Leica M8 Firmware 2.000
I wasn’t sure which blog to post this on… The jZone is technology oriented, but I want it to retain a more IT focus, so I decided to post this here.
Anyway, on with the subject at hand.
Leica introduced version 2.000 (not sure why it needs 3 zeros…) of the M8 firmware last week, and it can be downloaded from their M8 downloads page. This version of the firmware contains two significant changes.
The first, is Auto ISO. This allows a minimum shutter speed to be set, and a maximum ISO. The M8 will then adjust the ISO based on the available light to take the optimum based on your selected shutter speed & aperture.
After a reassuringly painless update, a new menu can be found under the setup menus, unsurprisingly titled “Auto ISO Setup”. The menus used to set up Auto ISO are quite straight forward, and are show below:
In addition, a new option as been added to the “shooting menu”, that allows Auto ISO to be quickly toggled on/off: 
Shooting with Auto ISO almost makes the M8 shoot like a fully automatic camera, but unlike a fully automatic where the programme may tweek both the aperture and shutter speed, with the M8 the programme will tweek the shutter speed and ISO (assuming ‘A’ is selected).
I think this a a feature I will certainly use, especially when shooting hand held in very low light conditions… mind you, a Noctilux would probably solve that problem. 
The second change, which is probably even more relevant, is improved support for SD cards. The M8 will now support SDHC cards up to a capacity of 32Gb. This is not something I’ve had the opportunity to test yet, at I don’t have anything higher than a 2Gb SD card at the moment, but this is certainly welcome news!
Following the installation of this firmware update my camera has been behaving erratically. I always shoot DNG (Raw) and I use a 1GB Scandisk Ulta II card. But since installing the new firmware, every time I switch on the camera I get a framecounter reading of 266 rather than about 90, as if I were using JPGs. Worse, every time I erase images or format the card the file numbering reverts to 00001, even though the menu is set for continuous counting. So I wish I had left the firmware as it was!
Harry Baker
September 28, 2008 at 4:25 pm
With the frame counter, I have noticed that before I take the first shot on a newly erased/formatted SD card I do get a rather high reading, but I thought it always did this.
I see what you mean about the continuous numbering though. Using Aperture, I don’t tend to bother much about the actual file names, but depending on your DAM, I can see that would be a right pain!
After your post, I googled this and found your post about this over on photo.net… does a new SDHC fix the problem…?
atonewell
September 29, 2008 at 6:19 am
I haven’t managed to get an SDHC card yet. I’ve been too busy. I’ve discovered there has been a lot on this on Leica User Forum and even with modern SDHC cards some are experiencing difficulties. I’ve tried everything suggested (short of an SDHC card which I will try) to no avail. I always re-format in camera and don’t delete in card readers. Given the cost of the M8 I’ve been greatly disappointed with this stuff. Needless to say my Canon 5D and my classic M6 work perfectly. I hope the new S2 is more reliable!
Harry Baker
September 30, 2008 at 8:56 am
I’ve now got a Sandisk SDHC card. I’m still getting 999 exposures available on a freshly formatted card when 360 is more appropriate. The file numbering may be ok
Harry Baker
September 30, 2008 at 2:48 pm
I’ve got a new 8Gb Sandisk Extreme III too today.
After the initial format, it did read 999, but after the first shot, and after turning the camera on and off it reads correctly, so I think that is now fixed.
On the numbering score, that also appears to now be fixed.
So it does all point to now incompatible pre-SDHC cards.
atonewell
October 1, 2008 at 8:00 pm