Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Camera identification chart

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Posted by Jack Theakston (Member # 4484) on 11-12-2008, 12:39 PM:

Hey folks,

I posted this elsewhere, but I think a number of you might find this chart useful, too, so I'm posting it here as well. Makes a good companion to a Kodak edge code chart.

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 11-13-2008, 01:19 PM:

Which leads me to the question....unless there is was some kind of clearing house where all the marks were registered, how did one company know that they weren't making a mark that another company was already using or just in the process of using, say on a new camera.

And not to get too far ot, but that happens to be the same question I have pondered but never got a straight answer to regarding computer hardware -- printers, scanners, pc-cams, etc. they all have unique IDs. What's the process that assures that the are all unique?

Posted by John Hawkinson (Member # 1135) on 11-13-2008, 02:48 PM:

Depends on what you mean. For Ethernet devices, for instance, their unique ID is their MAC address (Media Access Controller, not Macintosh). The first half of the MAC address is a "vendor prefix" that is assigned to a vendor by paying a fee to the IEEE. The vendor then ensures that all of their devices have unique second halves.

I imagine the answer is similar for other technologies.

--jhawk

Posted by Stephen Furley (Member # 1277) on 11-13-2008, 03:32 PM:

Mitel 'Phone MACs are always 08:00:0F:xx:yy:zz, and Brother printers, at least in fairly recent years are usually 00:80:77:xx:yy:zz. The problem comes with something like a Dell pc. These normally have network chips by either Intel or Broadcom, but the Vendor Prefix isn't always the same, so it doesn't say 'Dell', and it doesn't seem to say 'Intel', or 'Broadcom' either. Maybe Broadcom have a prefix which they use for devices which they supply to Dell, and another for devices which they supply to, say, Viglen.

There's something really silly about the Mitel MAC addresses. They are printed on both the 'phones themselves, and on the boxes which they come in, both as text, and as barcodes. This is great when you have a lot of 'phones to install, it saves you typing all the MAC addresses into the system. The problem is that the addresses are printed, both as text and barcodes in the form 08-00-0F-2D-46-9A whereas the 3300ICP controller needs them to be entered in the form 08:00:0F:2D:46:9A. I used to scan them into Notepad, do a search and replace, and then paste them into the 'phone system, but I now convert them with an input mask as I scan them into an Access database where we keep details of all 'phones we receive, and then copy from there into the 'phone system.

I think you are correct about these device codes, and also the barcodes on just about everything these days; the manufacturer is given part of he number to identify themselves, and they then assign the rest of the number to their products as they see fit.

Posted by Jack Theakston (Member # 4484) on 11-13-2008, 09:39 PM:

quote: Frank Angel
Which leads me to the question....unless there is was some kind of clearing house where all the marks were registered, how did one company know that they weren't making a mark that another company was already using or just in the process of using, say on a new camera.

All of the camera companies had charts documenting as much, I'd imagine. This chart came out of the ASC Hand Book, so I imagine these insignias were pretty well known.