[Leica] Zone VI meters

["Johnny Deadman" <deadman@jukebox.demon.co.uk>]

> I'm not sure if this is valid or not but both of my R4's meter for zone VI
> when compared to my hand held incident readings.  It is consistent over a
> wide range of light and SHOWS when using slide films.  Is this typical?

I don't know if it's typical for Leicas, but many in-camera meters are
secretly calibrated for Zone VI. There are two reasons for this.

1) Manufacturers assume the bulk of shots will be happy smiling Zone VI
faces

2) Tests have shown that, all other things being equal, centre-weighted
metering averages 1/2-1 stop underexposure over a wide variety of exposure
conditions (try this for yourself if you don't believe me... shoot a whole
roll in a variety of conditions, metering (i) using CW dumbly (ii) using
your preferred 'intelligent' method of metering. A lot of the time you'll
discover that the sky is fooling the meter, or a specular light source, or
the scene is subtly backlit, etc etc etc).

Add to this the tendency of film manufacturers to overstate the speed of
their material by 1/2-1 stop and you can immediately see why camera
manufacturers would set up their meters to give an extra stop of exposure.

In fact, when in camera meters *aren't* set up this way, as on my T90, if
shooting on p-mode I would automatically dial in another half stop of
exposure for luck (ie shoot Tri-x @ 200 instead of 320).

- --
Johnny Deadman

"When a dog runs at you, whistle for him" - Thoreau