should be a software alternative to lens coding?

[travelight]

It seems to me that it would be pretty easy to add the facility to manually set the lens model via the on-camera menus, rather than requiring the lens to be coded.

This would allow users who pick up an old lens to benefit from the software processing that lens coding indicates, without having to send the lens off for coding.

Once you've selected your lens, the camera could 'remember' the few that you actualy use and provide a quick select list of only those lenses.

Thoughts?

 

[jaapv]

Yes- it has been discussed extensively in all forums, but until now - no. Probably for commercial reasons.

 

[HAnkg]

Open standards and open platforms work in favor of botique operators like Leica. With the codes Leica can't have it's cake and eat it to. The lower the bar for entry into M8 land the better in the long run for Leica.

 

[J. Borger]

Open standards and open platforms work in favor of botique operators like Leica. With the codes Leica can't have it's cake and eat it to. The lower the bar for entry into M8 land the better in the long run for Leica.

Leica thinks different for now ........😀
Leica can only build a limited amount of M8's each year ....... giving the low price of the M8 real profits have to be made from the lenses ....... so i think it would not be in Leicas interest if only people using cv lenses would buy an M8!
BTW .. there are several ways to work around the coding, and in fact in a lot of cases coding is not even necessary at all.
It's simply a way to stimulate Leica lenssales .. sounds very legitimate businesswise to me!
BTW .....I have none of my 8 Leica lenses coded and have no intention to do so!

 

[HAnkg]

Having CV and Zeiss in the RF market has been a net + for Leica. It makes for a healthier, bigger marketplace. The last thing the RF market needs now is to become more of a high end narrower niche.

The average age of Leica's customers is probably in retirement home territory. CV is bringing some new blood into the market. As these users age and move up the income scale they will replenish the ranks of all those retiring dentists and engineers Leica depends on to survive😉

They don't need to supply Zeiss and CV with permission to code the lenses but they should make it sofware selectable for thier own customers.

 

[Andy Aitken]

Good point Hank. I know I would probably never have become a Leica customer if it hadn't been for the availability of CV/Kobalux etc. lenses.

It looks to me - with the new firmware already looking like its improving the magenta problem - that coding is pretty unnecessary. I've haven't seen any difference in a coded vs. uncoded lens so far. I've DIY coded a couple of lenses but that's just to remind me what lens I used but I see no pictorial benefits at all.

What I'd love to see are some specially made LTM-M adapters with little wells machined in them to add your own coding. Do you think Mr Kobayashi reads RFF?

 

[Tim Walker]

I agree. It really makes no sense that it's not built into the firmware since even coded lenses do nothing other than notifiy the camera what lens is mounted. The camera does the rest. It's hard to imagine, though, that it's for commercial reasons. I can't see Leica making that much money coding lenses at that price, even as expensive as it is.

 

[ywenz]

Tim: Can you think of a technical reason why they can't implement the ability to manually select the lens from the menu? I can't... It must be commercial.

 

[ian_watts]

Tim: Can you think of a technical reason why they can't implement the ability to manually select the lens from the menu? I can't... It must be commercial.

Not technical, but Leica might argue (with little justification in my opinion) that having manual (menu-driven) lens selection opens up the possibility of users forgetting to change the setting or selecting the wrong lens. This is not unlike the decades old philosophy that has determined frameline selection in the M viewfinder (which has left us with a system requiring multiple framelines in any particular frame view).

 

[Xmas]

The M9 might select the frame lines from the coding...

People grumbled in '58 or so when the first non screw lens was intrioduced.

noel

 

[Sailor Ted]

I agree. It really makes no sense that it's not built into the firmware since even coded lenses do nothing other than notifiy the camera what lens is mounted. The camera does the rest. It's hard to imagine, though, that it's for commercial reasons. I can't see Leica making that much money coding lenses at that price, even as expensive as it is.

I can think of an economic reason and it has nothing to do with lens coding fees. If a new Leica lens has 6-bit coding and a new Zeiss lens does not then some may opt for the more expensive Leica lens if for no other reason then to have 6-bit coding.

 

[kbg32]

People grumbled when machines began to slice bread.

 

[J. Borger]

I can think of an economic reason and it has nothing to do with lens coding fees. If a new Leica lens has 6-bit coding and a new Zeiss lens does not then some may opt for the more expensive Leica lens if for no other reason then to have 6-bit coding.

That's the only reason indeed ......😉

 

[travelight]

Actually, I wasn't thinking of supporting non Leica lenses - just allowing non coded leica ones to be selected from the list of lenses that must already be in the firmware.
They could always have it reset to unknown when you change lenses (might already), which would avoid the wrong lens being set in exif.

Is it really the case that the only benefit is exif data? I thought there was some talk of compensation for vignetting and/or magenta corners?

I'm curious, is there any user-settable data in the M8? Can I plug in a USB cable and program in my name to appear in exif or something like that?

 

[Ronald M]

Coding also tells the camera the difference in lightmeter values inboard and ttl. This translates to F stop used and the amount of vignetting that needs to be corrected in camera automatically.

No personel experience on this though.

I have a KM 5400 scanner andEpson 4870 for larger neg and a cheap digi for when I am in a hurry. No M8 in site for me.

 

[grduprey]

There is also the issue of Leica lenses that are not on the list of codeable lenses. What then? I am in this category with my 35 Summilux pre-Asph.

 

[JohnL]

This is an issue for me as I have numerous non-Leica M and LTM lenses. This is the first time I have seen anyone suggest that the coding is unimportant, and that new firmware has solved the "magenta" issue (by which I guess is meant the IR issue). I am not convinced the former is true, nor am I happy with the IR-cut filter solution for this latter. I really would like a true-M digital camera but it's not something I truly need so I'm still sitting on the sidelines. There are several other M8 issues that I am also watching and waiting on ...

 

[StuartR]

I think this would be the case of, well, what the hell is the point of the coding if they just do it through a menu? Why did they spend all that effort designing the new mount and so on if a menu option can render it redundant? I agree that it should definitely be user selectable, but I understand why they would be reluctant to make it so.