Hand coding, whats your best way

Avotius

Avotius

Some guy
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So now that I am drowning in the idiosyncrasies of my M8 I come to the coding problem.

I am not interested in sending all my lenses off for milling or coding so I will hand code them here. For those of you doing this what do you find to be the best ways?

I saw that M coder ring thing but 70 some bucks for a plastic thing is ridiculous. I see some people are printing their own templates and just putting those on the lens and drawing the codes in through holes, I may go that way. I even considered having an M coder type ring made for me here, can have someone put something together for a few bucks but it would take a while, or I could always make it myself.

Is there something like the M coder thing but just a lot cheaper, all I need is the ring since the codes are all online.
 
I bought one from BoPhoto, and it works perfectly. Just be careful not to bend it though, since its a bit on the fragile side.
 
I read that coding, without a groove, wears off fairly quickly, in some cases. I suppose that makes sense.

In any case, thanks for the link for the DYI coder. Looks neat, I might do it for my wides.

Vick
 
I bought a pre-drilled Type II adapter off eBay (a Chinese vendor, I forget the name) and used Sharpie paint pens to fill in the grooves ... it looks great but it doesn't seem to work. Maybe the grooves aren't quite lined up. Anyway, I wouldn't bother with them.
 
I did use the Match Technical kit for self-coding, but got tired of coding, re-coding, and cleaning up the black smudges left by the marker on the mount.

So I used a Dremel, made the recesses, and 'permanently' coded my Zeiss 2,8/35, Nokton 35/1.2, and a couple Voigtlander Type II M39 adapters (as you can see below):



Not 'beautiful' perhaps, but hey, I did it (whatever that's worth).
 
When I coded my lenses 3 years ago there was no M coder, just a printable template that I couldn't get sized right. So what I did was put 2 tiny dots with a red fine-point marker on the outer edge of the body flange coinciding with the extremes of the code reader, then mounted my lenses and made 2 likewise dots on the lens rear flange outer edge. From those I drew lines on the flat part of the flange, bisected them with a third line, then trisected those segments so there were six rectangular segments in all. Then I used a dreml (actually it was a dental handpiece, same idea) as above to hand-mill shallow troughs. Mine are more oblong, to be sure they would catch the code reader's eye. Then I filled them in with black touchup paint left over from my last car. Glossy black paint works fine, BTW. After my first one (a Leitz screw adaptor) I discovered there's no need to bother milling the white codes, just the black ones. So my lenses don't look like OEM 6-bit but they register perfectly with the camera.
 
Why go to all that trouble ?

As you have correctly pointed out, using templates is a real pain and waste of time.
I've tried it as well and wasted much time fiddling with paper and clear plastic templates with very poor results and then it dawned on me a more simple method which doesn't require a template at all.


  1. With the lens removed from the camera body, mark the body's mount on the side of the grey ring where the 6 corresponding diodes line up.
  2. Attach the lens that requires codiing and mark the side of the lens mount that lines up to the corresponding marks you just made in step 1.
  3. Remove the lens and you can see the marks on the side of the lens mount. Simply now use your marker and "paint" the black lines that line up with the side of your mount onto the lens mount that faces the diodes. (As you know you only need to paint the "black" markings, the white ones are not necessary to paint)

Literally takes less than 2 minutes the first time and of course 10 seconds to "refresh" when it wears off, since you can still see where the old "black" marks off.
 
Ben Z said:
After my first one (a Leitz screw adaptor) I discovered there's no need to bother milling the white codes, just the black ones.
Click to expand...

This is true, unless you plan to change the coding (e.g., you start using the adapter with a different lens, you decide that coding the lens as X is better than Y). That's why I went ahead and created all six recesses in my adapters. It also helps with the spacing when using the Dremel.

And yes, you don't need to paint the white ones white, even though I did (using RustOleum). What can I say, I am an imitator.
 
As Baycrest above but replace step 3 with a Dremel.

Below: Summilux 35 mm pre-aspherical. (Note the 1 mm-deep milling on the shroud: the shroud comes very close the the M8/M9 lens throat and (due to variations in manufacturing tolerances) actually fouls the camera for some lenses, preventing focusing to infinity.)

The lens was a collectible (the version with an infinity lock is rare) until I modified it! :D

lenscodingdremelnotessu.jpg
 
baycrest said:
Why go to all that trouble ?

As you have correctly pointed out, using templates is a real pain and waste of time.
I've tried it as well and wasted much time fiddling with paper and clear plastic templates with very poor results and then it dawned on me a more simple method which doesn't require a template at all.


