[Leica] Firmware v. 1.196 for M9 now available

[john at mcmaster.co.nz (John McMaster)]

I updated last night, the only non-Leica battery I have never worked on 
previous firmware anyway (showed flat as soon as it came out of the charger) 
;-) Easy enough to revert to an earlier firmware if required...

john
________________________________________

I'm hesitating to install the update because my batteries are all very old,
and most are from Hong Kong,  but all are working fine.  I would hate to
have to replace them all (15 batteries) with genuine Leica batteries!

Tina

On Wed, Jul 25, 2012 at 1:22 PM, <grduprey at mchsi.com> wrote:

> All of my M8 batteries are over 3 years old, which includes the original
> supplied with the camera and they all work perfectly.
>
> Gene
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Geoff Hopkinson" <hopsternew at gmail.com>
> To: "Leica Users Group" <lug at leica-users.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, July 25, 2012 1:55:15 AM GMT -06:00 US/Canada Central
> Subject: Re: [Leica] Firmware v. 1.196 for M9 now available
>
> To be fair Nathan, the new firmware does not in any way reduce the
> performance or life span of the (Li Ion) batteries. What it does is stop
> the camera operating when an older battery has irregular voltage. That
> means when there is increased risk of faulty writes including banding. SD
> cards issues like that have arisen for I guess a few users and they are
> discussed on the forums. Well maybe not this one!. I've never seen them
> myself.
> They all die and the caution arises becauses the earliest M8 batteries may
> now  be five or more years old and failing.  It may impact non-original
> batteries should they not be performing properly too. An M9 has greater
> power requirments than the M8 so you'd expect
> that the batteries do work harder. I have three (originals) which get
> rotated only by chance in my bag. One is about four/five years old, one
> three and one two. So far so good on all of them for me with about 9,000
> frames or so on my M9 (one was in my M8 for a few thousand or so frames
> too).
>
> With say a Nikon dSLR each new model might have a new battery design and
> hence people wouldn't be carrying over old batteries
> from one camea to another maybe?
>
> There's also ben some re-sequencing of process steps in the camera too, I
> think. I understand that trying to improve the speed has been on their
> agenda for  while. The new APO Summicron 50 is in there too. Buy me one and
> I'll test that for you ;-)
>
> Cheers,
> Geoff
> http://www.pbase.com/hoppyman
>
>
>
> On 25 July 2012 14:39, Nathan Wajsman <photo at frozenlight.eu> wrote:
>
> > What a lovely way to sell more batteries at 100 Euro a pop!
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Nathan
> >
> > On 25 Jul 2012, at 05:53, Jay Burleson wrote:
> >
> > > M9 Firmware Version 1.196
> > > Performance improvements:
> > > Further improvements of SD-Card compatibility.
> > > Implementation of the Lens detection of the new APO-Summicron-M
> 1:2/50mm
> > ASPH.
> > > 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.
> > > It is the nature of Li-ion batteries that the capacity weakens after a
> > certain time.
> > > We recommend replacing the batteries for the M8 and the M9 after 3
> years
> > at the latest. Heavy usage
> > > can even accelerate the aging process, and then batteries should be
> > replaced earlier.
> > > In case that the total amount of pictures, that can be taken with a
> > certain battery, is significantly lower
> > > than before with Firmware 1.196, we recommend replacing this battery.
> > > New batteries can be ordered at all Leica Dealers (Order Number 14464)
> > >
> > > Please be aware that your settings and your user profiles can be
> deleted
> > after the firmware update.
> > > Please make a note of your settings and user profiles before you run
> the
> > firmware update.
> > >
> > > Download here:
> > >
> >
> http://us.leica-camera.com/assets/file/download.php?filename=file_6178.zip
> > > Instructions:
> > >
> >
> http://us.leica-camera.com/assets/file/download.php?filename=file_6840.pdf
> > >
> > > --
> > > Jay,
> > > Dripping on the shutter button here in Seattle
> > >
> > >