Add a Lens Code to Your Leica Lens with Black and White Paint

Newer Leica lenses have a special lens code on the mount flange of each lens that informs the camera of what’s mounted on it, and allows lens-related EXIF data to be embedded inside photographs. If you have an older Leica lens or a third-party lens on your hands, you might not have this special code, but did you know that you can apply the code manually to a code-less lens using black and white paint?

La Vida Leica! has published a tutorial showing how simple the process is: it only takes around $15 and 15 minutes to do.

Aside from the paint, you’ll need a new mount flange to replace the one on your lens — these can be found through places like eBay. You then look up the proper code, apply it to your mount flange, and then fix the new mount flange to your lens.

Once the dated-coded flange is in place, your lens should start beaming the correct identification to your camera, and will start appearing in the EXIF data of your images.

This same conversion can be done by sending your lens to Leica, but doing it yourself can save you quite a bit of time (of not having your lens) and money.

To get started, head on over to La Vida Leica! to read the detailed step-by-step instructions.

Converting to a Coded M Lens Mount [La Vida Leica!]

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Image credits: Photographs by La Vida Leica!