New feature wish - lens cap detection

[wlaidlaw]

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Guilty here too. I just decided it was my brain that needed a firmware upgrade and it is possibly asking too much for Leica to do that. I might get Venetian blind stripes in my vision when I woke up every morning.

 

I have found turning off the camera cancels the shot with no problems if you have left the cap on.

 

Over the years, mainly using a Contax G2 rangefinder, I tried various lens cap retaining solutions but I came to the conclusion that having a lens cap swinging around or stuck onto a strap with velcro was too much of an irritation and have gone back to just keeping them in my dusty pocket. I give them a good blow before refitting always.

 

Wilson

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[reddawn]

I wish that when I had the lens cap on and pressed the shutter that there would be some short beep and an easy option, shuch as pressing the release again, to abort the exposure.

Perhaps a "ridiculously long exposure" threshold option that when the computed exposue exceeds this threshold the lens cap abort is triggered.

-bob

 

The m8 must be ur first M - this lens cap "warning" feature is already in all Ms starting from the m6

[bradreiman]

lets ask leica to install facial recognition and auto focus of course and through the lens focusing please and a ZOOM lens yeah! sorry...b

[stunsworth]

Like Wilson I just switch the camera off when this happens. If I'm using AE I find that a flashing 30 second exposure warning is enough to remind me about the lens cap :-)

[rob_x2004]

One word...prophylactic...ok, second word...sheild. Pull it over the whole camera and your insidious little diseases like skanky sensor are dealt with too. Purple one and you deal with hhhh...IV i mean IR as well. So thin no one will know you are wearing. No fingerprints either. No one ever need know you touch.

[lars_bergquist]

Robert, if you have difficulty in seeing the meter readout, then you have problems beyond skulking lens caps.

 

I wear specs (bad case of presbyopia) but have no problem with the nice red digits. I think this may have to do with what specs you use. In your case, I suspect that your glasses are forcing upon you either a too high eyepoint (too large eye relief) or a skewed view though the eyepiece. This can happen with too large frames, or too thick lenses. I use progressive specs with lenses of moderate size. So, while I have the same problems with the 24 mm finder frame as I had with the 28 on earlier cameras (I cannot see them in their entirety) I have none with the display.

 

With progressive lenses you learn very quickly though what part of the lens you should view the finder in order to see frames, display and subject well. One must only remember to keep the array of finder frames well centered in the visual field. If you don't see the outer one, you will at least see the inner one! The red figures are well within the ones for 24 mm and about level with that for 28 mm.

 

One alternative is of course a screw-in correction lens in the eyepiece (i.e. as long as your visual problem does not include astigmatism). This means however that you must shoot without specs, and possibly be half blind except when you are looking through the finder. This, as the metering (auto or manual) in the finder makes it less necessary to peer at tiny figures on the camera, may be less of a drawback with modern M cameras – but unfortunately, the M8 shutter dial rotates freely turn after turn, so that you cannot very well set shutter speeds without looking, as you could before. This is a handicap when metering manually. In any case, correction lenses are not exactly a recipe for action photography.

 

If you would go that path however, any optometrician, or for that matter any rack with cheap plastic reading glasses with clearly marked dioptries (strengths, positive for farsightedness and negative for nearsightedness) can tell you which lens to order.

 

The old man from the Age of the All-Day Lens Cap Shoot

[Shootist]

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Admit to nothing - that Ed is trying to make us feel incompetent:p

 

No feeling incompetent is when using a M3 you take the shot of your life, or so you think, and then you look down and see the lens cap is on.

That is the feeling of incompetence.

[egibaud]

add me to the idiot list

 

first time it happened I thought camera was dead then I got a second shot..... same thing..... then I felt SO stupid LOL

[gravastar]

All you have to do is look at the meter LED's in the bottom of the viewfinder. It will flash and read 32'' when there is no light.

Much better then when using a M3.

 

But once you get use to using a M you remember to take the cap off and leave it off until you are ready to put the camera back in the bag.

I remember laughing in a camera shop some years ago when the proprietor to me he could tell the long time Leica users by the fact they removed the lens cap as soon as they picked a camera up........ even when it had no film in it.

 

Bob.

[jonoslack]

 

I have just thought of another alternative, which being mechanical, is probably more acceptable than a firmware mod to the majority of the commenters in this thread.

 

Drum roll please....

The kit consists of a short string, one end of which is attached to the lens cap.

The other end terminates in an alligator clip which one can attach to ones belt or bag.

 

This makes a firmware mod rather redundant, and not only solves the problem of the unreasonably long black exposure, but provides the automatic features of removing the lens cap when the camera is brought up to eye level as well as safely stowing the beast so it won't go missing.

 

oh, I hear someone grumbling about automatic, oh well, wasn't much of an idea anyway

-bob

 

Absolutely brilliant bob - and of course, your final objection is easily got round. Attach the alligator clip to your belt, and make the string too short to reach your face - so, when you bring the camera to your eye - it pulls off the lens cap . . . voila!

[george +]

There is an other solution too. Attach a piece of cloth of your choice to the top of the camera and the lens cap in such a fashion that it covers the viewfinder. So when the cap is on, you can't see either.

 

The cloth can be of any color, might even have a red dot on it. Or some tasteful text like: "Remember to remove lenscap" . Maybe even in Gothic script (what an opportunity for artistic expression). Or it could be some expensive material a'la custom covers, eh . . .?

 

 

Now what about that drumroll?

[wlaidlaw]

Perhaps we should commission the spiritual heirs of Heath Robinson W Heath Robinson's Art to design something for us forgetful Leica owners. I was contemplating a pneumatically operated pair of lazy tongs attached in the belt region. This would remove the cap on the first push of the pneumatic control button and offer up the lens cap on the second push. Maybe it could have a rotating device so that if you put a lens cleaning cloth inside the lens hood, it would rotate the lens cap on removal so you would have a clean lens every time.

 

Wilson