TE 35mm not recognized

[scott kirkpatrick]

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Well, I don't have a REAL TE, I have a chameleon, a collapsible 50/2.0 with a nice wide shiny base, no screws or anything, and I sharpie-coded it to be a Tri-Elmar 28-35-50. (Why? Just curious -- it will end up impersonating a 50/2.0 model III.) The coding seems to work -- it comes up as a 50. The EXIF says the max aperture is 4.0. When I push the frame lever to the right, it says I am now a 28mm lens. But when I pull the frame lever to the left, I am still a 50, not a 35 mm lens. I have ON+UV/IR set.

 

Does this also happen to a real TE? If so, it is a bug in firmware 1.102.

 

scott

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[ho_co]

Scott--

I can't answer the question you raised because I don't have the camera/lens combination.

 

But I think I can explain the phenomenon:

 

A spring-loaded segment of the Tri-Elmar bayonet moves when the lens is set to each of the three focal-length positions. (The same is not true of the WATE.)

 

With a 50mm, the frame-setting lug of the lens makes a firm stop. You can change the frames themselves in the VF with the frame preview lever, but the lens blocks movement of the toggle switch: Moving from 50 to 35, the toggle switch follows; but the lens doesn't allow the other toggle switch to engage when switching from 50 to 28.

 

Test my assumption by coding a 28 as a TE, and see whether it allows the 3-way toggle.

 

Or just wait till someone with M8 and TE responds, as you requested.

 

--HC

[scott kirkpatrick]

That sounds plausible -- the TE really moves the lug on the mount to the three positions, and not just the frame lever. And the mechanical device that responds to the mount lug could move in one direction (indicating a bigger lug) but not to the other (because the fixed size lug is in the way). In the pictures of the frame lever toggle switches in the "anatomy" thread, it looked as if the two toggles were directly connected to the lever, but I will now go and look again. Perhaps this is a question for Mark, the anatomist. I don't have a codeable 28, but might be able to convince a 35 to help out by showing that the firmware does not recognize any frame lever movement, if your theory is correct.

 

scott

[marknorton]

Scott, my TE works correctly at all three focal lengths. Here's a picture of the switches:

 

[ATTACH]36231[/ATTACH]

 

There are three positions, one switch pressed, the other, neither. You can see the flat screw moves in a slot and limits the movement.

[scott kirkpatrick]

Your experience answers my question, and your picture supports Howard's view that the piece of the chain that touches the toggle switches reflects the lug position (or freedom to move) rather than being directly connected to the lever. I'm saying that because what else is the spring for, if not to maintain contact with the mount lug?

 

Problem solved, or at least reduced to a mechanical "feature," not a firmware bug. This may explain why you can't always use the frame lever to turn off lens detection when you want it off.

 

scott

[marknorton]

Scott, HC's correct.

 

Turns out that for any selected focal length, the reported focal length changes if you press the lever in from the position selected by the lense but not if you pull it out. So, in these three cases (lens: 50, selected: 35, lens: 28, selected 50 or 35), the reported focal length is incorrect.

 

Emphasize though that if you leave the frame selection lever alone, all is fine.