Formatting SD Cards for Leica M11

This video is about SD cards specifically for use in the Leica M11.
I was one of the first photographers to use this camera and was advised that the Lexar Professional cards were the standard. After the update in November 2023 [update 2.0.2] the standard changed and now it's best to use SanDisk cards. Since I already have several Sandisk cards I started to format them within the Leica M11 and ran into some issues.
I found that trying to format my Canon SD cards in the Leica M11, through the camera itself, does not work. Watch for how you have to properly format the card.
Also, I'm sorry if this is a known fact. I had never had to do it using my Canon formatted cards and never knew.
Leave in the comments if you have a different experience or any tips on SD cards you've been using.
Keep in mind, I tend to run into more glitchy, technical things because I am really pushing this camera within my line of work. It's a learning process but I maintain great trust and loyalty to the brand because of the art it helps me create.
Hope it's helpful! Thanks for watching!
#leicam11 #leicam #sdcards

[@pdk]

Excellent! Speaking of "cameras that work" we can just as easily blame the canon for screwing up the card in the first place, and praise leica for being cautious about formatting cards that are messed up. If somebody doesn't wanna buy a leica, nobody's forcing them to. I use delkin and sony cards in my m10-r and have had zero issues.

[@teribphotography]

Ha! You make actually a really interesting point - I'd join the bandwagon and blame canon any day lol - I do not know delkin cards. the sony tough cards i read are not compatible with the m11 so i never risked it

[@walthornik]

I had sometimes freeze issues with M11 but after formatting card with SD card formatter on my PC I never had an issue again

[@teribphotography]

Great to know! It really helped me doing a hard rest with the sd card!

[@TheVFXbyArt]

Luv that home interior!

[@teribphotography]

Thanks soooo much 🥰

[@radiomoths]

Good to know! I've managed to avoid SD card issues for now as I almost exclusively use the built in storage.

[@teribphotography]

Using the built in storage is great, I absolutely love that option!! If you do use sd cards hopefully you have a heads up now !!

[@bsmukler]

I have two M11s and have not had any issues with either of them, but I do format the cards in my Mac as you noted if I move them over from another camera (which is rare). It’s interesting that Thorsten Overgaard discussed the same issue at length, a few years ago, in his epic review of the M10. There was a list of which brands and specific modesl of SD card to use, and which ones to avoid. He mentioned the importance of buying cards based on camera model, not card speed, and he compared camera start-up times as well as write-to-card times. Back then, as with the M11 now, Leica was working on firmware updates to resolve, or at least mitigate, issues regarding SD card functionality. As you noted, Leicas (or at least the M) do require some sensitivity, or an understanding of how they like to work. For example, earlier models would occasionally bog down if you made too many exposures, too rapidly, while in Live View. You learned to time your shots accordingly. You may have seen John Kasko’s (The F/Stops Here) videos about his journey with the Leica M11. He shoots the dickens out of his cameras, as you do, and has had only minor issues with the current body (“Leica M11 Long Term Update”). If you think about inter-computer issues, peripheral compatibility, iPhone/Android issues and so on, it is not surprising that Leica, with its bespoke processors and complex, unique firmware, sometimes experiences hiccups when dealing with the range of third party SD cards. Thank you for sharing your experience as well as the information about card selection and formatting. I always enjoy your videos.

[@teribphotography]

Thanks so much for all this information and your experience. I am so glad I was right on sd card formatting in the Mac to be rare. I nearly thought I was crazy for a bit! Great references here and appreciate you taking the time. I agree with you, it’s not too surprising that there are some issues here. Maybe Leica should just have their own as cards ??? Haha!!

[@bsmukler]

Yeah, I think people need to be a bit more patient, and appreciative of how much talent and work goes into creating modern devices, from Leicas to high end vehicles. I’m at the track in Austin this weekend with Ducati (motorcycles), and discussing development and engineering. It’s just incredible. We are fortunate and spoiled to be living at this time as far as technology and world-wide shared knowledge are concerned. (I also left my Nikon gear behind this weekend and am only using one M11 and a 35mm Summilux. It’s very freeing.

[@Narsuitus]

In addition to sensor problems, I had a similar SD card problem with my Leica M10.

[@teribphotography]

I would reset the camera and reformat the sd to on a mac/pc - should work better!

