Lens Sensor in Action

[marknorton]

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One of the changes to 1.102 is that the WATE sub-menu pops up as soon as the lens is mounted. That means the camera is continually checking to see which lens, if any, is mounted; it's not clear whether it has always done this or whether, previously, the lens was only "read" when an exposure was made.

 

The sensor is not visible to the naked eye but uses IR LEDs similar (but much lower power) to the ones used in your TV remote. Now, I wonder where I can find a camera that's sensitive to IR?

 

So, this isn't a picture from NASA tracking some extra-terrestrial being across the night sky, it's a picture of the sensor working...

 

[ATTACH]36365[/ATTACH]

 

It's not clear whether they switch on all 6 LEDs at once (risking cross-talk between the channels) or strobe each one in turn. I'm wondering, though, whether Leica are missing a trick here. This immediate lens type detection is only apparently used when a WATE is mounted, so they only need to switch on this function when the 28/90 frame selector position is set - if the frame selector is not in the correct position, there's no point checking for a WATE because it's never going to be there. As it turns out, the sensor is active irrespective of the frame selector position.

 

I expect the increase in power consumption from running it all the time the camera is awake is not significant and it's possible something else might benefit from knowing immediately what lens is mounted. For example, a zooming flash would want to know the focal length of the lens as soon as it was mounted.

 

Taken with a 90/4 + Macro Adapter at ISO 2500, wide open, something like a 16s exposure. As first, I was puzzled by a lack of results.... until I remembered to take the IR filter off the front of the lens. LOL.

[Chuck Hatcher]

Do you know if the leds are turned off when lens coding (on the menu) is set to "off"?