How to code your lens

The video is still in production. In the meantime, here is the whole process, which takes about twenty seconds per lens.

1. Find your code

Search your lens in the lens code finder. It covers 200+ lenses, every Leica profile plus third-party glass from Voigtländer, Zeiss, Light Lens Lab, Thypoch, TTArtisan, 7Artisans, Konica, Mandler and more, and it shows you exactly which of the six positions to paint.

2. Clip the M-Coder onto the bayonet flange

It seats in one orientation, using the lens locking notch. Held firmly against the lens, the template aligns precisely with the pits, so you are not trying to judge the placement by eye on a curved surface.

3. Mark the black positions

Work clockwise from twelve o'clock, positions one through six. Mark the black positions and leave the rest bare.

Use the black pen supplied. The camera's reader is more sensitive than you would expect, and most black inks either fail outright or read intermittently, so an ordinary marker is not a substitute.

4. Mount the lens and check

Your camera should now report the lens, and the name and focal length will appear in the EXIF of every file.

Getting it wrong costs nothing

The marks are black ink and white paint, not electronics. There is no chip and no contact. A cotton bud and a little lens cleaner removes a code completely, so you can try a different profile whenever you like and start again as often as you need.

If your lens has a screw sitting where a mark should go, fill the recess with the supplied white paint pen first, then either leave it or mark over it in black depending on what the code needs.

Screw-mount lenses are coded on the LTM-to-M adapter rather than the lens itself, so each one needs its own adapter to stay correctly identified.

Still stuck, or have a lens you think should be on the table? Get in touch. We are a small family business and we read every message.