[Leica] A cautionary tale

[Herbert Kanner]

Yesterday my M9 went nuts. First it claimed that my SD card was full when in fact it only had about a dozen shots on it. Then it recanted, but when I tried to delete a trial shot of the wall that I took just after it recovered, I saw that I had no choice but to delete all. I was impossible to  switch to "delete single". 

After uploading the contents of the SD card to LR, I put it back in the camera and tried to delete all. It went through the motions, showing a moving progress bar, but when it was done, none of the shots had actually been deleted.

Because I probably would not see the camera again for several months after sending it to Leica, I ordered a X100S to tide me over. I’ve had a secret yen for this camera as a carry around always camera for some time.

Now, I’ve been a computer software guy since 1958, but somehow, I just hadn’t thought of a digital camera as a computer. This very afternoon, it occurred to me that maybe the firmware had gone south. I downloaded the firmware from the Leica site—it took a while to find it there. Actually, if I had looked at the file of downloads on my computer, I would have found the copy that was downloaded in 2i012. I reformatted the SD card in the camera (it was willing to do that much) and reinstalled the firmware as instructed in the M9 manual. The camera appears to be cured.

Herbert Kanner
kanner at acm.org
650-326-8204

Question authority and the authorities will question you.