[Leica] 6-bit code as installed by Leica

[leica at dmason.net (Dave Mason)]

I am certainly not claiming that they are deceitful - or that the
person who posted info earlier is - I just don't understand it. I
would take the 6 bit/64 lenses idea if one of the lenses that they
won't put the coding on wasn't an earlier (e.g., mid-1980s) Summicron
50. In terms of Exif data a "Summicron 50mm f/2.0" is a "Summicron
50mm f/2.0" is a "Summicron 50mm f/2.0".... isn't it?


Dave

Brian Reid <reid@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us> writes:

>> I'm just curious why Leica claims not
>> to be able to put the coding on older lenses if its just to put a text
>> string in the EXIF data. It doesn't make any sense.
>
> I start with the assumption that Leica is not being deceitful.
> You can call them a lot of things, but manipulative and deceitful is not 
> one of them.
> I have to assume that they have a reason to do this.
>
> Here's what I think. A 6-bit code can identify no more than 64 different 
> lenses. I'd be willing to bed that since the release of the M3 50 years 
> ago, Leica has issued maybe 50 different kinds of lenses. If they were 
> willing to put 6-bit codes on all of them, they'd only have room for a 
> dozen new lenses and then the code would be full.
>
> So I think if I were them, I'd pick about 20 to 30 of the more modern 
> lenses and assign them code numbers, and reserve the remaining 30 to 40 
> numbers for products that they haven't shipped yet.
>
>
>
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