[Leica] Zone system for Leicas

[Bryant <tbryant@wizard.net>]

Hi Luggers,

    Here's what you've all been waiting for.  The simplified guide to the zone
system for Leica (and other 35mm) photography:

    When shooting prints:

        When in doubt, overexpose.

    When shooting slides (chromes to the cognascenti):

        Bracket.

    Sorry, Ansel, but the Zone system is fine for centering exposure at a
precise location on the film's sensitivity curve and then controlling contrast
in development, but unless your lighting is uniform in range over a whole
roll, the zone system is wasteful overkill for roll film work.  It's useful
thoretical information for any photographer, but of limited use in the field
for those of us who wield Leicas.


Come, every frustum longs to be a cone,
And every vector dreams of matrices.
Hark to the gentle gradient of the breeze:
It whispers of a more ergodic zone.

                -- Stanislaw Lem, "Cyberiad"