howard_cummer Posted July 12, 2007 Share #1 Posted July 12, 2007 Advertisement (gone after registration) Hi Leica Formers, Went into Kerrisdale Camera today in Vancouver to check out their used Leica inventory (R almost all gone - shopped out to KEH camera I was told) and just a few M lenses left. They, however, did have a new Wide Tri Elmar, which was offered to me to try on my M8. This style of customer service is quite a contrast to what happens in Hong Kong! Attaching the Wide TE brought up the choice of 16mm, 18mm and 21mm frames which you select from the set button. However, when I switched to another focal length the camera did not read the change. I understand that a switch in focal length is supposed to trigger micro switches in the camera so that it can read the changed focal length and adjust the soft ware accordingly. This did not happen. We called the Leica rep and did not get an answer as to why this was happening. The standard Tri Elmar works fine on my M8 so we discounted that there was something wrong with the reading of the code LED's. I would like to know if other Wide Tri Elmar owners have had a similar experience and if so, what was done about it. Thanks Howard (now in Vancouver - where it is as hot as Hong Kong) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted July 12, 2007 Posted July 12, 2007 Hi howard_cummer, Take a look here WATE setting focal lengths. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
Guest guy_mancuso Posted July 12, 2007 Share #2 Posted July 12, 2007 No when you switch the focal length on the LENS nothing will happen that is correct Now if you go from 16mm to 21mm on the lens than you MUST also go to the menu option and switch that in the software also . Nothing automatic here , you the user must make that change in the camera to adjust to the focal length. However as it stands today the default is 18mm and when you attach the lens and just go to shoot it will stay at that 18mm setting no matter what focal length you use unless you change it. This was all normal. The firmware or camera has no way of knowing what focal length you are picking andmust all be done manually Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
howard_cummer Posted July 12, 2007 Author Share #3 Posted July 12, 2007 Guy, How do you get the focal length choice to come up on the screen? It comes up when you attach the lens - but didn't come up when the camera was turned on and off. Thanks Howard Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
robsteve Posted July 12, 2007 Share #4 Posted July 12, 2007 Howard: I think it only prompts for focal lenght when you turn on the camera if you have the uv-ir coding set to on. It is prompting so that it can do the proper vignette corrections when using a VU-IR filter. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
scott kirkpatrick Posted July 12, 2007 Share #5 Posted July 12, 2007 Howard: I think it only prompts for focal lenght when you turn on the camera if you have the uv-ir coding set to on. It is prompting so that it can do the proper vignette corrections when using a VU-IR filter. So far, there is only a single correction in the lens detection "ON" mode, an overall vignetting correction iand a slight red vignetting (corner) correction ntended for the 18 mm setting. Apparently the exit pupil doesn't change enough with changing focal length for Leica to feel that finer tuning was necessary. Of course, once UV/IR filters came in, in front of the lens, it was necessary for the camera to know the focal length more accurately. And the reason for the casual approach is that there are no frame lines that can be set automatically for you inside the M8 for focal lengths of 21 mm and below. scott Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guy_mancuso Posted July 12, 2007 Share #6 Posted July 12, 2007 Howard once you are engaged and working than decide to make a change than of course change focal length on lens than hit menu than scroll to UV/IR ON hit set than reset to focal length than hit set again. I think I have that right. It sounds like a real pain but not that bad really No I have not tried this but my bet is it would work is set up a profile for each setting than change profile, that maybe a little less button pushing. Need to try this myself. LOL Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guy_mancuso Posted July 12, 2007 Share #7 Posted July 12, 2007 Advertisement (gone after registration) Now another idea i had was hit a outside button like protect and hold for 2 seconds and it automatically comes up than scroll to the right focal length and release and your home. Hmmm i just thought of this one and not a bad idea really. Of course this wouldhave to be a firmware ipdate. May need to add this one to the list. The protect might be a bad button but holding a button for 2 second to give you the prompt I like Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
howard_cummer Posted July 12, 2007 Author Share #8 Posted July 12, 2007 Hmmm - seems to me Leica might need to do more work on this. Thanks for the suggestions. I will go back to the store and try them and see what happens. Cheers Howard Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
adan Posted July 13, 2007 Share #9 Posted July 13, 2007 Alternatively - turning the camera off and then on again will bring the WATE menu back up. May or may not be faster than menu-punching (it IS for me!) Something else I noticed is that the default setting in the WATE menu gets saved when you save a user profile - so now "16mm" is the default whenever I power up the cameras (good for me - I'm actually using a CV 15mm coded as a WATE). However one must still hit the "SET" button to confirm that default, or the lens and cyan corrections will revert to 18mm (green corners with the 15). BTW - the microswitches for IDing a lens are linked to the frameline selection tab on the lens bayonet. Since the WATE does not work with any of the internal framelines anyway, Leica saved money and weight by not including the complex mechanism in the lens needed to shift framelines (as used in the late MATE). However, that also killed off any way for the camera to figure out which focal length was actually in use with the WATE - thus the menu workaround. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guy_mancuso Posted July 17, 2007 Share #10 Posted July 17, 2007 Andy i do the off and on deal myself . It certainly is quicker. Hopefully leica will take my suggestion on remembering the last setting made and hold it until the user makes the change. I think that would work better myself. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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