Do I REALLY have to code?

[Hammerhai]

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Hello all. I bought a coding kit and "sharpied" my 28 and 50 with the correct codes and promptly had neither register. So, I cleaned the sensor on my M8 and made my marks darker and fuller and still ...nothing. Instead of getting angry and pulling out my M7 again, I decided I should ask my fellow knowledgable members this simple question:

 

Do I really have to code my lenses?

 

I know that it has to do something with vignetting, etc., but am pretty ignorant to the full purpose/reasoning for coding. I appreciate your help in answering this digital neophytes question.

 

Thanks a lot!

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[lct]

Hello all. I bought a coding kit and "sharpied" my 28 and 50 with the correct codes and promptly had neither register....Do I really have to code my lenses?...

You have to code them if you want the name of your lenses to appear in the exif data of your pics.

Otherwise, coding is not necessary on 50mm lenses, but it will adjust both vignetting and cyan shift issues on your 28mm lens if you use the latter with an IR-cut filter.

Not a big deal normally, you just need a good coder kit. Mine is this one and works fine with my uncoded lenses including the Summicron 28/2.

[tobey bilek]

If you add a uv/ir filter, then 35and wider lenses get cyan/green corners. Coding supposedly fixes this with an in camera software fix. Side benefit is lens data shows in exif data which is the least important function of coding in my opinion.

 

If you do not use the uv/ir filters , colors are screwed up.

 

Tamarkin furnished one filter with the camera when I bought it. One can definately see the difference and I got one for each lens.

 

A program called Cornerfix is also supposed to repair the odd corners.

[wda]

For best possible results, YES. Otherwise Leica would not have gone to the trouble to add the coding feature to lenses. Personally I find it very useful when analysing metadata to examine lens utilisation and focal lengths.

[WestMichigan]

Hi Ya,

there are a couple of answers when it comes to lens coding, but recall you're free to do whatever you want with the decision: toss a coin, maybe shrug and go mehhh, or simply ignore the question. :-D

 

Skipping it means you lose out on a few helpful features Leica has built into the M8 (and the M9 for that matter).

Major Benefit: Coding helps the camera correct sensor sourced image issues when the lens focal lengths go much beyond 50mm and is very helpful with every lens 28mm and wider.

Lessor Benefit: Coding tells the camera what lens is attached so it can record the Lens' Focal Length, Maximum Aperture, etc in the Exif File part of the image files generated by your camera. It can really come in handy conducting image searches in programs such as Lightroom and Aperture.

The Exif info can come in quite handy when trying to review how a particular Lens has been used by oneself and how well it did or did not perform for you.

 

Other benefits aren't immediately coming to mind, but I went without lens coding for a number of months and didn't feel much loss until I started doing some precision imaging work. I quickly worked to get things coded once I encountered vignetting issues and color shift issues which lens coding helps with.

 

Sincerely

Richard in Michigan

[jaapv]

Lens coding drives the flash motor zoom on compatible flashes. and the information LCD on the SD24D.

[Hammerhai]

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Thank you to you all. I appreciate your help and guidance. After looking through the site I was able to find a few valuable nuggets of information on coding and got both of my lenses working without issue. After all your comments, I am glad that I did!

[kievnut]

>>>coding and got both of my lenses working without issue

Can you tell me how you fixed this? I tried to code my VC 25mm F4 but it just don't work. I tried to make the black dot darker and check with the coding template http://whimster-photography.com/leica_m_lens_codes/template.jpg and is spot on but still can't pick up.

 

I do successfully coded my Summicorn -C 40mm as 35mm.

[WestMichigan]

Have you switched markers?

I learned the hard way that not all sharpies are made the same, it wasn't til I tried my 3rd sharpie in the house that I found one that wasn't transparent to the IR based code sensor. Identical marks on two different ltm-m adapters with coding divots with two different pens failed until making utterly identical marks with a different marker. :-D

 

Query: how difficult was it to code the summi C ?

I haven't quite fiddled with mine yet, but it lacks the divots of my ltm-m adapted lenses.

 

Richard in Michigan

[kievnut]

Have you switched markers?

I learned the hard way that not all sharpies are made the same, it wasn't til I tried my 3rd sharpie in the house that I found one that wasn't transparent to the IR based code sensor. Identical marks on two different ltm-m adapters with coding divots with two different pens failed until making utterly identical marks with a different marker. :-D

 

Query: how difficult was it to code the summi C ?

I haven't quite fiddled with mine yet, but it lacks the divots of my ltm-m adapted lenses.

 

Richard in Michigan

 

I actually not using "Sharpie" but used Artline 190 and Artline 70. (they are both permanent markers). Will go to supermarket and buy the "Genuine" Sharpie and give it a go to-night.

 

The summi-c is easy to code - paint the screw near the coding area and it will pick up as 35mm.

 

Thanks Richard.

[Hammerhai]

I found that one of my sharpie's marked lighter than the other. So, I used the darker one and would mark, let it dry, and mark again. I also made my "dots" wider/fatter (against the suggestion of many) and ta-da! recognition without issue. I also bought a template made by Bo Lorentzon for $5 to make sure that I was aligned correctly. I know that it was an aggravation at first, but I am glad that I kept at it...