Non-6bit lenses on M8

C

Cranialpush

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Hi All,

Forgive what may be a naive question but is anyone using non-6bit encoded lenses on their M8? .. and if so what are the main dis-advantages?

I'm wanting to get an M8 within the next 7 days but Leica UK have just told me 2 of my lenses will need sending to Germany "for adjustment" taking 5-8 weeks, and the remaining lens (if indeed they can do it) will take 2-3 weeks!? I am completely confused what they mean by "adjustment", as I thought they just needed coding to allow the M8 body to determine focal length.

I must confess I'm not at all impressed when I'm just about to spend £3k on a camera body, having to chase a service department for answers in the first instance is bad enough, but then getting these kind of turnaround times is dismal.

:bang:

CS.
 
I use non-coded 35 and 50 Summicrons w/ Leica IR filters on my M8 and they work beautifully. Eventually I will send them into Leica for coding and "adjustment" (once Leica gets caught up and shortens the turnaround time) but currently I'm very satisfied with my current results.
 
AFAIK, the only performance disadvantage of not using coded lenses is if you're using wideangles (28mm & wider) & get cyan fringing in the corners when using a UV/IR cut filter & vignetting in the ultra-wides (21mm & wider). If the lenses are coded, the M8 uses the information to correct for both problems.

I believe the coding service includes an overall check & adjustment of the lens, so that may be what Leica UK is talking about (also, as I understand it, the coding itself involves replacing the lens mount & not just engraving/painting the existing lens). The long wait is probably due mostly to the volume of lenses that they're working on right now.

Cranialstrain said:
Hi All,

Forgive what may be a naive question but is anyone using non-6bit encoded lenses on their M8? .. and if so what are the main dis-advantages?

I'm wanting to get an M8 within the next 7 days but Leica UK have just told me 2 of my lenses will need sending to Germany "for adjustment" taking 5-8 weeks, and the remaining lens (if indeed they can do it) will take 2-3 weeks!? I am completely confused what they mean by "adjustment", as I thought they just needed coding to allow the M8 body to determine focal length.

I must confess I'm not at all impressed when I'm just about to spend £3k on a camera body, having to chase a service department for answers in the first instance is bad enough, but then getting these kind of turnaround times is dismal.

:bang:

CS.
Click to expand...
 
I use coded and non-coded lenses as well as CV lenses with no problems. Incidently, cyan fringing and vignetting can be factored out using the adobe raw convertor in Photoshop. The whole issue is making a mountain out of a molehill.:bang:
 
Hi
Sending your lenses off for 6-8 weeks after just buying your M8 is daft. Get up and running and if you then notice a problem think again. I have 1 new 28 2.8 which of course came ready coded, but my 50 and 90 I am using un coded with absolutely no problems. If anything the coding advantage might be more relevent for wider lenses but even leica say in their literature that its not essential for lenses of focal lenghts 35mm or longer, so it depends what lenses you are using.

One issue i personally have come accross, and I should stress this is really not a deal breaker, is using the sf24 flash gun. It has a mode called lens dependent slow sync, and the shutter is adjusted in auto mode down to the lowest safe level depending on the lens in use. (not a really big issue and certainly not worth sending your lenses away for). The only other thing which would be is that your fotware would record the lens used in the exif data. Again I can usually tell which lens I have used, so not a problem.

Enjoy your M8

best wishes

Richard
 
I have one lens that's actually "codeable." A 75mm summilux and I haven't bothered. It works just fine.

My other four lenses, A zeiss 25mm Biogon, a Leica Summitar, a Voigtlander 35mm nokton, and a voigtlander 40mm nokton are not able to be coded and they work fantastic as well.

The only thing the coding offers is colour/distortion correction on some level. It's nothing. In fact, I'll wager that the difference between a coded lens and a non coded lens is marginal after touching up.
 
swoop said:
I have one lens that's actually "codeable." A 75mm summilux and I haven't bothered. It works just fine.

My other four lenses, A zeiss 25mm Biogon, a Leica Summitar, a Voigtlander 35mm nokton, and a voigtlander 40mm nokton are not able to be coded and they work fantastic as well.

The only thing the coding offers is colour/distortion correction on some level. It's nothing. In fact, I'll wager that the difference between a coded lens and a non coded lens is marginal after touching up.
Click to expand...

Could not have put it better myself!
 
Bottley, how do you correct the cyan fringing in Adobe RAW? Does it involve the vignetting tool? Curious. Thanks a lot.......
Steve
 
boilerdoc2 said:
Bottley, how do you correct the cyan fringing in Adobe RAW? Does it involve the vignetting tool? Curious. Thanks a lot.......
Steve
Click to expand...

This is how I do it:

set DNG setting on M8

choose a lens

choose manual colour balance

photograph a grey card

take some photographs

open photoshop

open grey card shot

examine carefully

go to "lens"

correct for red/cyan and blue/yellow fringe as appropriate

correct for vignetting

using the mid-grey dropper tool click in the middle of the raw grey card image

check vignetting again and correct as appropriate

go to "custom"

save settings

give name say "28mm lens"

open one of your images from that session in raw capture, choose settings, and open "28mm lens"

all subsequent images will open with same vignetting, etc, settings

Before anyone gets up and shouts that the fringing correction is for chromatic aberrations of the lens, I am aware of that, and purple fringing due to the characteristics of the M8 would not be corrected, only a small amount of vignetting correction changes the colour of the grey card image. By repeating changing the vignetting setting, and then using the dropper tool to correct grey levels usually solves most problems.

As someone else has said in this thread, the amount of fringing is not noticable in most situations.

By setting up a raw capture protacol for all your lenses, the throughput is speeded up. Also dont worry if you have a new grey card image from a new session in different light, open the custom "28mm" protacol, and use the grey dropper on the new grey card image. All subsequent images can be opened in "Use previous setting" mode

As regards micro-lenses. Do you mean the micro lenses on the CCD array?
 
I shoot mostly in Black and White with my M8 with my non coded lens with no problems at all.
Buy the camera and enjoy it
 
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