write speed of m8

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usccharles

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so my dealer sold me this 2gb SD card. i think its just generic. LG brand and just says "premium sd card". no write speed noted anywhere.

when i take a picture with this card (raw+jpeg setup) the red LED light next to the LCD display blinks for a full 8 seconds after each picture. this is consistent each picture.

should i get a faster card or is this normal? does the cold weather have an effect on this as well?
 
Hi.
Dont save on the SD cards (specially after spendeng §5000 on the camera).
Not only the write speed is lower but the chance you loose pictures is high.
Get a fast Kingston or Sandisk SD card and enjoy 🙂. Use that you have as backup.

Edited: BTW, i dont own a M8 but my EOS 350D in "RAW" mode does not takes so long for sure....
 
Last edited:
Warning.

I bought a 4Gb Sandisk card yesterday, Sandisk being a reputable manufacturer? Anyway it won't work with the M8. Basically it says "Card full" when there is nothing on the card. Try and format it from the M8 and the camera hangs with a flashing light. It will stay like that for ever - or until the battery runs out.

I called Leica UK and was told this was a known problem - something to do with the SD card being an HD type whatever that means. I was told this was a problem peculiar to 4GB cards.

Not sure about that though since I had a very similar problem with a 1GB card that I have had for some time (the M8 is only 2 days in my possession). It was giving "Card full" and would not format in the M8. I cured the problem on the 1GB card by formatting in a small Casio camera I have. The card has been working OK in the M8 since.

I also have an even older 128M SD card, which works flawlessly but only holds about 9 Raw images!

The moral seems to be "small is beautiful".

The M8 itself though in my view is a masterpiece and these hiccups will probably soon be fixed - presumably with firmware changes?
 
kbg32 said:
The M8 has a buffer. You can still shoot while it is writing.
Click to expand...

yes, my 8m will buffer up to 10 images max, then it gives a warning that the buffer is full. i'm curious if this 8 second buffer speeds up with a faster card 🙂
 
Yes this sounds like a firmware fix- different SD cards may have different requirements to work in a given camera- Leica likely did not test this camera with ever SD card on the market- tisk, tisk. My SunDisk 2 GB cards work flawlessly in my M8 as do my 1 GB 150x turbo cards. Now let's see how long it takes before Larry, Curly or Moe chime in and claim the M8 can't read SD cards and present this as a huge reason NOT to own this camera.
 
Sailor Ted said:
Now let's see how long it takes before Larry, Curly or Moe chime in and claim the M8 can't read SD cards and present this as a huge reason NOT to own this camera.
Click to expand...

IMO you're right. That reaaaaally sucks big time. Leica should have tested all of those cards! For crying out loud, it's a $5K camera! They could've done at least some research! I don't have an M8 and never handled one but now I'm sure as heck not going to get one!

You asked for it. 😀
 
Three blind mice, see how they dance, see how they run...

Three blind mice, see how they dance, see how they run...

Sailor Ted said:
the M8 can't read SD cards and present this as a huge reason NOT to own this camera.
Click to expand...

rsl said:
Seems like a pretty good reason to me. What use is a camera that can't format, store, or read to its flash memory card? The problem will get fixed, but why did it exist in the first place?
Click to expand...

You took what I said out of context- here's what I said in context:

Sailor Ted said:
Leica likely did not test this camera with every SD card on the market- tisk, tisk. My SunDisk 2 GB cards work flawlessly in my M8 as do my 1 GB 150x turbo cards. Now let's see how long it takes before Larry, Curly or Moe chime in and claim the M8 can't read SD cards and present this as a huge reason NOT to own this camera.
Click to expand...
 

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usccharles said:
lets all remember that RD-1 had the same card-read problems in the beginning (and maybe even now) 🙂
Click to expand...

Never! This is a $5000 camera- it must be perfect- PERFECT I SAY, PERFECT, PERFECT, PERFECT! 🙄

(Jumping up and down, fists clinched in rage, eyes tightly shut, face flushed, tears streaming down cheeks, screaming out until horse, floor boards and a screw coming loose)
 
Last edited:
Sailor Ted said:
Never! This is a $5000 camera- it must be perfect- PERFECT I SAY, PERFECT, PERFECT, PERFECT! 🙄

(Jumping up and down, fists clinched in rage, eyes tightly shut, face flushed, tears streaming down cheeks, screaming out until horse, floor boards and a screw coming loose)
Click to expand...

haha i hear ya.

but seriously, can someone with a fast SD card take a picture with their m8 and see how long the buffer LED blinks for? i want to see if it is actually faster than my generic brand or if it makes no difference.

i took a picture just now, with the timed it on my watch and its more like 10 seconds of blinking buffer for every picture.

Can someone try it on their fast card pretty please~~:angel:
 
Hi
Just done 3 tries with M8 50mm lens, raw mode, its reliably under 4 seconds with the Sandisk 2Gig ultra II card. (the red dot flashes 7 or 8 times)
Shooting Raw + Fine JPEG increased the time to around 6 seconds.
I suppose the amount of visual info to process may slightly alter the time but 8 seconds if you are doing raw+Jpeg simultaneously does not seem totally OTT
Try an ultra SD card.
Hope this helps
Richard
 
Richard Marks said:
Hi
Just done 3 tries with M8 50mm lens, raw mode, its reliably under 4 seconds with the Sandisk 2Gig ultra II card. (the red dot flashes 7 or 8 times)
Shooting Raw + Fine JPEG increased the time to around 6 seconds.
I suppose the amount of visual info to process may slightly alter the time but 8 seconds if you are doing raw+Jpeg simultaneously does not seem totally OTT
Try an ultra SD card.
Hope this helps
Richard
Click to expand...

cool, i guess there is a slight difference. if you are getting 6~8 seconds at raw+jpeg, i'm guessing you are doing the large jpeg. i'm shooting at raw+1mp jpeg (smallest size) and still getting 8~10 seconds.

:bang: dang camera dealer, told me these were the best cards i could probably find
 
Anyone know if the M8 can theoretically be upgraded to use SDHC cards in future or will we be stuck with regular SD cards (with a 4Gb maximum)?

BTW SD memory is getting so cheap it almost makes me laugh - I've got more memory in my camera than we had on all the computers in our publishing office just 11 or 12 years ago😱 And I just bought a 2Gb Kingston SD card (not a fast one though) for under ten quid 😀😀😀
 
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