Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/09/12

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Subject: [Leica] Re: m6 AND hexar rf
From: Robert Jagitsch <robertj@powerlogix.com>
Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2000 16:34:58 -0500
References: <009201c01c21$1f79d330$640210ac@siege.jcberger.com> <20000910164524.19629.qmail@larch.math.umn.edu> <39BBDFA3.C96924F7@rabiner.cncoffice.com> <39BC09D6.EE03EBBD@CameraQuest.com> <009201c01c21$1f79d330$640210ac@siege.jcberger.com> <4.1.20000912140310.02bbc2b0@xsj02.sjs.agilent.com>

You are correct...confirmed from my own decades of experience :)

However I was comparing the Hexar to the comments about an F5 from 
the previous post, not to an M.... ;)

- -R


>At 12:53 PM 9/12/00 -0500, Robert Jagitsch wrote:
>>
>>Case in point: a couple of weekends ago, I went to visit my parents.
>>We went out to an Italian restaurant and I was able to snap photos of
>>them with the Hexar very unobtrusively. All I had to do was focus and
>>compose, I didn't have to worry about the exposure. I just put the
>>Summicon 35 wide open and the camer chose the exposure. The shutter
>>and motor were very quiet; although not as quiet as an M, my parents
>>still never knew I was shooting photos of them. This would NOT have
>>been the case with an F5, not even close.
>>
>>-R
>
>It is my humble opinion, as well as decades of manual cameras and
>experience, that the Hexar's AE ability contributed little, perhaps
>nothing, to the picture taking experience and whether the exposures were
>good or not. As a matter of fact, AE in a restaurant can give you a worse
>"hit" rate than no AE.
>
>A reflected meter reads anything in front of it. Black jacket, white
>sweater, overhead light, etc. If you are in a restaurant, find a neutral
>subject in an average lighting situation, read it, set your camera, and you
>are done. Take pictures without changing the exposure. An AE camera will
>read that black jacket and give you much over exposure. It will read that
>white sweater or bright overhead light and give you gross underexposure.
>
>In these situations, the Leica M camera is the master of perfect exposures
>(the human brain at work) and stealthily quiet operation.
>
>So my humble opinion is, there really isn't anything that a Hexar can do
>that is "better" than an M camera. It does "different" things, not
>necessarily better things. Some of these "different" things can actually be
>a burden.
>

In reply to: Message from Jim Brick <jim_brick@agilent.com> ([Leica] Re: m6 AND hexar rf)