months for my MM9. In my case I wanted to support one of our sponsors (PopFlash), and I didn't mind the wait because I didn't have the money.

Seems like the wait now will likely be about half of what I experienced by Godfrey's post.
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Cal, i think you are right, i called one of the Leica stores yesterday and got on the waiting list as number 7
Was told they receive cameras almost daily, one at a time but if that is true it should only be a matter of a couple of weeks, 3 weeks at most.
 
No the card is perfectly fine. I have put it in my computer and it reads fine. I've used this card in both my Nikon D800 (even for shooting video) and my Fuji X100T, and no problems.
 
Jan Pedersen said:
Cal, i think you are right, i called one of the Leica stores yesterday and got on the waiting list as number 7
Was told they receive cameras almost daily, one at a time but if that is true it should only be a matter of a couple of weeks, 3 weeks at most.
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Jan,

You are a lucky dog. I think you will find that getting a M-246 will be just like when I got my MM9: the best money I ever spent. Definately made me into a better photographer. Pursuit of perfection is well rewarded.

BTW I just came back from buying some lottery tickets. LOL.

Cal
 
Update on the SD cards -- I just heard back from Mark Brady at Leica NJ, and yes, it seems that 95MB/s is the minimum recommended write speed for both the M240 and Monochrom 246. Sooo, seems like I'll be updating some SD cards!

On an unrelated note, I just made an 11"x16" print of this photo:


Monochrom Horse Farm by Vince Lupo, on Flickr

Not that I've done a side-by-side comparison of the same scene with the 'old' Monochrom and the 246, but it definitely looks different - particularly in the highlights. More detail and 'softer' in the highlights, if that makes sense.
 
Jan Pedersen said:
Good luck ��
Thanks, i really look forward to this one.
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Jan,

I use to be a B&W film die-hard, but then Leica built my dream camera when they came out with the MM9. Seems like they made this camera especially for me.

Now a second dream camera comes out that is different enough and more advanced. It seems lightning struck twice for me.

Meanwhile my MM9 remains a very capable camera. I checked my sensor a few days ago with my VisableDust LED magnifier. 2 1/2 years of hard use where my black anodize is worn through the edges, even the leatherette is worn smooth from where I hold the camera, and no sign of sensor corrosion. Also no sign of any dust.

I know somehow I will also get a M-246...

Cal
 
card speed ...

Yes, I need to update too.
Hmm. Two 64G cards costs significantly less than four 32G cards ...

G
 
I'm finding it's cheap if you want slower write speeds. Cards that are 280MB/s are expensive (relatively speaking that is).
 
The card I've been using in my M240 is a 16Gb Lexar Platinum II, 30MB/s read, 22MB/s write. No complaints, has worked ok... I had recorded a note in Sept 2013 that "Online chatter indicates the camera's write speed limits the useful speed, and this SD is adequate."

I checked startup time to first pic with shutter held down...
6 sec Sandisk 16Gb Class 4
4 sec Sandisk 8Gb Class 10
3 sec Sandisk 32Gb Class 10
2 sec Lexar 16Gb Platinum II 100x

Still, faster startup would be useful.
 
Doug said:
The card I've been using in my M240 is a 16Gb Lexar Platinum II, 30MB/s read, 22MB/s write. No complaints, has worked ok... I had recorded a note in Sept 2013 that "Online chatter indicates the camera's write speed limits the useful speed, and this SD is adequate."

I checked startup time to first pic with shutter held down...
6 sec Sandisk 16Gb Class 4
4 sec Sandisk 8Gb Class 10
3 sec Sandisk 32Gb Class 10
2 sec Lexar 16Gb Platinum II 100x

Still, faster startup would be useful.
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Thanks for the info Doug -- I'm going to try to pick up one of those SanDisk 95MB/s cards today, and will try it over the weekend to see how it does. If it turns out that the camera's performance does improve, then I'll likely have to get a set of cards that are strictly dedicated to my 246.
 
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