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I have no idea on the way the spring works, but this experiment seems to confirm that neither analog framelines nor the frame selector have any effect on auto lens detection, be it with the MATE or other coded lenses in general.

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1 hour ago, lct said:

I have no idea on the way the spring works, but this experiment seems to confirm that neither analog framelines nor the frame selector have any effect on auto lens detection, be it with the MATE or other coded lenses in general.

The spring holds a lug that sets framelines when you change focal lengths.

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4 hours ago, lct said:

I have no idea on the way the spring works, but this experiment seems to confirm that neither analog framelines nor the frame selector have any effect on auto lens detection, be it with the MATE or other coded lenses in general.

And how do you think that the camera detects the focal length set on the MATE? Telepathy? The coding does not change…

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2 minutes ago, jaapv said:

And how do you think that the camera detects the focal length set on the MATE? Telepathy? The coding does not change…

I have no clue about telepathy or teleportation but i'm not the techie here. Reason why i asked the question above. Fact is when i set focal length to 50mm, for instance, the analog framelines are a mix of 50 & 35 while the camera says "4/50mm" and exif data "Focal Length: 50.0 mm" the normal way.

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Am 11.10.2025 um 19:10 schrieb lct:

I have no clue about telepathy or teleportation but i'm not the techie here. Reason why i asked the question above. Fact is when i set focal length to 50mm, for instance, the analog framelines are a mix of 50 & 35 while the camera says "4/50mm" and exif data "Focal Length: 50.0 mm" the normal way.

There is an easy answer to that: Framelines are moved mechanically - the lens need to push the lever to the exact position to have the frame lines "clicked" into place. If it is not pushed far enough, you will be able to see both pairs of frame lines at the same time (you can easily test this out by manually pushing the frame line lever). To report the position electronically, there has to be obviously a switch in this mechanical iteration of pushers, levers, gears and springs. Switches have no wobble (if not defective or badly made) - they can report either "on" or "off". Consequently - your slightly worn Tri-Elmar is no longer delivering the force to fully push the frame lines into the correct position but it is still enough to engage the switch.

 

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1 hour ago, jgeenen said:

There is an easy answer to that: Framelines are moved mechanically - the lens need to push the lever to the exact position to have the frame lines "clicked" into place. If it is not pushed far enough, you will be able to see both pairs of frame lines at the same time (you can easily test this out by manually pushing the frame line lever). To report the position electronically, there has to be obviously a switch in this mechanical iteration of pushers, levers, gears and springs. Switches have no wobble (if not defective or badly made) - they can report either "on" or "off". Consequently - your slightly worn Tri-Elmar is no longer delivering the force to fully push the frame lines into the correct position but it is still enough to engage the switch.

Thank you for this explanation. If i got it well, even my damaged MATE is no exception to the general observation that in case of conflict between framelines and 6bit code, as far as auto lens detection is concerned, the code is always the winner.

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vor 3 Stunden schrieb lct:

the code is always the winner

As I mentioned earlier, that is not always the case. There are some lenses that fall back to manual if the frame lines aren’t matching, others stay on auto regardless of detection. I however found no common rule for that. At the moment I believe that the developers at Leica didn’t care too much about this. They needed the combination of 6-bit and frame line position for the Tri-Elmar and coded it, but they didn’t implement a full decoding of all combinations.
I don’t know if the 6-bit code is only checked on mounting, the frame lever position is being checked often (which makes sense for detection of the focal length of the Tri-Elmar)

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39 minutes ago, jgeenen said:

As I mentioned earlier, that is not always the case. There are some lenses that fall back to manual if the frame lines aren’t matching, others stay on auto regardless of detection.

You mean with coded lenses? If so, would you have examples? Just curious.

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I cannot answer for others, but out of the coded lenses below, all are detected by the M11 and none detects the focal length of framelines when the frame selector is at a wrong position. In such a case, the lens detected is mostly that of the code ("Ditto"), otherwise the camera says "Uncoded" or gives a wrong detection ("35/1.4").

• Tri-Elmar-M 16-18-21/4 Ditto
• Elmarit-M 21/2.8 asph Ditto
• Super-Elmar-M 21/3.4 Ditto
• Summicron-M 28/2 Ditto
• Elmarit-M 28/2.8 asph Ditto
• Summilux-M 35/1.4 asph Ditto
• Summilux-M 35/1.4 FLE Ditto
• Summicron-M 35/2 asph Uncoded
• Summicron-M 35/2 v4 35/1.4
• Summilux-M 50/1.4 asph Uncoded
• Summicron-M 50/2 v5 Uncoded
• Summicron-M 90/2 apo Ditto
• Summarit-M 90/2.4 Ditto
• Elmarit-M 90/2.8 v2 Ditto
• Macro-Elmar-M 90/4 Ditto
 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
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