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The intracies of modern camera lens repair (2024)

salvagedcircuitry.com

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Re: The intracies of modern camera lens repair (2024)

#11

Post by Kirby64 »

clnhlzmn wrote: post #6
Kirby64 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For those who haven't followed the camera world for a while, at this point a lens for a mirrorless camera will have a USB-C port to receive firmware updates. Besides the slightly interesting stuff Tamron is doing, why on earth would I want firmware updates for a lens? Also, this seems like it would be much more readily accomplished by the camera itself… if you’re doing weird stop motion racking and whatnot, why wou…

Because to control the autofocus motor and other features it makes sense to have a microcontroller in the lens. If you have a microcontroller in the lens you have software in the lens and if you have software in the lens you're going to need to update it. You could argue that the camera should do firmware updates but the manufacturers for (semi) open mounts like the ones Tamron is making lenses for don't want to have…

> If you have a microcontroller in the lens you have software in the lens and if you have software in the lens you're going to need to update it.

No, no you shouldn’t. There’s no reason why a microcontroller should ever need its firmware updated. The only reason why you would need to update the firmware is to add features, which I guess is mildly interesting for the tamron, but like I said… you could handle all extra fancy focusing things in the camera body itself. Just give me a dumb lens that does exactly what the body tells it to do.

Re: The intracies of modern camera lens repair (2024)

#12

Post by makeitdouble »

Kirby64 wrote: post #4
makeitdouble wrote: post #3

For those who haven't followed the camera world for a while, at this point a lens for a mirrorless camera will have a USB-C port to receive firmware updates. Tamron lenses for instance will allow a wired control or a wireless dongle to communicate with an app/computer and change the lens behavior, switch what the physical buttons and rings do. Potentially you can manage stepping through settings for stop motion like…

> For those who haven't followed the camera world for a while, at this point a lens for a mirrorless camera will have a USB-C port to receive firmware updates. Besides the slightly interesting stuff Tamron is doing, why on earth would I want firmware updates for a lens? Also, this seems like it would be much more readily accomplished by the camera itself… if you’re doing weird stop motion racking and whatnot, why wou…

The lens is communicating with the camera body, and you might want to adjust for newer bodies supporting more things for instance.

I'm not aware of what exactly is changing, but I've already seen it happen with newer Sony bodies getting released, and an update going to Viltrox lenses to fully support thems.

On the camera and lens being separate...in an ideal world you could ask the camera to do absolutely everything. In practice that's a tough order for a single company.

The bright side is also that you can use a mildly older body while benefiting from a very flexible lens, or have different profiles for different lenses and not have the body care about which lens needs what.

I can't imagine Nikon be bothered to properly operate a software ecosystem TBH.

Re: The intracies of modern camera lens repair (2024)

#13

Post by BarkMore »

Kirby64 wrote: post #4
makeitdouble wrote: post #3

For those who haven't followed the camera world for a while, at this point a lens for a mirrorless camera will have a USB-C port to receive firmware updates. Tamron lenses for instance will allow a wired control or a wireless dongle to communicate with an app/computer and change the lens behavior, switch what the physical buttons and rings do. Potentially you can manage stepping through settings for stop motion like…

> For those who haven't followed the camera world for a while, at this point a lens for a mirrorless camera will have a USB-C port to receive firmware updates. Besides the slightly interesting stuff Tamron is doing, why on earth would I want firmware updates for a lens? Also, this seems like it would be much more readily accomplished by the camera itself… if you’re doing weird stop motion racking and whatnot, why wou…

> why on earth would I want firmware updates for a lens?

One reason is to update the lens to work with new camera or new camera firmware.

Re: The intracies of modern camera lens repair (2024)

#14

Post by dylan604 »

CarVac wrote: post #8
entropie wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For those who haven't followed the camera world for a while, at this point a lens for a mirrorless camera will have a USB-C port to receive firmware updates. Iam not sure if this is a general truth. I recently bought a canon rf 24-70 f/2.8 which is pretty SOTA and it does not have an USBC port.

Third party lenses that cannot be updated by the camera body will include a USB port.

Why would this be a good idea to break away from the norm of what has been done before? The mechanism of updating the lens through the camera exists. Why reinvent the wheel? It only increases the BOM for the lens to include the USB and the electronics involved.

Re: The intracies of modern camera lens repair (2024)

#15

Post by CobaltFire »

dylan604 wrote: post #14
CarVac wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Third party lenses that cannot be updated by the camera body will include a USB port.

Why would this be a good idea to break away from the norm of what has been done before? The mechanism of updating the lens through the camera exists. Why reinvent the wheel? It only increases the BOM for the lens to include the USB and the electronics involved.

Because third party lenses cannot leverage the camera body to update.

Sigma has a dock that allows updates to their lenses in this fashion however.

Re: The intracies of modern camera lens repair (2024)

#17

Post by FireBeyond »

entropie wrote: post #5
makeitdouble wrote: post #3

For those who haven't followed the camera world for a while, at this point a lens for a mirrorless camera will have a USB-C port to receive firmware updates. Tamron lenses for instance will allow a wired control or a wireless dongle to communicate with an app/computer and change the lens behavior, switch what the physical buttons and rings do. Potentially you can manage stepping through settings for stop motion like…

> For those who haven't followed the camera world for a while, at this point a lens for a mirrorless camera will have a USB-C port to receive firmware updates. Iam not sure if this is a general truth. I recently bought a canon rf 24-70 f/2.8 which is pretty SOTA and it does not have an USBC port.

First party lenses will be handled by either camera firmware or by the camera - for your lens (I'm in the Canon RF system heavily) you can do the "download to SD from canon.com" and the firmware update on the camera will recognize it as a lens firmware, not a camera firmware. And sometimes camera firmware will also bundle lens firmwares that get updated when you attach the lens (usually these are reserved for issues that have a potential to damage the lens or camera - like excessive hunting wearing the motor, etc., not 'nice refinements').

Re: The intracies of modern camera lens repair (2024)

#19

Post by salvagedcircuit »

esafak wrote: post #16

This is the kind of thing I'd love to see robots take over. Companies don't want to service these things much; the labor is too costly. They could just distribute the repair manuals and we could get robots to do it.

If companies could just distribute the repair manuals I'd be happy as a clam :D I'm all for automated repair!
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