ho_co Posted June 27, 2011 Share #1 Posted June 27, 2011 Advertisement (gone after registration) If you've got an M8 and a 135/3.4, you're probably aware of the fact that with the M9's new firmware, the lens can accept a 6-bit code and be recognized by the camera. I suppose that is also the case with the M8, but could someone with both M8 and 135 Apo-Telyt-M check it out? More info in the M9 thread at http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/customer-forum/187141-owners-brand-new-apo-telyt-m.html. Thanks. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted June 27, 2011 Posted June 27, 2011 Hi ho_co, Take a look here Question for users of 135 Apo-Telyt-M. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
cbretteville Posted June 27, 2011 Share #2 Posted June 27, 2011 Howard, The 135/3,4 is not listed in the lens table in the M8 firmware. I checked that yesterday. Its a bummer as I like that lens and use it on my M8, but as the M8 does not have 135 frame lines, it isn't very surprising. Carl Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
guidomo Posted June 27, 2011 Share #3 Posted June 27, 2011 (1) I am not aware of anyone having seen a factory-coded 135/3.4. A code may exist in the M9 firmware (and perhaps also in the latest M8) firmware though. (2) In the past the only 135mm that the M8 had a code for was the 135/2.8 because its mount pulls the 90mm framelines. (3) When I self-coded my 135/3.4 I used the 135/2.8s code. The M8 will register "135mm" in the EXIF IF you pull the 90mm framelines with the lever whilst shooting. (4) I've just confirmed that the above still works with the new M8 firmware. Not sure if this answers your question? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ho_co Posted June 28, 2011 Author Share #4 Posted June 28, 2011 Thanks, guidomo. So the new M8 firmware can still be tricked into recognizing a non-Elmarit 135. Good to know. Thanks for checking! Carl-- Thanks for reporting the result of your investigations of the M8 firmware. Have they led you far enough to see whether the new 50/2 is present (same 6-bit code as the 135/3.4, different frame selector position)? If not, that would likely indicate that if that new 50mm appears, another firmware update will be necessary, which might yet include the 135 Apo. I'm surprised to see the two cameras' firmware diverge this way, despite the M8's lack of the 135 frame. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert_M Posted June 28, 2011 Share #5 Posted June 28, 2011 The responses to Howard's post are not clear to me (or I'm being dense). Has anyone tried a coded lens mount with the new code "53" on the M8 to see if it causes a recognition in the info screen? And, if one takes a pic with that code does it register a focal length = 135 (or something else) in the exif? And, more interesting, if a coded lens with "53" is used and frame selector is "50" is there any indication of the apparently new 50 f/2 lens? Please see Howard's link for more details of what I am talking about. I've not used an M8 but am a M9 user. So if my question doesn't make sense from the M8 user interface, please excuse my ignorance. Regards, RM Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
guidomo Posted June 28, 2011 Share #6 Posted June 28, 2011 Has anyone tried a coded lens mount with the new code "53" on the M8 to see if it causes a recognition in the info screen? And, if one takes a pic with that code does it register a focal length = 135 (or something else) in the exif? Good question. Not sure we've verified this yet. Anyone? Not having to pull the framelines to register the Elmarit-coded Apo as a 135mm would be nice. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbretteville Posted June 28, 2011 Share #7 Posted June 28, 2011 Advertisement (gone after registration) In the M8 firmware the lens table is used as what is known as a look-up table (LUT). This means that the information for each lens occupies the slot which corresponds to its lens ID. The table uses offset zero meaning the 1st element in the table is counted as nought making it 0, 1, 2, 3...63. Slot 0 is reserved for Uncoded lenses Slot 1 contains info on the pre-asph 21mm Elmarit Slot 2 is unused Slot 3 contains info on 28mm Elmarit vIII : : Slot 63 is unused This makes it easy for the programmer, when wanting to look up a lens' information the program can read the data at the slot indicated by the lens' code/id directly not having to search for a record matching the ID. This is a good technique when the data set is limited as it is in this case. Part of the information stored in the table for