I don't have any new information about this today and I haven't received any response from Shoten Kobo Online Store to the query I placed through their website yesterday. Not sure if they are going to respond anyway as that query form is more for existing customers who have queries about some product they have already purchased...
Anyway, some comments:
I think all the product pictures on Shoten Kobo's page for Mark II (https://www.stkb.jp/shopdetail/000000001785) are same old product pictures carried over from their previous product page for original version of LM-EA9, as they replaced the original page with the new one and it seems they just replaced parts of the text. All the pictures showing the adapter on cameras are on old bodies etc.
Anyway, they have been selling relatively large numbers of the original LM-EA9 in Japan already since 2022 and they are the official distributor of TechArt adapters in Japan. Since they announced Mark II as new improved version on 9/20, and since the same news were picked up and reported by a lot of Japanese camera tech sites, Japanese customers definitely believe it's a redesigned new version and I think it raised a lot of new orders for Mark II in Japan. It is now backordered and it's not clear when new stock will be available.
It would seem like fradulent marketing if it was in fact exactly same as original LM-EA9 with just new label added in the Japanese documentation and Mark-II text added on JAN code on the sales package... It will be quite easy for buyers of Mark-II to check if the shape of contacts is different from original LM-EA9 as announced. I think any previous owners of LM-EA9 would also notice if they received an identical "Mark II" product without any noticeable improvement / differences and it would not be a good situation for Shoten Kobo (who are a seller with a good reputation).
I personally think that there must be some kind of HW change on it, such as the shape of the contacts that has been clearly highlighted, as otherwise it would be quite easily recognized that the announcement of new version was misleading and people who rushed to buy it based on that information would have a lot of cause to complain.
Anyway, I'm planning to get one once they became available in stock again but it might take a while... I'll keep an eye on any reports comparing "Mark II" to original LM-EA9 in the meanwhile as well.
Map Camera also have currently 17 copies of original LM-EA9 listed with lots of product photos, some of which also show the Japanese paperwork (without Mark-II designation) and the contacts. https://www.mapcamera.com/search?keyword=LM-EA9&igngkeyword=1
(link may need to be copied to browser for it to work)
I managed to buy the "Mark II" version of the adapter today from 2nd Base by Sanpou Camera at Akihabara. I saw their tweet about the adapter coming in stock at their store and it was still available there.
My copy has the MK-II in the JAN code sticker on the box as well as Mark-II in the Japanese paperwork inside the box. I think the Japanese papers may be inserted in the factory for Japan market as the adapter boxes are sealed in plastic wrapper and the papers are all inside.
None of the original papers that are not in Japanese have Mark-II markings visible and I didn't see any obvious difference in the shape of the sensor contacts compared to photos I've seen of the original. I will check more when I get home and will post some photos of the unit/packaging later.
There was also "TechArt LM-EA9 Mount Adapter Operating instructions" leaflet in the box in Chinese, dated with year 2022 so I think this is the same original leaflet that must have been included with "original version". All other papers included were in Japanese.
I don't see any obvious differences with the shape of electronic contacts in comparison to the 2nd hand samples of original LM-EA9 that are listed at Map Camera (with lots of product pics).
One thing I noticed about serial numbers. Map Camera has currently 16 2nd hand LM-EA9 listed (none are Mark II) and the serial numbers on those are starting with 202200 or 202201. There is one exception with very different serial number starting with 1630.
The new Mark II adapter that I bought today has serial number 33303093 so it does look like a clearly newer production run with different serial number scheme.
My camera shows the firmware version of my adapter as 18. I think it's probably the same 1.8.0 that was released for original LM-EA9 recently.
Since I don't have the original LM-EA9 I can't really compare the performance of the new "Mark II" with "original" myself.
Thank you Juha for keeping on top of what appears to be the simple re-naming of an existing device.
I have another question for you since you are the new owner of a LM-EA9 and plan to use it with your Voigtlander M lenses. My new CV 50 f2.2 Color Skopar and 28mm f2 Ultron fit so tightly on the LM-EA9 that removal becomes difficult. It's rather unpleasant to take them on and off as they are so small. Have you noticed this issue with any of your CV lenses so far?
The other M-mount lenses and adapters around here don't have this issue with the Techart.
polylepis wrote:
Thank you Juha for keeping on top of what appears to be the simple re-naming of an existing device.
