Re: [Leica] Grey Zone

[Godfrey DiGiorgi <ramarren@bayarea.net>]

>With Nikons at night or even at day the metering is computer
>driven (Matrix) and I often point and shoot not being careful to
>exclude bright objects from the apparent metering field or to
>compensate for them. 

Um, no, not really. Yes, you can run a Nikon F5 as a rather large, rather 
heavy, professional quality point and shoot, adopting the camera's 
decisions for everything, but you can also operate it in a completely 
manual mode, utilizing either the built in CenterWeighted or Spot meter 
modes, and even focus it manually. (My Nikon F3/T and FE2 have only CW 
metering patterns and the automatic modes are simple, aperture priority 
operations; I meter manually for any non-average lighting situation, or 
use the AE-Lock.)

You know, it hadn't occurred to me before but Anthony could use his Nikon 
F5 as a metering trainer. For the 85-95% situations, all he has to do is 
point his Nikon at a scene and see what aperture/shutter speed 
combination it comes up with. Then he'd pick up the Leica M6 and point 
the metering area at various things in the scene until it came up with 
the same aperture/shutter speed combinations. Using the Nikon's 
sophisticated computer automation as a guide, he could then study the 
scene and the area that returned the same reading to understand why. 

I recommended a similar exercise with an incident light meter, but the 
Nikon F5 might be even more instructive as it's actually adding some 
logic and evaluation on top of the plain 18% Grey reading. 

>With manual metering as in the M6 or a meter you have to be
>careful of not getting to much bright anomalies in your reading.

Doubly so with night scenes. Exposure for night lit shooting is never 
100% deterministic ... highlights will always burn, it's a matter of 
aesthetics and what you're going for to determine what exposures actually 
work.

Godfrey