each lens is a text with a name. Another bit is the frame lines indicator required for that lens. When an ID is read as '3' the table indicates the name is "2.8/21; 11134" and the bayonet should be the 28/90. If a lens with code '3' has a 50/75 bayonet the program is written to ignore the code and set the ID to zero which ends up recorded as '0' = "uncoded lens with unknown frame lines". Why all this? Because it explains why there can be only one lens for each numerical ID in the M8's firmware. When there an entry in the table is filled it is filled and changing the data in that slot overwrites the existing data. This means that slot 53 can't contain data for the 135/3.4 and another lens. In the latest release of the M8 firmware the slot in question is not used to store information regarding the 135/3.4. As anyone with a hex viewer can see, it does indeed list a "Summicron-M 1:2/50". Carl Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert_M Posted June 28, 2011 Share #8 Posted June 28, 2011 Carl, Thanks for the confirmation that there is indeed a 50 f/2 lens as code 53-3 in the M8 also. I'm surprised that everyone is so quiet about this information since it does seem to indicate that there is a new 50mm lens in the not so distant future. How do you access the lens table in the M8 firmware? Is this information the results from coding the lens and then reading the exif output and/or the info screen. That is what I have to do on the M9. Is there some way to access the firmware LUT directly on the M8 and M9? Regards, RM Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbretteville Posted June 28, 2011 Share #9 Posted June 28, 2011 Only the program code in the firmware itself accesses the LUT. If you're interested in why I know what I do about the M8 i suggest following the link below my name. As for a pottential new 50/2, sorry but I can't get too exited about it. Although I'm sure it'll be a great lens, if and when it arrives. Yet another 50mm isn't anything I'd considder at this point, I have too many as it is. I'd much rather save the money for what is hopefully a substantial improvement over my M8 (something I don't considder the M9 to be). Carl Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
guidomo Posted June 28, 2011 Share #10 Posted June 28, 2011 Thanks, Carl, for the clarifying comments. I won't mess with the coding on my 135/3.4 then. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert_M Posted June 28, 2011 Share #11 Posted June 28, 2011 Thanks for the further information Carl. I had indeed found your nice metadata report 6 months ago when I started coding lenses for my M9. It is a very useful report and thanks for continuing to post that information on-line. I'm sure many others appreciate that report also. From your previous long post, it looks like there is a major difference in the M9 versus M8 firmware. In the M9, the firmware certainly has a LUT for more than one lens per code and uses the extra 2 bits of frame information to distinguish the exact lens. There are several lenses which can be manually coded from the M9 menu and the output is another existing lens but with a "0" frame code (ie, a non-existent frame lever position). Code 39-0 is the code used by M9 firmware for the 135/4 tele-elmar, for example. There are several others. However, one can not use these codes to physically code the lens flange since there is no way of physically bringing up the "0" frame code to go with it. So, these codes are only useable through the M9 Menu via manual lens code input. With the new M9 firmware, we have a new, interesting situation. I'm sure that is part of the motivation for the start of this thread. Namely, the new M9 firmware has 2 lens codes which bring up more than one lens which is differentiated by the actual frame position. And, for each of the new lens codes, one of the lenses are not acknowledged products. 1) code 53-2 is the 135/3.4 APO lens with a new lens coding. In the previous firmware, the manual coding of the lens resulted in code 9-0. 2) code 53-3 brings up a 50mm f/2 lens. There is a profile in software associated with this lens. The exif information correctly registers the focal length of the lens. 3) code 51-1appears to be the new 21/3.4 lens. There is a profile applied and the exif info is correctly recorded. 4) code 51-2 will bring up a mysterious 14mm f/3.8 lens on the M9 info screen. There isn't any profile applied with this code, and the exif data does not contain any recorded focal length. Regards, RM Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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