I have another question for you since you are the new owner of a LM-EA9 and plan to use it with your Voigtlander M lenses. My new CV 50 f2.2 Color Skopar and 28mm f2 Ultron fit so tightly on the LM-EA9 that removal becomes difficult. It's rather unpleasant to take them on and off as they are so small. Have you noticed this issue with any of your CV lenses so far?
The other M-mount lenses and adapters around here don't have this issue with the Techart....Show more →
Thanks! I've had limited chances to shoot outdoors with my new LM-EA9 "MK2" so far since the weather has been mostly bad since I got it and it's been raining a lot. Anyway, I tried a few of my CV lenses at home so far: CV 50/2.2, 50/3.5 (APO-Lanthar Type I), 28/2.8 Type II, 50/1.5 Heliar classic. All of them fit comfortably, they lock into place firmly without needing any extra force.
However, I do notice that the base of the lenses is hard to reach with fingers when trying to remove them from the adapter because of the shape of the adapter, and it becomes easiest to remove them by turning the focus helicoid to the closest focus position and then using the helicoid to rotate the lens to the position where they can be removed from the adapter. I think this would apply to all lenses that don't have non-rotating parts above the base, not just CV lenses. I'm not finding it to be much of a problem since I will anyway usually go out with one lens only and use the same lens for a whole outing and just take it off when I get back home, so there won't be frequent lens changes in my normal use.
I can't really confirm if this "Mark II" is updated on HW side compared to original LM-EA9 or not but I do think that there are no easily identifiable physical changes. One would need to have both the original and "Mark II" and run some comparison testing with both using the latest firmware to figure out if performance is any different, but I'm not going to do that as I don't need multiple copies and I'm waiting to recover my camera/lens budget again... Anyway, I was thinking about getting LM-EA9 recently even before the "Mark II" announcement and the announcement just got me to finally go for it and I didn't just buy it because of it being "Mark II". I'll be satisfied as long as it keeps working well on my A7CII with my lenses and doesn't have lot of quirks.
I was always frustrated with the quirks on the original LM-EA7 and I stopped using it after a while. It was causing my cameras to reboot randomly while in use (usually at least once in an outing) and it had a tendency to suddenly stop working (requiring camera to be powercycled to make it work again) etc. Then when LM-EA9 originally came out there were reports of them "dying" all of a sudden etc. so I didn't get tempted to buy one in the early days. I hope they have worked out all those early reliability issues by now. So far on my first long outing with my new LM-EA9 "MK2" I didn't have any such issues so it's been promising so far.
In the meanwhile, Shoten Kobo Online Store has set it as backordered again.
JAN code of "Mark II" appears to be 4582733059990 whereas it seems to have been 6900527096781 for the "Original version" as per Map Camera's listings.
Today I tried a few more of my lenses on the adapter, including several CV lenses. My 40/2.8 VM has lost some parts relating to its infinity lock early on and it seems I can use it with this adapter thanks to that Also the 40/2.8 designed for Sony with VM-E Close Focus adapter fits fine without issues. My LTM CV 28/1.9 and 75/2.5 seemed to work pretty well with the adapter. Some of the modern CV lenses that are sharp from wide open seem to work worse on the adapter with regards to AF acquisition speed and effective area compared to older CV lenses and legacy lenses that are softer wide open.
hsiunghsiung wrote:
Can you confirm that continuous autofocus doesn't work in video with the mark 2 version?
Yeah, I don't normally shoot video at all but since you asked I tried it with my A7CII. Only MF was available when shooting video with the adapter + lens and there was no option to switch to any AF mode. I enabled touch screen options and the control to change type of focus was grayed out and fixed to MF.
I cross-checked with on of my native E-mount AF lenses too and AF-C was working fine there while shooting video and the focus option control was enabled, so it must still be a remaining limitation with the "Mark II" version of the adapter as well.
Juha Kannisto wrote:
Yeah, I don't normally shoot video at all but since you asked I tried it with my A7CII. Only MF was available when shooting video with the adapter + lens and there was no option to switch to any AF mode. I enabled touch screen options and the control to change type of focus was grayed out and fixed to MF.