[@1946gsp]

Yikes! I had that happen to me on a shoot. Ended up using my iPhone. Got the pic, but…sheesh. Did NOT know about field stripping the SD card via MAC. Goodbye, Lexar. Re-hello, San Disk ( Ishudda known)

[@teribphotography]

So glad this was helpful! If you have sd card issues I recommend taking out battery and resetting- if you still have issues just remove the sd card and write to the internal memory!! (:

[@rezali444]

Lovely video. Thanks for making it. I’ll get the sandisk

[@teribphotography]

appreciate you watching! i've been good with the card swap since i made this!

[@donjagoe]

Great info! Thx.

[@teribphotography]

Appreciate you !!

[@john32son]

Great PSA! I haven't encountered this problem yet, but I'll keep an eye out for it. Thank you!

[@teribphotography]

Yeah. It was such a small thing but important! Thanks for tuning in

[@Ranger629]

I love Leica but I felt that the Leica ended with the M10-R. The M10-R doesn’t have as many issues as M11/M11-P. Back when I owned my M10, I had a similar issue before. But from my extensive research, the main cause of the issue is due to the high write speed. Leica digital camera processors/RAM/something doesn’t work well with write speeds that exceed certain limits for each model. M10/M10-P I have found this issue to be limited to cards above 100MBPS write speed, but I’ve also heard from many others who said they did not experience such an issue before with their M10/M10-P, hence, I think it may be unit specific too. Good luck with your job and the Leica M11. I hope that this may help to reduce more issues and it seems like Leica do not have the intention of fixing these issues. The M11 may be

[@teribphotography]

So interesting here! I’ve heard nothing but positive things about the M10-R. They way I see it, the M11 is still worlds better than the MP in many ways. I was always told to keep the write speed < 200 - mine are all 250 (I think). Bummer such a small issue can dampen such an amazing tool. I’m hopefully for the next version and updates to resolve the hiccups. Thanks so much for watching and the encouragement!!

[@antoniocastillo2691]

Exellent súper information tanks.

[@teribphotography]

so glad it was helpful! :)

[@andysheridan340]

I got the same on my M11 after the firmware upgrade. Some where I saw some information, saying that the M11 needs SDXC II (UHS II) cards. These have the second row of connectors on the back. These are for high write and read speed, since changing to a UHS II card the M11 has worked fine.

[@teribphotography]

Yeah, something got lost in the firmware. A little annoying that with each update we are now going to have to have questions about which cards are compatible! Thanks for checking this out Andy

[@devanteross2838]

Have never owned a Leica aside from a Q for a short time but have always been curious how the heck you focus for weddings with it? Video idea?? 😅 Love seeing your new uploads! Happy shooting!

[@teribphotography]

Yes, I started with the m240 - used that sucker as my main for nearly 6 years shooting weddings!! I focus very carefully and use the live view all day to help me compose quickly - it's muscle memory and a little bit of good eyesight ;p

[@andrewkerns6777]

This is really interesting you're getting that error. I use the Sandisk, Lexar and Sony SD cards in my M11. I've pulled them from a Canon R5, Fujifilm X100v, Leica SL2 and Q3, then put them straight into my M11 and they all formatted, no problem. I'm also running firmware 2.0.2.

[@teribphotography]

Gah, wow that’s crazy! I might actually go a step further and reupdate the firmware in case something got weird in the mix. I thought it was bizarre too but was having the issue with the three sandisk cards I did this afternoon

[@teribphotography]

My cards are constantly used and wiped and these particular cards are all at least a year or more old. So bizarre - thanks for sharing with me!

[@andrewkerns6777]

@@teribphotography Absolutely. I'd say if the issue continues to persist, I'd send it into Leica NJ and have them take a look at it. They'll more than likely lend you an M11 in the meantime, while yours is getting fixed.

[@riswanc]

Hi terry, thanks for sharing, but i have a habit to not mix use sdcard amongst other different camera, and an sd card formatter might help for this particular case too..

[@teribphotography]

no totally agree. i designate sd cards for my leica and canon. this was mainly referring to the nov update and how the sandisk cards now work best with leica. i had been using my sandisk with canon so i just had to swap them up - the things i do to keep the leica m11 happy ;)

[@joebrown479]

My second M11 is in New Jersey (Leica US) for similar reasons. I was getting the filename on the black screen along with the orange light. Had to pop the battery to resume shooting. Hoping to get a third M11 any day now. I also went to Wetzlar and Leica told me to avoid Lexar cards and use SanDisk. People don’t like me saying this but Leica told me directly. Still, I had a different problem even though I switched to SanDisk. I think there was a memory card hardware problem in the M11. Hoping to get an M11P as a replacement to my second M11. All said, I’ll be on my 3rd M11 within the first year.

