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M9 auto lens detection problem


JapanExposures

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Hi,

 

I just received a lovely M9-P bought from a friendly forum member. The camera does not detect my coded 35 cron Asph. lens. It does however detect my hand coded lenses and a Summarit 35 I tried out in a local camera shop.

 

I am trying to figure out whether the problem is with the body or the lens. My outgoing M8 has been detecting this lens just fine. However, when comparing the pits of the Summarit in the shop and my Summicron, they looked quite a bit different. My pits seem a little smaller. Also the whites are a little worn.

 

Any advice?

 

Thanks

 

Dirk

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The white segments are irrelevant, they could be just silver, but if one gets dirty that may be the problem. At the same time make sure your black coding marks are totally black, the M9 is much less tolerant of marks that are less that totally opaque black, so not Sharpie infills etc.

 

Steve

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Hi, thanks for the comments.

 

The mount is clean, just a bad picture in dim light. I had already wiped both lens side and camera side with cleaning alcohol, no improvement. Now i just re-blackened the black pits, again no change. :confused:

 

I talked to Leica this morning, they said I should send in both. I was wondering if I can get away with fixing only one of the two, but perhaps it looks like I should send the combination to be sure.

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As an experiment try blackening the mount between all the pits and lengthen them with an OHP pen or Sharpie. You can easily remove it later with acetone etc. Even the tiniest misalignment or error in size that allows some reflected light back into the sensor will register as non-black.

 

If that works, it is probably just misalignment or inadequate size of the coding pits with your particular camera/lens combo and a change of flange and coding will sort it out..... unless you want to start dremelling them bigger ..... in fact you could convert the central 4 black bits into one larger continuous gutter (which I have done when I self coded this lens .... see pic below). In fact I cannot really understand why Leica didn't machine and blacken a recess the full size of the sensor and then just add some white painted dots where needed ..... they actually only need to be 1mm in size to register....

 

If not it could be the projecting bit of the flange (that varies in length for each frame pair) not actuating the frame toggle switch in the camera. Again that is a lens/camera combo problem and a new flange will probably be needed. This seems to be an issue with some M's but I can't recall it being an issue with the M9

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this is a template I made to check alignment and code my lenses ..... I print a page of them onto A4 overhead transparency film .... cut them out as squares then remove the centre ...... they are a tight fit over the flange projections but as OHP film is flexible it's not too difficult. The screw holes are marked and should align ok on most modern lenses. That will give you some idea if the group is in the right place. This prints ok on an HP colour laser printer .... and as it's a pdf it shouldn't get 'scaled' when printed which happened to me using other peoples jpg templates .... Check it on an OK lens first to make sure the template is OK. This is about version 20 ..... and it took a lot of trial and error to get all the screw positions etc just right ....:rolleyes:

 

For actual coding I cut out the slots with a scalpel/craft knife and then mark them with an OHP pen or similar. You cannot make the black ones too big so you only have to be careful about the alignment of the whole group, not the individual pits ......

 

I'd be very surprised if one of your Japanese colleagues that makes/machines your lenses/finders can't sort this for you once the correct alignment is established.

 

The worst you can do is trash the flange .... which Leica would change anyway if you sent it back

leica 6 bit template 2013v3.pdf

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You re blackened the infills, it must be with Matt black paint for the M9, nothing that reflects light. The M8 is more tolerant of the type of black used. The only other thing that connects the coding are the frame lines which need to be correct, so is the lens cleanly bringing up the 35mm frame? Don't let it over rotate on the body flange by keeping the release button pressed in while you mount it, allow it to snap into place.

 

Steve

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Hi, I blackened all the gaps and no success. Then I cleaned it off again and now it is back to its original level and seems to work as intended... mmmh. :confused: I hope that resolves it for good. Would be annoying if lens detection was unreliable.

 

takes only a miniscule bit of one blackened bit that isn't 100% non reflective to cause the sensor to get confused.

 

I've had similar problems that mysteriously vanished although I wasn't really sure what I did after fiddling about in the same fashion....

 

If it's now ok I suspect it will be permanent.

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