Thanks for the tutorial on AF Mark That is no different from any AF camera when set to AFs ... won't shoot until focus is acquired. When I say one smooth push of the shutter button, it means the previous shot was already in focus and the AF has little to do to re-achieve focus again ... trust me, that isn't it. The camera locked up so no AF could be performed at all ... as in no play in the shutter button what-so-ever. It persisted even after the camera was shut off, and the battery removed and reinstalled. Didn't have time to go through a laundry list of other attempts to unlock the camera ... I was shooting.Per the S2 manual page 37 for AFs focus mode - "Before the focus is set, the shutter cannot be released even by pressing the shutter release button all the way down." So if you were using AFs focus mode, then the camera may have been behaving exactly as designed. The shutter will not fire until focus is locked.
In AFc mode you can release the shutter at any time even if none of the subject is in focus.
Just for the heck of it, I tested both AFs and AFc modes on my S2 to see how it behaves.
AFs and shutter button - I manually de-focused the lens and quickly pressed the shutter button all the way down. The shutter did not release immediately. There was considerable delay before the shutter fired. It was like the camera wanted to fire, but realized the image was not in focus, then it focused and fired. I say it like this because there was a delay from pressing the button fully and autofocus starting. In AFs, if you press the shutter button part-way the autofocus locks, then you press the button further to release the shutter. If you bypass the half (third) press, then it seems to take longer to get the shutter to fire.
AFc and shutter button - I manually de-focused the lens and quickly pressed the shutter button all the way down. The shutter immediately fired and I got an out of focus image. The proper method is similar to AFs except in AFc the focus is continuously adjusted as long as the button is in mid position.
I use the MF focus mode which lets me assign AFc focus mode to the rear thumb button. I find it much easier to control autofocus using the rear button. In my opinion it is tricky to control the autofocus using the shutter release button because there are three pressure points in the button. More importantly I prefer to have AF lock and AE lock on separate buttons. In my set up, I have AF/AF lock on the rear button and AE/AE lock on the shutter button.
This is a major wtf and one I discovered early on. For whatever reason (perhaps file size), the S2 will not simultaneously write DNG files to both CF and SD cards. Currently, the only time the S2 will write files to both cards simultaneously is when DNG+jpeg is selected. The DNGs will write to the CF card and JPEGs will write to the SD card.
In my opinion this is a major lapse in Leica's S2 firmware design and one that I expected to have been corrected by now. The benefit of having dual card slots is so that back-up files can be written to a separate card. It's not possible in the S2 unless you count a JPEG as a backup. Surely, this will be corrected soon now that compressed DNGs are available.
If it isn't the battery, then it's a defective camera since it's done it with different lenses.
I hope you are correct that new firmware will allow dual RAW files be parallel saved as insurance against card failure or user error down-loading ... that is one of the more important features of this camera compared to Phase and Hassey. But, saving jpgs is useless IMO ... although for the time being would be better than nothing I guess.
-Marc