M Flanges and 6-bit coding

[DadDadDaddyo]

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Yikes! For sure DON'T go near your flange with a Dremel!! Not what I meant to suggest in any way! Eeek!

That something as thin as the Sharpie marks might wear speaks to the close tolerances involved. My marks held up, if I remember, for the short time that I messed with this.

Such tolerances are the root of my concern over fastening third-party machine work from unknown sources into your Leica's bayonet mount. 

If I had an incurable itch to code an uncoded lens, based on the above, I'd go with DAG...

[lct]

1 hour ago, DadDadDaddyo said:

If I had an incurable itch to code an uncoded lens, based on the above, I'd go with DAG..

Good advice indeed for Leica lenses but hand-coding recent CV and ZM lenses is not difficult at all thanks to their recessed coding area. I must have a dozen of them and they are all hand-coded this way. FWIW.

[mediumformula]

I did this with my 50/2 v4 and it worked for a bit on my M10M but the sharpy starts to come off.  It caused my M11M to freeze (only time it has frozen) when I put my 50/2 with sharpied codes on it. 

[lct]

44 minutes ago, mediumformula said:

I did this with my 50/2 v4 and it worked for a bit on my M10M but the sharpy starts to come off.  It caused my M11M to freeze (only time it has frozen) when I put my 50/2 with sharpied codes on it. 

Better avoid sharpies on Leica lenses IMHO. Besides replacement flanges, i have had my Leica lenses coded by Leica, or workshops, or dealers like the one i bought my coded 50/2 v4 to in Germany. 

[farnz]

1 hour ago, lct said:

Better avoid sharpies on Leica lenses IMHO.

Why, LCT?  It's only a brand of felt-tipped pen so what is your concern please?

Pete.

Edited July 17, 2023 by farnz

[lct]

4 hours ago, farnz said:

Why, LCT?  It's only a brand of felt-tipped pen so what is your concern please?

Selfies are not dark enough to avoid false code readings in my experience. Also, they will erase by friction on Leica lenses due to lack of recessed area for hand-coding, as opposed to recent CV or ZM lenses that have such a recessed area on their flange.
Not to say that selfies are useless, i may use them on CV or ZM lenses to mark coding dots in the first place but i apply black paint or black ink over the marks afterward to avoid false code readings. YMMV.

Edited July 17, 2023 by lct

[farnz]

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5 hours ago, lct said:

Selfies are not dark enough to avoid false code readings in my experience. Also, they will erase by friction on Leica lenses due to lack of recessed area for hand-coding, as opposed to recent CV or ZM lenses that have such a recessed area on their flange.
Not to say that selfies are useless, i may use them on CV or ZM lenses to mark coding dots in the first place but i apply black paint or black ink over the marks afterward to avoid false code readings. YMMV.

I don't disagree, LCT, I thought you meant that they might damage the lens but my mistake. 

{Did you mean "Sharpies" rather than "selfies"?  A Freudian slip by an avid selfie-maker perhaps? )

Pete.

[DadDadDaddyo]

Man, I shouldn't even have brought up the Sharpies...  (sounds like Greek Mythology)

I one-hundred-percent agree and stipulate that marking up the mount flange with a Sharpie is an idea to discard, immediately. I tried it once because I wanted the focal length to be captured in the exif data. Really, I can live without it. 

All of this seems like trying to figure out which socks to stuff into your headphones to tame the high end on a bad recording (sorry, old audio engineer here) rather than correctly picking your mic for its known characteristics to begin with.

We may be on a slippery slope. This time and its photographers may end up being defined by their inexorable (and yet voluntary) slipping under the control, under the thrall, of software-instantiated corrections and automated enhancements. At some point we'll reach the degree of infantilization wherein we'll have lengthy discussions about which automated 3rd party method to apply to capture *our* creative expression....

"I find I prefer the rendering accorded to my creative insight by the Burkenhauer/Japinsky algorithm. The McGreggor/Woo Pin Fey plug-in is simply far too pedestrian and derivative in its intent-correction rendering. Would you like to sniff my cork?" 

Y'know how an entire era of photos will be immediately identifiable in the future because all the guys have their baseball caps on backwards? It's kind of like that...

In the immortal words of Mr. Baggins, "It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to..."

Ah, never mind, it's just a shut in day because of the weather, so I'm grumpy. 

Do what works best for you. And Enjoy!

[lct]

Sharpies are simply not the best tools for hand-coding lenses. I use a Markal Dura-Ink permanent black marker, and it works fine on lenses with a recessed coding area. Leica lenses are a no-no for lack of such recessed areas but there are other solutions including coded flanges referred to by the OP in this thread.

[mediumformula]

I successfully 6-bit coded my German made(1985) 50mm Summicron v4.  I purchased the new flange from jinfinance on ebay.  The seller was helpful in determining the correct flange for my lens.  Definitely communicate with the seller to confirm that you are ordering the correct flange.  The 50 cron has an odd screw placement where one of the 6 flange screws ends up in the middle of where the 6-bit coding will go, so the new flange omits that screw and attaches with just 5 screws.  I used black matte enamel model paint to fill in the two black squares.  I didn't use any white paint.  My M11M recognized the lens using the auto lens detect.  Checking rangefinder coupling with the live view, my lens seems to be accurately aligned.  The lens feels snug and tight in the lens mount.  So far I am happy with the outcome. 

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