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coding vs manual selection on m9

sidmuer

New member
So, I was curious.
I have an un-coded 90mm Elmarit. The last one before ASPH kicked in.
Love it.
Sharp beautiful pictures.

I hear that if it's coded, then the M9 does some nice auto-corrections so my DNG files would come out even nicer.

Is this true?

Wouldn't me manually selecting the lens in the M9 menu give the same results?

Or would actual 6-bit coding only make these cool little tweaks kick in on an m9?
 

GrahamWelland

Subscriber & Workshop Member
So, I was curious.
I have an un-coded 90mm Elmarit. The last one before ASPH kicked in.
Love it.
Sharp beautiful pictures.

I hear that if it's coded, then the M9 does some nice auto-corrections so my DNG files would come out even nicer.

Is this true?
Not with the 90. To be honest there's limited value in coding the 90mm other than of course the benefit of having decent EXIF data - I did mine for this reason alone. (Elmarit-M)

Wouldn't me manually selecting the lens in the M9 menu give the same results?

Or would actual 6-bit coding only make these cool little tweaks kick in on an m9?
Manual selection is fraught with issues if you are using other coded lenses. Too easy to forget to reset it to automatically use coded lenses. Now with the 90 this wouldn't be an issue because essentially there is no vignette correction, but if you manually select wide angle lenses and forget to set to auto then you would be in danger of applying the wrong correction. If a manual selection is in place and a coded lens is mounted, the manual setting always overrides the coding.

For just a 90mm I'd code for convenience of EXIF and consistent auto-selection with other coded lenses. You won't see any image quality changes though. Now if it was a 24mm or maybe a Noctilux then yes vignetting correction would be applied and coding would be very beneficial.
 

Double Negative

Not Available
Coding anything longer than a 35mm, other than for EXIF info - won't bring much to the table. Try coding it by hand with a Sharpie. Most of my lenses are done this way.
 
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