Should non-6 bit-coded lenses put on UVIR filter?

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sr20det_fung

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All my leica lenses are not 6-bit coded, should I still mount the UVIR filters to my lenses?
If yes, should I turn on the "lens detection" option in the manuel to "On + UVIR filter"?

Thanks!
 
sr20det_fung said:
All my leica lenses are not 6-bit coded, should I still mount the UVIR filters to my lenses?
If yes, should I turn on the "lens detection" option in the manuel to "On + UVIR filter"?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

You should use UV/IR filters for all lenses, coded or otherwise. The "on + UVIR" only engages when 6-bit lenses are used. I have experimented with my Zeiss lenses, and the "on + UVIR" setting does not appear to make any difference. The filter does however make a big difference, with clothing, foliage, etc, that reflect IR radiation, as well as things like heat haze and fires, which emit massive amounts of IR radiation. Hope that helps
 
Oh, and the cyan vignetting is something you will have to live with, expecially with wider than 28mm, as an inherent design flaw of the camera
 
I have a Leica IR cut filter on all of my lenses. My CV15, 28 cron ASPH, and 35 cron ASPH are coded. When you take the shot and display the photo on the lcd, you can actually see the M8 correcting the cyan vignette when you have the lens detection ON and the CV 15 mounted.

My 50 cron, 75 lux and 90 cron are not coded and I leave lens detection OFF (but filters on lens).

If you are shooting black and white, you may want to leave the IR cut filter off. Some have found the added IR effect pleasing.
 
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I have IR filters on all my lenses. These are Heliopan's although I have one Leica IR filter. Comparing them it appears the Heliopan's are much better multicoated against stray reflection and I read--as much as you can believe what you read:D --that they are also more resistant. Still, they're so expensive and so essential that rather than buy spares, at this point I just put my MRC UV filters back on over the IR filters (OK, OK, flame away...but until I actually see a reason to take them off they're staying on!). As for coding, at this point I haven't gone there. I understand that the firmware is tuned to the Leica brand filters so perhaps whenever I get my 2 free ones, along with the one I already have, I'll code my 35mm and under lenses and use Leica filters on them. But I have no intention of going into the menu and switching from ON+UV/IR to OFF and back each time I change lenses. I've tried all 3 settings and there's no difference with uncoded lenses. I haven't found any of my lenses have a screw near the code reader, but if that happened I'd fill the screwhead with white paint and the reader would then ignore it.
 
bottley1 said:
Oh, and the cyan vignetting is something you will have to live with, expecially with wider than 28mm, as an inherent design flaw of the camera
Click to expand...
It is not a design flaw. Laws of physics and optics have nothing to do with design, flawed or otherwise. You don't have to live with it, you can code your lenses. (or use "cornerfix" a freeware program.)
 
Ben Z said:
I have IR filters on all my lenses. These are Heliopan's although I have one Leica IR filter. Comparing them it appears the Heliopan's are much better multicoated against stray reflection and I read--as much as you can believe what you read:D --that they are also more resistant. Still, they're so expensive and so essential that rather than buy spares, at this point I just put my MRC UV filters back on over the IR filters (OK, OK, flame away...but until I actually see a reason to take them off they're staying on!). As for coding, at this point I haven't gone there. I understand that the firmware is tuned to the Leica brand filters so perhaps whenever I get my 2 free ones, along with the one I already have, I'll code my 35mm and under lenses and use Leica filters on them. But I have no intention of going into the menu and switching from ON+UV/IR to OFF and back each time I change lenses. I've tried all 3 settings and there's no difference with uncoded lenses. I haven't found any of my lenses have a screw near the code reader, but if that happened I'd fill the screwhead with white paint and the reader would then ignore it.
Click to expand...

I won't flame you, Benson, I sometimes wear both a belt and suspenders too:p. Actually they seem to be rather scratch-resistant. You are right about the detection, ON+UV/IR can be left on all the time. It is just a 90 mm lens and a 50 mm lens that trigger automatic detection and it doesn't make one whit of difference in that case.
 
Thanks for all!

I will send my 28 cron asph & 35 lux asph for coding and leave others uncoded(ZM21, 50 lux, 90 tele-elmarit). Then get 2 more leica UVIR filters for my 21/28 lenses(I have only one 46mm UVIR filter for my 35lux, the other free filter is 60mm which is originally for my sold noctilux).

Anyone had compared the difference between using B+W 486 IR filters with the Leica UVIR filters?
 
I was shooting my M8 with a Leica 21 f/2.8 early this year. I did not have it coded. The cyan corners drove me nuts. If you decide to do it that way, you might want to use the free corner-fix software. Fixing each frame manually is a PITA. Corner-fix was not available when I was using the 21, and I found the manual fix very annoying.
 
What manual fix were you using? I'm using PTCorrect (Panotools) and it's a snap. The first thing I did was take shots with my wideangle lenses of a white wall and found the correction values by trial and error. Now whenever I have a shot it's a simple matter of entering that value and clicking OK. PTCorrect is a plug-in so it could be written into a Photoshop action, although I haven't checked if I can write an action that specifies different values from within the PTCorrect, that'd be very important. Cornerfix isn't a plug-in but it does allow batching. The pain to both software is you first have to visually identify which lens was used for each shot, whether you batch them or not, because without coding there's no lens i.d. in the EXIF file. That's why I think eventually I will opt to code my wide-angles and use the Leica-branded filters on them. I don't know whether I will mill the coding wells myself or remove the flanges and have them milled by someone else, and then just add the paint fills myself. I doubt I will send my lenses off to Leica and pay them $125 apiece since there are other effective options, and also because only 3 of my 8 lenses 35mm and under are on the list of the ones Leica will do.
 
Thank you! I'm sure someone with a milling machine could do a crisper job but for a freehand effort I was pleased with the results. Actually that was the only one I did all 6 recesses. I found out that you really only need to do the black ones because the M8 reads the chrome flange as white (even the brass-colored strip on the adaptors). However if you do mill all 6 recesses you have to fill the white ones in too. For example I boo-booed on my 3rd-gen 35 Summicron and put the black recesses in the wrong spot, had to fill them with white after milling the correct ones and filling them with black. My 21 Elmarit (non-Asph) needed only one black recess, but I had to fill the screw next to it with white in order that the M8 read it correctly. On my 4th-gen 35 Summicron, there is a screw smack dab in between where 2 black recesses belong, so I had to mill them very carefully not to disturb the landing for the screw head...then I painted the whole area black. Used BMW touch-up laquer, just to keep it 100% German :D
 
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