Re: [Leica] Which Ultra-Wide, Heliar 15mm or Heliar 12mm

[Isaac Crawford <isaac@visi.net>]

"Rodgers, David" wrote:
> 
> Isaac
> 
> You're talking about metering in general. I don't have a problem with that.
> I have a problem with metering and the Heliar.
> 
> I know every trick in the book when it comes to metering. I really don't
> have any problem with most lenses. Nor do I have any issues with the M6
> metering. It's spot on most of the time. But there's something tricky about
> the Heliar, and I haven't been able to put my finger on what it is.  It's
> more than watching the horizon (although Henning made a very good point in
> that regard.)

	I bet if you use an ambient technique as opposed to a reflected one,
most of the problems will go away... Just a guess...
> 
> Do you have any metering issues when you use your Heliar on your M6? Or do
> you get perfectly exposured chromes each and every time you use it? I'm
> curious also to know how you like your Heliar overall.

	I have only shot two rolls (of K64) with the heliar on a friend's
Bessa-L. That was mostly for curiosity's sake, I'm not much of a wide
angle guy. I had no problems getting accurate exposure. All of the shots
were outside under pretty predictable skies, and after a quick initial
check, I didn't use the meter again. I don't see any reason why I would
judge exposure differently if I continued to use it... The lens was
acceptably sharp, although I found the light falloff in the corners a
bit distracting in the blue skies. That's probably because I do 98% of
my shooting with either a 90mm or 50mm, and dark corners don't show up
unless you stack too many filters on them!:-) Certainly an interesting
lens, but not for me...

Isaac
> 
> Dave
> 
>         >>>This is typical of the kind of mistake that can be made by
> relying on
> reflective metering only. I guess my whole point is that by learning to
> shoot without a meter, one is better able to gauge what is a reasonable
> exposure and won't be fooled by wacky meter readings. If my camera has a
> meter and I'm shooting slide film, I usually use it to measure light,
> but I already have an idea of what it should be. That way, if something
> odd shows up in my readout, I'm not screwed. I usually only use a meter
> to tweak the final exposure on slides.
>         I know nobody asked, but here's the list of things that I do use a
> meter for:
> 
> 1)tweaking exposure for slide film
> 2)Shots where the light is the subject (like stained glass windows or
> backlit leaves)
> 3)In the studio for determining initial exposure with strobes (then I go
> to the polaroid meter!)
> 4)Macro work with bellows extention...its just so much quicker...:-)<<<