  1. With the lens removed from the camera body, mark the body's mount on the side of the grey ring where the 6 corresponding diodes line up.
  2. Attach the lens that requires codiing and mark the side of the lens mount that lines up to the corresponding marks you just made in step 1.
  3. Remove the lens and you can see the marks on the side of the lens mount. Simply now use your marker and "paint" the black lines that line up with the side of your mount onto the lens mount that faces the diodes. (As you know you only need to paint the "black" markings, the white ones are not necessary to paint)

Literally takes less than 2 minutes the first time and of course 10 seconds to "refresh" when it wears off, since you can still see where the old "black" marks off.
Click to expand...

I agree with this absolutely; I 'laser-cut' a stack of really neat 'precision' templates, but the results were hit and miss at best and not worth the effort. What surprised me was that you don't have to be that neat, any old marks will (usually) work...
 
Last edited:
I must amend what I wrote above. I checked and the pits should have lined up on the eBay pre-milled adapter I bought. Turns out I had coded the thing upside down, to some nonexistent lens! I just fixed it and it works fine. It's a Jieying adapter. So I now recommend them, but I don't recommend me.
 
I placed a wanted to buy ad in the classifieds for an M-Coder. I found one and it was cheap.

Of course LTM lenses are easiest, just get a CV type 2 adapter, or use an original Leica adapter without the infinity lock cut-out. Each of those have a raised brass area to mate with the lens mount and you can code the outer area which doesn't contact the mount and is basically permanent.

I have not bothered to code my M-Mount lenses, they are all over 35mm...
 
$70.00 for the Match Technical Decoder 2.0 kit is money well spent. After buying an M8 and lenses, $70 is peanuts, plus it works very well.
Rich
 
I tried the BoPhoto solution and had very mixed results. In the end I found I could a) Care less and b) that it made no difference in my photographic technique or results.
 
baycrest said:
Why go to all that trouble ?

As you have correctly pointed out, using templates is a real pain and waste of time.
I've tried it as well and wasted much time fiddling with paper and clear plastic templates with very poor results and then it dawned on me a more simple method which doesn't require a template at all.


  1. With the lens removed from the camera body, mark the body's mount on the side of the grey ring where the 6 corresponding diodes line up.
  2. Attach the lens that requires codiing and mark the side of the lens mount that lines up to the corresponding marks you just made in step 1.
  3. Remove the lens and you can see the marks on the side of the lens mount. Simply now use your marker and "paint" the black lines that line up with the side of your mount onto the lens mount that faces the diodes. (As you know you only need to paint the "black" markings, the white ones are not necessary to paint)

Literally takes less than 2 minutes the first time and of course 10 seconds to "refresh" when it wears off, since you can still see where the old "black" marks off.
Click to expand...

Ditto--this is exactly how I do it, and it's quick, simple and cheap. I keep a sharpie in my camera bag to touch it up when required.

Jeff
 
RichC said:
As Baycrest above but replace step 3 with a Dremel.

Below: Summilux 35 mm pre-aspherical. (Note the 1 mm-deep milling on the shroud: the shroud comes very close the the M8/M9 lens throat and (due to variations in manufacturing tolerances) actually fouls the camera for some lenses, preventing focusing to infinity.)

The lens was a collectible (the version with an infinity lock is rare) until I modified it! :D

lenscodingdremelnotessu.jpg
Click to expand...

Excellent workmanship with the Dremel. You're quite skilled. My own attempts are not as symetrical, but fortunately, it still works!
 
baycrest said:
Why go to all that trouble ?

As you have correctly pointed out, using templates is a real pain and waste of time.
I've tried it as well and wasted much time fiddling with paper and clear plastic templates with very poor results and then it dawned on me a more simple method which doesn't require a template at all.

  1. With the lens removed from the camera body, mark the body's mount on the side of the grey ring where the 6 corresponding diodes line up.
  2. Attach the lens that requires codiing and mark the side of the lens mount that lines up to the corresponding marks you just made in step 1.
  3. Remove the lens and you can see the marks on the side of the lens mount. Simply now use your marker and "paint" the black lines that line up with the side of your mount onto the lens mount that faces the diodes. (As you know you only need to paint the "black" markings, the white ones are not necessary to paint)
Literally takes less than 2 minutes the first time and of course 10 seconds to "refresh" when it wears off, since you can still see where the old "black" marks off.
Click to expand...

This was almost too easy. I used the codes from
http://whimster-photography.com/leica_m_lens_codes/index.html
I hope these are accurate.

With the Zeiss 35mm f/2.8 ZM, the pre-ASPH 35mm f/2 code (which I've been manually inserting) seems perfect. I note on the 35 f/2.8 ZM Zeiss appears to have made a slightly recessed area on the mount, which just happens to be where the coding goes. So, it will, hopefully, not rub off. Just a couple of little lines with a fine point Sharpie, and the M9 thinks the ZM is a 35mm Summicron. Very nice, thank you.

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com

 
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