I cross-checked with on of my native E-mount AF lenses too and AF-C was working fine there while shooting video and the focus option control was enabled, so it must still be a remaining limitation with the "Mark II" version of the adapter as well....Show more →
Thank you so much for confirming! I appreciate it greatly
Hi, I just purchased the LM-EA9 and a few Voigtlander M mount lenses. Is there a way to store multiple focal lengths and switch between them without having to go through the process of 1) setting the aperture for that focal length, 2) taking a picture, 3) setting the aperture to F2, 4) taking a picture each time a mount a different lens on the camera to show the proper focal length in the Exif?
cameraman72 wrote:
Hi, I just purchased the LM-EA9 and a few Voigtlander M mount lenses. Is there a way to store multiple focal lengths and switch between them without having to go through the process of 1) setting the aperture for that focal length, 2) taking a picture, 3) setting the aperture to F2, 4) taking a picture each time a mount a different lens on the camera to show the proper focal length in the Exif?
Thanks.
I've been using the adapter for a while, and the method you described is the only way to record the correct focal length to EXIF data. There's no way to store data directly on the adapter.
The TTArtisan 6-bit adapter (without) AF is clever in this regard, as it features a button that, when clicked, records the focal length from a selector ring on the adapter.
Fred Miranda wrote:
I've been using the adapter for a while, and the method you described is the only way to record the correct focal length to EXIF data. There's no way to store data directly on the adapter.
The TTArtisan 6-bit adapter (without) AF is clever in this regard, as it features a button that, when clicked, records the focal length from a selector ring on the adapter.
OK, I was hoping there was an in body option to store lens focal lengths, but it doesn't look like it.
Hello,
I'm new here and I wish you a happy new year.
I recently got back into photography with the purchase of a sony a7R2 and I currently have a techart LM-EA7 ring and I mainly use it with my Nokton 40 VM lens.
I've done a lot of research and reading on the 2 forums (EA7 and EA9) and I can't find the information on whether the “eye af” function with the new LM-EA9 techart ring would work on my “old” sony a7R2.
With the EA7 it doesn't work but that's normal.
If I was sure that the “eye af” function would work on the sony a7R2, I'd consider buying it because it's better than the old one, but if not, I prefer using the EA7 until he die. The investment seems too high and I'd consider upgrading my camera in the future.
Thank you very much.
Loic H44 wrote:
Hello,
I'm new here and I wish you a happy new year.
I recently got back into photography with the purchase of a sony a7R2 and I currently have a techart LM-EA7 ring and I mainly use it with my Nokton 40 VM lens.
I've done a lot of research and reading on the 2 forums (EA7 and EA9) and I can't find the information on whether the “eye af” function with the new LM-EA9 techart ring would work on my “old” sony a7R2.
With the EA7 it doesn't work but that's normal.
If I was sure that the “eye af” function would work on the sony a7R2, I'd consider buying it because it's better than the old one, but if not, I prefer using the EA7 until he die. The investment seems too high and I'd consider upgrading my camera in the future.
Thank you very much. ...Show more →
I can confirm that Eye AF does not work on the A7R II.
Loic H44 wrote:
Thanks Fred, like this I can save money for something else
This is interesting because early reports indicated that EyeAF was compatible with the latest firmware for the Sony A7R II and the Techart EA9 adapter. Unfortunately, I can confirm this is not the case. When EyeAF is assigned to a custom button and used with the adapter attached, a message appears stating that the “lens” is not compatible with this function. Hopefully, this is something Techart can address in the future, though it's unlikely.
I only habe problems with mine. Same on 7cr and both A1 that I have.
Also does not matter if I use a 28mm, 35mm or 50mm Leica lens.
Shutter lag is very long. And after a couple of pictures it stops working. No af anymore.
After popo it works again for a couple of picture.
uluru wrote:
I have the Sony A7R II and the Techart EA9. The EyeAF works on the Sony A7R II.
How do you get Eye AF to work on the Sony A7R II with the Techart EA9 adapter? I have the same setup, but it's not working for me.
When I set Eye AF to a custom button and press it, I get an error message saying: "Invalid Lens". Also, the "Eye-Start AF" menu setting is grayed out and not compatible with the adapter.
I've spent a lot of time trying different settings to get this to work. If you've figured out a way, could you explain which in-camera settings you have enabled to make it work? I'm using the latest firmware for both the camera (v4.01) and the Techart EA9 adapter (1.8.0).
Also the 40/2.8 designed for Sony with VM-E Close Focus adapter fits fine without issues. My LTM CV 28/1.9 and 75/2.5 seemed to work pretty well with the adapter. Some of the modern CV lenses that are sharp from wide open seem to work worse on the adapter with regards to AF acquisition speed and effective area compared to older CV lenses and legacy lenses that are softer wide open.