[@teribphotography]

Wow! What a journey so far with your M11s- this is my second body. My first was one of the very first ones and it has some serious issues. The camera number also had ‘666’ in it, I should’ve known! Haha - yes, I was also told SanDisk by my Leica person, strange to do a switch up but also makes sense if it’s a card hardware issue - wishing you good things with #3!

[@IanDocherty335]

I've never had any issues with any make/size of SD cards in my Fujifilm/Ricoh cameras.

[@teribphotography]

i've never had issues in my canon r6ii bodies, or any other non-leica batteries. i'll stick with it still, it's worth it for the user camera experience and insane image quality

[@teribphotography]

the ricoh cameras look awesome, had never heard of them before!

[@tofulosophy]

Interesting. I have an M10-R and ran into some card corruption issues recently. I typically use SanDisk but the guys from Leica Store Miami recommended Lexar cards. 🤷🏽‍♂️

[@teribphotography]

sooooo interesting!!! I wonder how different the m11 and m10 systems are? I did notice a super quick response to the sd card after formatting/erasing the sd data on my Mac. I may make it part of my workflow from time to time. I'm going to keep a close eye in the meantime

[@zllws1]

I shoot about 200 photos a day with an m11p and a SanDisk card and I encounter problems with it almost every week, either freezing or losing files. I've noticed that many Leica users shoot very little and they rarely seem to encounter this problem. My friend doesn't shoot much either, but during a week-long intensive photography trip, both of his m11s lost all the photos on their SD cards and had to come back for help from a file recovery company. Leica has become a toy camera.

[@teribphotography]

I was going to do an update but not sure if I'll have time - try resetting the camera, it worked wonderfully for me! Sometimes it still freezes here and there but overall its solid. It is an electronic gadget at the end of the day, just like our phones and computers. Hope this works for you!!

[@Himgallery]

nice

[@teribphotography]

Thanks (:

[@fredericdiserens7208]

...that is very good to know, thank you. I had the issue that no matter what or when, as soon as I transfer the photos (DNG) to my Mac, the first photo is stated as ""file damaged" (but the jpeg is fine)... apparently it is a know issue in the M11 and there is hope that a new firmware update will solve this issue. The M11 is a great camera but probably to biggest diva of all cams out there ;-)

[@chadrem]

This is a bug started in the version 2.0.2 firmware. It has been going on for many months. I highly recommend you email Leica customer service as the forums are full of people with this problem. I sold my M11 because it was so buggy. Leica really dropped the ball on the v2 firmware.

[@fredericdiserens7208]

@@chadrem yep, forums are full of it! It is such a cool shooting experience but if they wont fix it soon, I may end up like you… already had thoughts of selling it, but the loss would be too much… the M11 became less and less reliable. Hope they fix it. Had the chance to shoot with the SL3 and mounted my M lenses…. This is insane and an amazing experience 😎 let’s see how long it takes! Have a great day!

[@chadrem]

@@fredericdiserens7208 glad you like the SL3. I really do hope they fix the M11, but when I emailed customer care they had no idea when they would fix it. Firmware version 2.0.2 came out back in November. Four months and still no fix seems absurd for a serious file corruption bug.

[@teribphotography]

Does seem like a long time!

[@teribphotography]

Good to know- such a bummer you ended up selling. I stick with it for now. Wouldn’t mind upgrading to the next! Thanks for tuning in and the comments here

[@cborel83]

Mine wasn't doing that but I was getting an orange flashing light sometimes even with no memory card. I just sent it back for a refund. i may just pick up an m10-r. I really loved the m11

[@teribphotography]

Oh weird the the orange light - I’ve never gotten that before. You happy with the M10 I hope? I do love the m11 so much

[@TheVFXbyArt]

Some cameras like canon enable a low level format. Curious if Leica is doing a low level format or if it’s not and that’s creating the problem. My Fujis are slow on Lear cards, despite being the same speed as a SanDisk, so go figure… Thx for the video!

[@teribphotography]

Interesting. I’ve always been able to format anything in the canon bodies, they are solid tools. I wish cameras made their own sd cards designed for their brands!

[@peetje28021970]

You got beautiful hair, oh and I like the black chrome summilux too lol.

