[Leica] Cool settings ISO AUTO

[jbm at jbm.org (Jeff Moore)]

2007-06-24-14:37:50 Mark Rabiner:
> Is there a Leica equivalent for ISO AUTO?

Nope.  And I was always peeved while in my post-film-M, pre-M8
wanderings in the desert (accompanied by thorougly competent but never
entirely loved [Sssh, don't tell them -- although I think they know]
Canon SLRs) that the Canons *almost* but didn't really do this.

To Canon, the really genuinely useful ISO shifting you describe is
apparently something nobody serious would want to do, so you can'd shoot
raw while in that mode.  Only silly JPEGs.  And also, the built-in flash
wants to pop up unless you glue it down or something.  So the Canon SLRs
I used would only do the ISO shimmy in the "green rectangle" mode.

Which meant I couldn't use it.

Once you go RAW, jpegs are against the LAW.

With the M8 -- yeah, that'd be handy I guess, although due to the
special characteristics of the M8, ISO handling is a little quirky.  I
generally do:

  Bright (but one hopes softly a little overcast yet warm) daytime: ISO
  160, -2/3

  Less bright: ISO 320, -2/3

  Less bright than that: stay with 320, and keep underexposing more as
  necessary, knowing you'll pull it back up in post.

  ISO 640+ only when desperate.

And before you haters leap: I don't care.  I still *love* this camera,
because it works with me to make the pictures I like.

But yes, I love the idea of being able to get the camera to ISO-shift,
if you're in the mood to let it and if it does it right.

 -Jeff