Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/09/18
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]On 9/18/99 4:54 AM Anthony Atkielski wrote: >Uh... this worries me. Are you saying that after spending $3000 on a camera >body, I have to check it to see if the factory spent the few minutes >necessary >to calibrate the meter?? Does Leica routinely defraud its customers of their >money in this way? If so, maybe my foray into the Leica system was not a >good >idea. Anthony, No meter is dead on accurate out of the box...every film has a different EI according to the sensitivity the film manufacturer built into the film. For example Fuji says Velvia is an ISO 50 film...I rate it at 32 and know of very few photographers who rate it at 50 most rate it at either 32 or 40. RDP most rate around 80 ect...so the best thing to do is to test you film meter combination to determine the best EI to rate your film. >I take for granted that anything that costs this much will not be wrong. >Indeed, if I bought an incident meter (any recommendations?) and checked it >against the camera, I'd probably trust the camera first if they disagreed, >unless the meter was of comparable overall quality. Here you would be wrong...99% of the time an incident meter will give you a much more accurate reading than a reflected in camera meter....after much learning you can get as good of results with an in camera meter...but for a real quick no brainer metering, esp for slide film, an incident meter is the way to go...very seldom do I shoot slide film with out using my Minolta incident meter. One problem you may be having is that the Leica M6 meter is a center spot sort of...take your lens off the camera with the camera cocked...that little white circle on the shutter is your metering pattern...on an F5 you have full screen multi point matrix metering, so on the M6 you have to be much more careful what you have in the center of your frame to get a correct reading. Following is how I determine the EI to rate my film: The best thing to do is to run a test and see where the exposure falls using your meter and your cameras. Every meter works differently, every person meters slightly differently. It is very easy to determine the best EI for your metering style/meter performance/exposing method. Take a legal pad and mark on pages 0, 1/2, 1, 1 1/2, 2, 2 1/2, 3, then -1/2, -1, -1 1/2, -2, -2 1/2, -3. Take a reading in your normal method. Take a shot at the 0 page. Then open up 1/2 stop take a photo of the 1/2 page....do this in 1/2 stop increments up to 3 then go to -1/2 and stop down 1/2 stop and do that till the -3 setting. Afterwards look at the developed film and see which is best for the way you like them to look. Oh and one last thing even after doing all of this you should bracket on important shots if time allows, if not get a snip test pulled of the film because labs can run from 1/3 to 1/2 or more stops different from day to day........ Best regards, Harrison McClary email: harrison@mcclary.net http://www.mcclary.net preview my book: http://www.volmania.com