Tamron’s TAP-in Console: A nexus for digicam lens replace and management

Digicam lenses had been initially absolutely mechanical (and in some circumstances, nonetheless are; witness my Rokinon Cine optics suite). The consumer manually targeted them, manually set the aperture, and manually zoomed them (for non-fixed-focal size optics, that’s). Even when the aperture was digicam body-controlled—in shutter-priority and absolutely auto-exposure modes, for instance—the linkage between it and the lens was mechanical, not electrical, in nature.

Analogies between lenses and fly-by-wire plane are apt, nevertheless, as the majority of in the present day’s lenses are electronics-augmented and, maybe extra precisely, -dependent. Take, for instance, optical picture stabilization (OIS), which harnesses electromagnets paired with floating lens components and a number of gyroscope and accelerometer sensors to counteract one-to-multiple potential variants of undesirable digicam system motion:

• Axis rotation (roll)
• Horizontal rotation (pitch)
• Vertical rotation (yaw)
• And each horizontal and vertical movement (triggered, for instance, by imperfect panning)

Not solely is OIS throughout the lens itself picture quality-desirable (at admitted tradeoffs of added dimension, weight and price), its effectiveness will be additional boosted when paired with in-body picture stabilization (IBIS) throughout the digicam itself. Olympus’ (now OM Methods’) Sync IS and Panasonic’s conceptually comparable, functionally incompatible Twin I.S. are examples of this mutually helpful coordination, which in fact requires real-time bidirectional digital communication. Why, you may ask, is OIS even needed if IBIS already exists? The reply is especially related for telephoto lenses, the place the deleterious results of digicam system motion are notably acute given the lens’s slender angle of view, and the place delicate motion could also be much less successfully corrected on the digicam physique versus on the different finish of the lengthy lens mounted to it.

Extra modest however no much less electronics-dependent lens operate examples embody:

• Motor-driven autofocus (managed by focus-determining sensors and algorithms within the digicam physique)
• Electronics-signaled, motor-based aperture management (some fashionable lenses even dispense fully with the handbook aperture ring, relying solely on physique controls as a substitute)
• And motor-assisted zoom

And consumer setting optimization (fine-tuned focus, for instance) and customization (constraining the main target vary to attenuate autofocus-algorithm “searching”) can also be usually fascinating.

All these capabilities, possible unsurprisingly to you, are managed by in-lens processors working firmware which advantages from periodic updates to repair bugs, add options, and increase the compatibility listing to help new digicam fashions (a very difficult job for third-party lens suppliers similar to aforementioned Rokinon, Sigma, and Tamron). I’ve come throughout a number of lens firmware replace approaches, the primary two most virtually carried out when the digicam and lens come from the identical producer (i.e., a first-party lens):

• The lens’ new firmware picture is downloaded to a reminiscence card, which is inserted within the linked digicam and activated by way of an replace menu possibility or management button sequence
• The lens and physique are once more mated, however this time the physique is then USB-tethered to a pc working a manufacturer-supplied replace utility
• The lens is straight USB-tethered to the pc, with a manufacturer-supplied replace utility then run. The important thing draw back to this method, due to this fact its comparative uncommonness, is that it requires a devoted USB port on the lens, with each dimension and potential mud and water ingress impacts
• And the method we’ll be showcasing in the present day, which depends on a lens manufacturer- and digicam mount-specific USB port-inclusive middleman docking station to deal with communications between the lens and laptop.

Particularly, in the present day’s teardown sufferer is a Tamron TAP-in Console, this specific mannequin supposed for the Canon EF mount utilized by my Canon DSLRs and considered one of my BlackMagic Design video cameras (Nikon mount inventory photographs of the TAP-01 from Tamron’s web site observe)

Listed here are some instance screenshots of Tamron’s TAP-in Utility software program in motion, with my Mac linked to my Tamron 15-30 mm zoom lens by way of the TAP-01E dock middleman:

together with my 100-400 mm zoom lens:

And each lenses post-firmware updates via the identical utility:

Tamron isn’t the one lens producer that goes the middleman dock route. Right here, for instance, is Sigma’s UD-01 USB Dock in motion with the corporate’s Optimization Professional software program and two of that provider’s Canon EF mount zoom lenses (24-105 and 100-400 mm) that I personal:

Sufficient with the conceptual chitter-chatter, let’s get to real-life tearing down, lets? Along with the TAP-in Console I’ve already screenshot-shown you in motion, which I purchased used again in January 2024 from KEH Digicam for $34.88, I’d subsequently picked up one other one for teardown functions off eBay open-box for about the identical worth. Nonetheless, after it arrived and I confirmed it was additionally practical, I didn’t have the guts to disassemble completely good {hardware} in a doubtlessly completely damaging method. I made a decision as a substitute to carry onto it for future gifting to a buddy who additionally owns Canon EF-mount Tamron lenses, and as a substitute purchased one claimed to be a “defective spares-and-repairs” from MPB for $9. After it arrived, and to fulfill my curiosity, I made a decision to hook it up. It appears to work simply high quality, too! Oh properly…

By the best way, that dock-embedded LED proven within the first photograph solely illuminates when the TAP-in Utility software program is working on the pc and detects a legitimate lens put in within the mount:

As common, I’ll begin out with some outer-box pictures (sure, despite the fact that the dock was marketed as a “defective spares-and-repairs” it nonetheless got here with the unique field, cable and documentation):

Open it up:

(I believe that in its unique brand-new situation there was extra padding, and many others. inside)

and the contents tumble out (I’m being overly dramatic; I really lifted them out and positioned them on my desk as proven):

Right here’s the USB-A to micro-USB power-and-data cable:

re the just-mentioned “information”, I at all times discover it attention-grabbing to come across a ferrite bead (or not) and try to discern whether or not there was a logical purpose for its presence or absence (or not):

A little bit of documentation (right here’s a PDF model), supplemented by on-line video tutorials:

And final, however not least, our affected person, already-seen LED finish first, and as common accompanied by a 0.75″ (19.1 mm) diameter U.S. penny for dimension comparability functions:

Two aspect views: one of many micro-USB connector:

and one other, of the lens launch button:

Lastly, right here’s the mount finish, first body-capped:

and now uncapped and uncovered:

See these 4 screws across the shiny outer circumference? You realize what comes subsequent, proper?

The now-unencumbered shiny steel ring, because it seems, consists of two stacked rings. Listed here are the highest and backside views of the outer (higher) one:

and the even shinier interior (decrease) one:

In the event you’re considering these seem like “springs” on the underside, you’re not off-base:

With the rings gone, my consideration subsequent turned to the 2 screws on the inside high, holding a black-colored meeting piece in place:

4 extra screws across the inside circumference:

Within the strategy of eradicating them, the locking pin additionally popped out:

As you’ll be able to see, the pin is spring-loaded and usually stands out from the dock’s mount. Whenever you mate a lens with the dock, with the former’s bayonet tabs aligned with the latter’s recesses, the lens mount presses in opposition to the pin, retracting it flush with the dock mount. Subsequently rotating the lens into its absolutely mounted place mates the pin with an identical indentation on the lens mount, permitting the pin to re-extend and locking the lens in place within the course of.

Urgent the earlier-seen aspect launch button manually re-retracts the pin, enabling rotation of the lens within the reverse path for subsequent removing.

Onward. With the 4 screws eliminated:

the center portion of the chassis lifts away, revealing the PCB beneath:

Within the strategy of turning the center portion upside-down, the discharge button (now absent its symbiotic locking pin companion) fell out:

I had admittedly been a bit involved beforehand that the dock is likely to be nothing greater than a high-profit-margin (the TAP-in Console brand-new worth is $59) “dummy” USB connection-redirector straight to the mount contacts, with the USB transceiver intelligence constructed into the lens itself. Clearly, and fortunately so, my worries had been for naught:

Two screws maintain the contacts meeting in place:

4 extra for the PCB itself:

And with that, women and gents, we’ve got achieved liftoff:

Let’s zoom in (zoom…digicam lens accent…get it? Ahem…) on that PCB topside first:

As beforehand talked about, the TAP-in Console is available in a number of product choices for varied digicam producers’ lens mounts. My pre-dissection working principle, within the hope that the dock wasn’t only a “dummy” USB connection-redirector as feared, was that the bottom PCB was generic, with digicam producer mount {hardware} customization solely occurring by way of the contacts meeting. Let’s see if that premise panned out.

At left is the USB-C connector. At backside is the connector to the ribbon cable which finally ends up on the mount contacts meeting (which we’ll see extra carefully shortly). However what’s that connector on the high for? I ended up determining the reply to that query not directly, within the strategy of attempting (unsuccessfully) to establish the most important IC within the middle of the PCB, marked:

846AZ00
F51116A
DFL

I searched round on-line for another printed references to “F51116A”, and discovered just one. It was for the Nikon model of the TAP-in Console (coincidentally the identical model within the inventory photographs in the beginning of this piece) and was in Japanese (which I can’t learn, removed from converse), however Google Translate bought me to one thing I may comprehend. Two issues jumped out at me:

• This time, the higher connector was used to ribbon-cable tether to the contacts meeting
• And the IC was marked considerably in a different way this time, particularly within the first line

734AZ00
F51116A
DFL

So, right here’s my revised working principle. The PCB itself is identical (with affirmation that you just’ll shortly see), as are the majority of the parts mounted to it. The principle IC is both a PLD or FPGA appropriately programmed for the supposed product mannequin, a model-specific ASIC, or a microcontroller with digicam mount-specific firmware. And relying on the product variant, both the highest or backside connector (or perhaps each in some circumstances) will get ribbon-cable-populated.

Let’s flip the PCB over now:

Not a lot to see versus the opposite aspect, comparatively, though word the LED at backside and one other (additionally unpopulated this time) connector to the appropriate of it. And to my current feedback, word that the stamp on the appropriate:

TAMRON
AY042-901
-0000-K1

precisely matches the markings proven on the PCB within the Nikon-version teardown.

About that contacts meeting I hold mentioning…right here’s the “motion” (electrically related) finish:

And right here’s the seemingly (no less than initially) extra boring aspect:

I thought of stopping right here. However these two screws stored calling to me:

And I’m glad I listened to them. Nifty!

With that I’ll wrap up and, after the writeup’s printed, see if I would have the ability to get it again collectively once more…functionally, that’s…conscious of the Japanese teardown fanatic’s feedback that “The lens lock launch swap half was a little bit of a ache to assemble (lol).” Reader ideas are as-always welcomed within the feedback!

—Brian Dipert is the Editor-in-Chief of the Edge AI and Imaginative and prescient Alliance, and a Senior Analyst at BDTI and Editor-in-Chief of InsideDSP, the corporate’s on-line e-newsletter.

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