RE: [Leica] caps

["Stewart, Alistair" <AStewart@gigaweb.com>]

Jonathon,

First of all, apologies to several LUGers for an on-topic post.

The best general purpose upgrade I made to my M6's was to convert them to
M4-P's by removing the batteries. For street use you go crazy chasing the
LED's, and spontaneity is gone. Plus, you only need to learn a few settings
for a specific film and then think about the light your subject is in. e.g
in summery Chicago, it's f16/f11 @ 1/500 in the sunlight, and 1/250 @ 5.6 in
the shadows, (rated at 800 and souped in Acufine) maybe 1/2 stop more if the
streets are like canyons, and super-shaded. Anticipation, as Warren Beatty's
cast-off once said.

Plus if one is in say a low-light situation, like a club, one just gets the
readings for the subjects using a much less inaccurate spot meter. Two
bodies, and set one for say the details in the fascinating bassist, and
another for the sax guy, away you go. No flashing LED's to worry about.

Plus, with the latitude of (say) tri-x, and the inaccuracy of the cloth
shutter mechanism, chasing those LED's takes one into a false sense of
accuracy, even if one has accepted the limitations of a semi-averaging
reflected meter reading. The danger is that you think you got the correct
exposure (but were actually defeated by a reflected reading and the
mechanical shutter), and even worse, because of the delay that chasing the
LED's induced in you, you missed Mister HCB's thing.


Which is not to say that under other situations, uch as shooting certain
assignments, that built in meter can provide some assistance.

Tom A is close to right on. Let's have Big Red L come out with the M2-W.
24-90 framelines (24/35, 28/90, 50/90), and no meter.

Or maybe I shoulda read the manual. You guys could all be correct, and I'm
supposed to keep my lens cap on at all times. Maybe the LED's main purpose
in life is to remind me of same :=)

best of exposure estimations,

Alistair

- -----Original Message-----
From: Jonathan Borden [mailto:jborden@mediaone.net]
Sent: Thursday, November 11, 1999 6:22 PM
To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
Subject: Re: [Leica] caps


get an M6 .... that way if you forget and leave the lens cap on, the little
red lights in the viewfinder won't light up... I would have expected them to
be green, for okay and shoot :-))

Jonathan Borden



> UMMM, GRRR, PUHLEEEEEEEZE.
>
> Who ever USED a camera to take a picture with the lens cap on. First thing
> that goes in the basement when I get a new(ish) lens is the front cap.
>
> Very difficult to take a good picture with one o' them things on the front
> o' yer expensivocronilux.
>
> Uh-oh, do I hear the onset of a subsequent UV-filter thread starting?
>
> Or didn't I see these posts On the Leica USERS Group.
>
> Alistair