Leica coding lenses to prep for Digital M
By Evan Blass 
posted Jun 12th 2006 12:50PM
posted Jun 12th 2006 12:50PM
Old school film camera manufacturer Leica has taken yet another step towards the scary new world of filmless shooters by announcing that the majority of its lens lineup will receive 6-bit coding for use with the company's upcoming Digital M model. Save for the 135-millimeter APO-TELYT-M, all current Leica lenses leaving the factory after July 1st will sport marks representing binary numbers on each of the six fields in the bayonet ring, which the Digital M will optically read in order to optimize image quality. Luckily for current Leica lens owners, many models released after 1963 can be retrofitted with the coding for use with the M, although the procedure will set you back $175. Non-coded lenses will still work with the M -- which is scheduled for release by the end of the year -- but they will not be able to take advantage of the image enhancements or EXIF-ready data offered by the new models.
A note: the Digital M won't be an SLR. An SLR used a mirror and prism to show the photographer the view through the lens.
Leica's M series are rangefinders, which use a different system to focus and compose a picture.
I'm sure that once someone decodes the lens coding, people will just start coding their own lenses and saving $175. From what I can see, it's just six black and white dots.
You can already get a Leica digital SLR by buying a Leica R8 or R9 (a traditional film based SLR) and adding the Leica Digital-Modul-R (http://www.leica-camera.com/produkte/rsystem/digitalmodul/index_e.html).
In some sense, this is the best of both worlds. Use the same bodies and optics for both digital and film-based shooting.
I'm anxiously awaiting to see what Leica will come up with for the Digital M rangefinger. If all it is is something with the sensor quality of a (say) Canon 20D in a Leica-M sized box with a Leica-M quality rangefinder, I'll be all over it. (Luddite that I am.)
What Jamie said. And please don't abbreviate "Digital M" as "M". Leica M rangefinders already exist, and have for decades. It doesn't make sense to say "many models released after 1963 can be retrofitted with the coding for use with the M". They already work with M-series rangefinders--that's what they were designed for! You really need to say "for use with the Digital M".
At last to have a range of really good lenses for digital in something the size of a 35mm rangefinder camera, a digital M would be the perfect camera to carry round.