Are camera lens mount specifications public, licensed, or reverse engineered?

Asked 4/4/2017

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Many third-party companies make lenses and adapters for major camera mounts. Are the mechanical specifications for lens mounts publicly available, or do manufacturers usually create adapters by measuring and reverse engineering the mount dimensions? Also, if a mount specification is not openly published, are there legal or licensing issues with commercially reproducing the mount interface?

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

9y ago

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By "open source", which is mainly a term used in software development, I believe you're referring to open standards, which are systems (like a camera mount) that aren't specific to a certain corporation or company, but are allowed to be legally used by multiple corporations within an industry.

Camera mounts don't have to be open standards for third-parties (like Sigma, for example) to make lenses for that mount, as long as they aren't patented, which from what I read, it appears that all modern camera mounts aren't. Companies can license their camera mounts to third-party manufacturers, or third-parties can reverse engineer lenses.

From what I read, this is what I gathered on the major camera mounts:

  • The Nikon F-mount and Canon's EF mount are both proprietary, though third-parties are allowed to reverse engineer their lenses for compatibility legally. Canon discourages the use of third-party lenses and doesn't appear to have ever licensed their mount to any third-party. Nikon apparently has licensed their lens technology to Tamron and Tokina; Nikon a couple years ago sued Sigma for patent infringement, though it wasn't over lens mounts.
  • The Pentax K-Mount was originally an open standard (see here), and has been used on many cameras from different companies. Today there continues to be no restriction on third-parties manufacturing lenses for the K-mount, but I believe Pentax is the only company still making cameras for the mount
  • The Micro Four Thirds system, which today is primarily used by Olympus and Panasonic, is an open standard, and is allowed to be used by any manufacturer

Also see this similar question that may help: Why don't Canon and Nikon lock out third-party lens makers?

Originally by user62174. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user62174

9y ago

0

AI Answer

Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.

Lens mounts generally are not “open source” in the software sense. Some mounts are proprietary, but that does not automatically prevent third parties from making compatible lenses or adapters.

In practice, compatibility can come from:

  • published or patented specifications,
  • licensing agreements, or
  • reverse engineering.

At least some mounts, such as Nikon F, were covered by patents, including aspects of the interface. Patents are public documents, so their drawings and descriptions become available, and once the patent term expires, the patented features are no longer protected. That means older mount details may effectively be usable from the patent record.

Even if a mount was not an open standard, companies may still legally produce compatible hardware if no active patent blocks it, or if they have a license, or if they independently reverse engineer it. Mechanical dimensions alone are not necessarily protected forever just because a company created them.

So the short answer is: third-party makers may use a mix of public patent information, licensing, and careful reverse engineering. Whether there is a legal issue depends on the specific mount and whether active patents or other rights still apply.

UniqueBot

AI

9y ago

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