Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/12/05
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]>I currently own a IIIa, and want to get an M. The meter in the M6 is >compelling, but the only info I can find on the metered area is that it is >"selective". Is this somewhere between spot and centerweighted? If it is >more spot, by the time you figured what is 18% gray in the scene, wouldn't >it be just as quick to use a handheld and get a much less expensive >M2,4-2,4P,? Any feedback is welcome. The M6 meter is essentially a "big spot" meter. The meter sensitivity pattern is a 16mm circle in the center of the field of view (the sensor is inside the camera body and averages the light reflected from a white dot on the first shutter curtain). Selective area meters like this were used by Leicaflex SL and Canon FT cameras, possibly others. It's pretty fast and of course making the reading sets the camera at the same time; there's one less thing to carry and fuss about. If you are comfortable with a hand held meter and the convenience of an in-camera meter doesn't mean much to you, don't limit your search for the right Leica M to an M6. I had both M3 and M4-P prior to this and sold both because I found I didn't use them. Now, with an M6, I find I use the camera all the time... evidently, the convenience of having the meter in the camera means a lot to me, more than I'd realized. I sometimes carry an incident light meter as well, for when I'm working with tricky lighting situations, but for the most part I find the M6 meter to be dead-on accurate, fast and very convenient. Godfrey