We’ve been eating out today, and while our lunch was served, we could also enjoy a match of the Bundesliga (German national football league). So did these guys.

"Watching the match" | Leica M8 + M-Rokkor 28/2.8 @ f/2.8, 1/45 sec, ISO 1250

I have recently purchased this handy little M-lens coding template from Bo Lorentzen, as I was curious to see whether I’d be able to hand-code my M-Rokkor 28/2.8 (and eventual future lenses), and if it would make a difference at all (apart from the focal length being included in the EXIF-Data). We all know that hand-coding a lens is merely a temporal solution, except if you’re so brave as to actually drill pits into your lens mount, so the paint (or whatever you use) won’t rub off during lens changes. Bo’s coding template, too, is only a temporal solution, as it is made from cardboard and thus easily prone to damage. Still, for trying it out once, and maybe for hand-coding a limited number of lenses at one time, it’ll do.

There are two problems with this particular lens, though. For one thing, the lens has a screw exactly where the code needs to be applied (naturally). This might cause problems with the readibility of the code, so I decided to attach a small, white adhesive label to the lens mount, and write the code onto the label. Not only is black-on-white more contrasty than black-on-silver, but also would the screw be covered this way. Secondly, the lens calls up the 35mm framelines on an M body. This is because it was designed for the Minolta CLE, which was based on the Leica CL, which had no 28mm framelines. In order to bring up the 28mm framelines, you have to twist it a bit further into the mount, but this will cause the coding marks to be offset from the code reader in the mount. You can of course work around this by applying the code to a different position on the lens mount, but this is a bit more complicated, as you’ve got to be quite exact or the code reader won’t recognize the code. For this reason, Bo’s template has a small elevation at the same position where the lens locks into place on the mount, to help you align the template exactly to the position where the codes need to be applied. But as I didn’t want to have to press down the frameline selection lever everytime I’d be using the lens, here’s what I did.

The coding template, the lens (note the pit in the mount @ ~7:30) and the white stickers I used

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