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Akara Labs

Leica M Mount Lens Precision 6-Bit Encoder

Leica M Mount Lens Precision 6-Bit Encoder

Regular price £28.00 GBP
Regular price Sale price £28.00 GBP
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Kit

Leica M Mount 6-Bit Encoder. The coder clips on to un-encoded lenses and allows quick and easy coding of any M mount lens.

Once the lens is encoded, your Leica camera will know which focal length lens it has mounted and record that information in to your photos (meta data) which will then be displayed in Lightroom and any other software allowing you to filter your photos by lens and focal length.

Your Leica will also apply various adjustments including vignetting, chromatic aberration and barrel distortion for cleaner JPG images and less post processing for RAW files.

Any other manufacturer lenses can also be coded to the closest Leica equivalent, generally improving the quality of your photos through the automatic corrections applied and the recording of meta data for lens length (28mm, 50mm etc).

For coding third party lenses, some experimentation may be required to find the closest and best match. We are actively working on a website to collect data from customers and the Leica community which will be launched in the coming weeks (around July 2024).

If you have a lens not listed in the table below, mounting your camera on a tripod and photographing a scene uncoded, then photographing the same scene with a few of the closest codes will allow you to compare and choose the best one for your particular setup. This should only take around 20 minutes for more than one lens due to it only taking around 20 seconds or so to clean a previous code off a lens and then re-coding it.

If you purchase the full kit, white and black pens are included along with the 6-bit coder, instructions and table of lenses and what to code them to. These pens are fully compatible with the Leica 6-bit sensor.

If you purchase the encoder on its own (instruction are also included) you will need at least a compatible black marker, many black markers do not work with the Leica 6-bit sensor. The recommend pen for use is the Black Uni-ball Super Ink Marker Pen 0.9. A white pen is usually not required but can help with successful coding for the M8 and M240.

A few lenses can have a screw where a 1-bit should be, filling this in with white allows you to then either leave it as white or place a black mark on top of it for successful coding.

Matt Osbourne, a professional model photographer reviewed version 1 of our encoder. See what he thought about it here:


A short introduction and tutorial can be found here:


Please see this excellent table below from lavidaleica.com (The original table was posted on Carsten Whimster's site (site no longer active) and with thanks to Sean Reid, Jan Dvorak, Dante Stella and others who had made it possible).

Thanks also goes out to many others in the Leica community who are providing valuable information that allow us all to code our lenses effectively.