[@teribphotography]

You’re too kind- I just threw it together for a quick video here (:

[@darriba7]

Thanks a ton for sharing your experience with us. I ran into a similar issue with my M11 and a lexar card after updating into the new firmware. I did the update as supposed to be done, but put my old SD card on the camera without formatting it and started to shoot. at the beginning I could access all the photos I had on it and shoot normaly, when this SD card error message started to appear. Had to remove the battery and after some shots the problem re-appeared. I ended up using the internal memory only on that day. well, so I reset the camera and profiles, and put this same card again. Took some shots, the camera started not to show the results and the files that were there before were not readable. So in the end the camera corrupted the SD card and I lost all the shots I had on it. now most certainly was this incompatibility between Lexar and the new firmware. Did you had any more explanation on Leica side? I'll follow your advice with the cards from now on, a shame that what is lost is lost.

[@teribphotography]

Gosh, I’m so sorry for your experience! That sounds awful. When any kind of sd card is giving me trouble I recommend taking out the card and shooting and the internal (it’s so great that it has this!!) - When I’m photographing a wedding I am actively checking to make sure the images are writing properly to the cards. The issue seems to really be the card - so happy I could share this with you and others here! Appreciate you watching and sharing your story!

[@bladerunner6662]

Leica cameras are like German cars; temperamental and high maintenance. But when they work, they are awesome.c

[@c0ldc0ne]

"Maybe not" 😁

[@teribphotography]

😂😂😂😅

[@antoniocastillo2691]

México city Exellent work Only Leica an Hasselblad. You Miss Exellent work.. You Miss. 💍💍💍💍💍💍💍💍💍💍💍💍♥♥♥ You Miss México city

[@teribphotography]

you're so kind !! thanks for watching - you are working with the best!!

[@antoniocastillo2691]

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ I am Medical Traumatología. Miss. Only Leica sumicrom Héctor sumar sumaron tessar . Germany .. Exellent optic.. México city!

[@teribphotography]

gracias, mi amigo

[@joeszeto8859]

Haters will hate. Sadly that's their miserable mission in their equally miserable lives. Fcuk them! You do you!! Question.. what do you use as backup body? I had a cursed wedding years ago where 5 of the 6 cameras my crew and I brought had some sort of failure. They all came back to life eventually, thank God. Now I have backup for my backup!! 🤣🤣🤣

[@teribphotography]

Hi there! Haha it was just one hater I think, but I’ve already forgotten about them! :) I also use the canon r6ii, have two of those bodies and rotate them out. I never have issues but rarely feel artistically inspired by those bodies. I bring em out for backup and my dance floor stuff. Your experience sounds awful!! Did you ever find out why they failed? Where they Leica?

[@joeszeto8859]

@@teribphotography All Canon bodies. Mostly 5D mk3, along with a couple mk2. We had varies issues, like body freezes and card read errors. Strangest part was that my Mk3 have not had any problems before or since. Just that one day that was cursed 😭🤔

[@jimmcd1101]

Leica needs to hire engineers who can design a camera that doesn't freeze/brick because of the brand of SD card you use. Hire somebody from Nikon, Canon, Panasonic, anybody. Almost two years after the launch of this camera and they haven't sorted it. Disgraceful.

[@teribphotography]

it is not great, i totally agree. some work to do still - thanks for watching

[@GillesQuennevilleGQ]

If you like to drive Japanese cars it’s ok. I prefer German brand cars. Same for my photography.

[@jimmcd1101]

@@GillesQuennevilleGQI’ve got 5 Leicas and they all work. The M11 was born bad and that has nothing to do with its country of manufacture.

[@GillesQuennevilleGQ]

@@jimmcd1101 that does not mean Leica need Japanese ingeneers.

[@jimmcd1101]

@@GillesQuennevilleGQ you keep focusing on nationality, and frankly its borderline racist and irrelevant. It’s a $9200 camera that has had this issue since it was released two years ago. It also uses a sensor made by Japanese engineers. The race of people engineering this camera has nothing to do with the fact that it is fundamentally flawed - there is a tremendous amount of information about these issues all over the Internet, even people in this thread are discussing their ongoing issues with the M11. If you’re going to charge three times more than a Sony/Canon/Nikon camera, then you better make it at least a reliable tool. Who gives a crap where it was made and by whom if it constantly freezes or bricks.

[@taigenetsudo4273]

A Leica M is like a violin or cello, not a Casio keyboard..

[@teribphotography]

💯