[Leica] 6-bit code as installed by Leica

[reid at mejac.palo-alto.ca.us (Brian Reid)]

> 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.