Lens Name Black Chrome Code Picture Framelines Other Lenses
Tri-Elmar-M 16-18-21mm f/4 ASPH 11626 - 010000 ⬜⬛⬜⬜⬜⬜ 28/90 Voigtländer 15mm f/4.5
Super-Elmar-M 18mm f/3.8 ASPH 11649 - 110100 ⬛⬛⬜⬛⬜⬜ 50/75 Zeiss Distagon T* 4/18 ZM
Super-Elmar-M 21mm f/3.4 11145 - 110011 ⬛⬛⬜⬜⬛⬛ 28/90  
Elmarit-M 21mm f/2.8 11134 - 000001 ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬛ 28/90 Konica M-Hexanon 21-35mm f/3.4-4.0 
Voigtländer 21mm f/1.8 Ultron
Elmarit-M 21mm f/2.8 ASPH 11135 11897 011000 ⬜⬛⬛⬜⬜⬜ 28/90 Voigtländer 21mm f/4 Color Skopar
Zeiss Biogon T* 2.8/21 ZM
Kobalux 21mm f/2.8
Summilux-M 21mm f/1.4 ASPH 11647 - 101111 ⬛⬜⬛⬛⬛⬛ 28/90  
Elmar-M 24mm f/3.8 ASPH 11648 - 110010 ⬛⬛⬜⬜⬛⬜ 24/35 or 35/135 Voigtländer 25mm f/4 Snapshot Skopar
Elmarit-M 24mm f/2.8 ASPH 11878 11898 011001 ⬜⬛⬛⬜⬜⬛ 24/35 or 35/135 Zeiss Biogon T* 2.8/25 ZM (with mount fix)
Summilux-M 24mm f/1.4 ASPH 11601 - 110000 ⬛⬛⬜⬜⬜⬜ 24/35 or 35/135  
Tri-Elmar-M 28-35-50mm f/4 ASPH 11890
11625
11894 101010 ⬛⬜⬛⬜⬛⬜ 28/90, 24/35, 50/75  
Elmarit-M 28mm f/2.8 (III) 11804 - 000011 ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬛⬛ 28/90  
Elmarit-M 28mm f/2.8 (IV) 11809 - 011011 ⬜⬛⬛⬜⬛⬛ 28/90  
Elmarit-M 28mm f/2.8 ASPH 11606 - 011100 ⬜⬛⬛⬛⬜⬜ 28/90 Zeiss Biogon T* 2.8/28 ZM
Konica M-Hexanon 28mm f/2.8
Summicron-M 28mm f/2 ASPH 11604 - 011010 ⬜⬛⬛⬜⬛⬜ 28/90 Voigtländer 28mm f/1.9 Ultron
Voigtländer 28mm f/3.5 Color Skopar
Zeiss Biogon T* 2.8/25 ZM
Summarit-M 35mm f/2.5 11643 - 101011 ⬛⬜⬛⬜⬛⬛ 24/35 or 35/135 Voigtländer 35mm f/2.5 Color Skopar
Summicron-M 35mm f/2 (IV) 11310 11311 000110 ⬜⬜⬜⬛⬛⬜ 24/35 or 35/135 Zeiss Biogon T* 2/35 ZM
Minolta M-Rokkor 40mm f/2.0
Summicron-M 35mm f/2 ASPH 11879 11882 011110 ⬜⬛⬛⬛⬛⬜ 24/35 or 35/135 Voigtländer 35mm f/1.7 Ultron
Summilux-M 35mm f/1.4 ASPH 11874 11883 011101 ⬜⬛⬛⬛⬜⬛ 24/35 or 35/135 Voigtländer 40mm f/1.4 Nokton
Elmar-M 50mm f/2.8 11831
(11824)
11823 100010 ⬛⬜⬜⬜⬛⬜ 50/75  
Summarit-M 50mm f/2.5 11644 - 101100 ⬛⬜⬛⬛⬜⬜ 50/75 Voigtländer 50mm f/2.5 Color Skopar
Summicron-M 50mm f/2 (III) 11817 - 010111 ⬜⬛⬜⬛⬛⬛ 50/75 Konica M-Hexanon 50mm f/2
Summicron-M 50mm f/2 (IV, V) 11819
11826
11825
11816
100001 ⬛⬜⬜⬜⬜⬛ 50/75 Zeiss Planar T* 2/50 ZM
APO-Summicron-M 50mm f/2 (VI) 11141 - 101001 ⬛⬜⬛⬜⬜⬛ 50/75  
Summilux-M 50mm f/1.4 (II) 11868 11856 000101 ⬜⬜⬜⬛⬜⬛ 50/75  
Summilux-M 50mm f/1.4 ASPH 11891 11892 100000 ⬛⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ 50/75 Voigtländer 50mm f/1.5 Nokton
Zeiss C Sonnar T* 1.5/50 ZM
Noctilux-M 50mm f/1 11821
11822
- 011111 ⬜⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 50/75  
Noctilux-M 50mm f/0.95 ASPH 11602 - 110001 ⬛⬛⬜⬜⬜⬛ 50/75  
Summarit-M 75mm f/2.5 11645 - 101101 ⬛⬜⬛⬛⬜⬛ 50/75 Voigtländer 75mm f/2.5 Color Heliar
APO-Summicron-M 75mm f/2 ASPH 11637 - 100100 ⬛⬜⬜⬛⬜⬜ 50/75  
Summilux-M 75mm f/1.4 11810
11814
11815
- 100011 ⬛⬜⬜⬜⬛⬛ 50/75  
Macro-Elmar-M 90mm f/4 11633 11634 100111 ⬛⬜⬜⬛⬛⬛ 28/90  
Macro-Adapter-M 14409 - 101000 ⬛⬜⬛⬜⬜⬜ 28/90?  
Tele-Elmarit-M 90mm f/2.8 (II) 11800 - 000100 ⬜⬜⬜⬛⬜⬜ 28/90 Konica M-Hexanon 90mm f/2.8
Elmarit-M 90mm f/2.8 11807 11808 100110 ⬛⬜⬜⬛⬛⬜ 28/90  
Summarit-M 90mm f/2.5 11646 - 101110 ⬛⬜⬛⬛⬛⬜ 28/90  
Summicron-M 90mm f/2 (II) 11136 11137 000111 ⬜⬜⬜⬛⬛⬛ 28/90  
APO-Summicron-M 90mm f/2 ASPH 11884 11885 100101 ⬛⬜⬜⬛⬜⬛ 28/90  
Elmarit-M 135mm f/2.8 (I/II) 11829 - 001001 ⬜⬜⬛⬜⬜⬛ 28/90  
APO-Telyt-M 135mm f/3.4 11889 - 110101 ⬛⬛⬜⬛⬜⬛ 35/135  
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Customer Reviews

Based on 71 reviews
69%
(49)
14%
(10)
6%
(4)
3%
(2)
8%
(6)
D
Doc-Mac.Com
Leica 6 bit encoder

This little gadget allows you to physically encoder your older lenses to 6 bit encoding. Works great on my leica M9 but not so great on my M240. Apparently the M240 is more sensitive to the encoder lines. Other wise the template works. Anyone with a solution for the M240 to get it to read the encoding let me know.

I
Ingvar Gradén

It did not work to get the marking properly on to my Voigtländer lenses. I don’t think the white marker work effectively on the metal.

Hi, thanks for your review. You may have already done this but it's worth cleaning the flange with a light cleaning solution (lens cleaning solution is the safest) to remove any oils from the metal before applying the white. It may help it adhere more securely to the metal surface.

M
Mr Booker
Perfect

I bought the kit to add 6bit encodings to my non-leica lenses and it works fantastic. Couldn't recommend more highly

T
Toyokazu Matsumura
Very good

I'm very happy to get Leica 6-Bit Encoder.I've wanted this product for a long time, but it was already sold out on other sites, so I'm extremely happy to be able to get it.

R
Ron N
The pen was empty

The white pen was empty when it arrived, all dried out. So it’s doesn’t work.

Hi, the white pen is a paint pen and needs to be pressed/pumped via the nib to start the flow of 'ink'. Please try shaking for 30 seconds and then priming it on some old paper first, sometimes they can take quite a few pumps to begin properly flowing. The pens are new and from a reliable supplier so there should be no issue with the pen itself but I can understand why you may have thought it was dead on arrival.