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zeiss and 6bit coding


stevo

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hope someone can help me here...

 

i may be being a bit thick, but before i go buy a Zeiss ZM 50mm f2 Planar, i wanted to be sure that the 6bit coding on the M9 will recognise a zeiss zm lens and make it behave the same way a leica lens would.

 

or someone could persuade me not to buy the planar, but to stick with leica.

 

i am currently using a 35mm summicron and mostly shoot black and white street, hence i thought the planar might be good for overcast, hi contrast images???

 

your help will be appreciated.

 

stephen

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No problem to code this lens as it brings up the 50mm framelines. There are recommended engineers on a sticky who can mill the slots for you (Malcolm Taylor has done this for me - and done it to a very high level of accuracy).

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Or you can code by yourself using a coding kit and a "sharpie". Be sure to buy the newer version of the lens with a groove in the bayonet mount so that the coding will not wear out.

You can search forums for detailed information.

After coding the lens will be automatically recognized by the camera.

Andrej

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Sean Reid sometimes suggests manual coding plus some experimentation with other (ie different 50mm) lens settings. Lightroom will show the selection you made when listing the data and this can sometimes be confusing: I had, for instance, a Zeiss 35 f2.8 coded as Summicron pre-asph v4. Since I had had just that lens some while earlier, when you ask LR to show all images taken with the 35, understandaby it cannot differentiate between Zeiss and Summicron. But then, you have the dates too as a key.:)

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Yes the newer versions of Zeiss lenses have a groove milled in the mount (like CV do) so you can code it yourself. Either make your own coder following Bo's excellent instructions,

 

BoPhoto.com: M8 coder - simple manual handcoding of M lenses

 

or use trial and error. Some black pens work with the M9 (all seem to work with the M8), but I've never found the right one, so I use matt black paint (you don't need the white coding marks).

 

Steve

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I bought the ZM 50mm Planar f2 with my M9 last November. Shortly afterwards I bought the 'match Technical Coder Kit', marked the lens with the template, set the camera menu to 'auto lens selection' and bingo. You will not regret buying the ZM 50mm, it is a superb lens (I also have the ZM 35mm Biogon f2 and ZM 21mm Biogon f2.8, both of which also give similarly superb results).

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...or someone could persuade me not to buy the planar, but to stick with leica...

 

Not me, the Zeiss ZMs are fantastic lenses (especially this Planar) and not ridiculous in price like the Leicas. ;)

 

I use a Sharpie marker to code mine as a 50 Cron and it works great.

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Another vote for the ZM 50, it lives on my M3 full time, doubt I will ever use the collapsable much. I actually like it better than the 50 asph I used to have, much lighter, smoother focus and the third stop aperture clicks are fantastic, priced in Earth orbit too...

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The Planar 50 is indeed a wonderful lens, with better performances at full aperture than the Cron IV but showing more distortion (0.42% vs 0.15%) and a little bit more vignetting at full aperture (0.9IL vs 0.5IL)

Anyway those values are not such that they request corrections from the camera body...

So as the coding will not fit perfectly to the Planar, why to want to code it, except to get the information that the picture has been taken with a 50mm?

In other words the coding should not be an issue to purchase or not the Planar!

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