Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/09/18
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]From: Harrison McClary <harrison@mcclary.net> Sent: Saturday, September 18, 1999 15:16 Subject: Re: [Leica] Consistent underexposure problem > 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... How about a spot meter? I got a spot meter today, a Minolta Spotmeter F. I got a spot meter because my subjects are often too far away to make an incident meter practical (e.g., the Eiffel Tower!). The only spot meter at the camera store was the Minolta, but hopefully it is pretty good (is Minolta good at this sort of thing). The spot meter agrees with my Leica and my Nikon F5 to within 1/10 stop; the Nikon FG is mysteriously off, but that was a far less expensive camera, and it predates the others. > ...very seldom do I shoot slide film with > out using my Minolta incident meter. How do you use it? I've used spot meters before (a looong time ago), but never an incident meter, at least not for photography. First of all, it seems that you need to put it right in front of your subject--difficult if it is a building or landscape. Also, how does it account for distance to the camera and the reflectance of your subject? > One problem you may be having is that the Leica M6 meter > is a center spot sort of... I verified this with the gray card. As soon as the edge of the gray card reached the area of the spot, the meter reading changed. > 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. I don't know that film is a factor. I've shot Provia 100 in both my F5 and my Leica. I now know that they both meter correctly (or at least identically). And yet my Leica shots are often underexposed. About the only variable left is my own shooting technique; I _must_ be doing something wrong. > 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........ Even when I'm just having the transparencies developed in E-6 (no prints)? Isn't the development just a highly automated process of running the film through a machine? Besides, it seems improbable that the lab would mess up the rolls I shoot with the Leica, but not with the Nikon. Too many coincidences there! It _must_ be me. -- Anthony