Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/07/16

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Meter Choices, anyone?
From: Mark Rabiner <mark@rabiner.cncoffice.com>
Date: Mon, 16 Jul 2001 13:24:46 -0700
References: <F259VOaIUISlABvwu720000d464@hotmail.com>

Ethel Red wrote:
> 
> >Why insult the camera by ignoring it?>
> >Mark Rabiner
> >
> >Portland, Oregon
> 
> What nonsense is this? Will the camera's feelings be hurt?
> 
> The M6's inboard meter is marginal at best. You can never be sure of exactly
> what you're metering since there's no indication in the viewfinder of the
> metered area.
> 
> I'm partial to the Sekonic L-408. It has a 5 degree spot and an incident
> meter built in. It's light weight and takes up very little space in my bag.
> 
> See: http://www.sekonic.com/Products/L-408.html
> 
> PJW

The M6's inboard meter works brilliantly and perfectly Ethel! (I'm sure you
know) It has never let me down in 8 years of shooting hundreds of rolls of film.
I use it with a classic M6 made 9 years ago and a newer TTL one and with 24, 35,
50, 90 and 135 focal lengths.
The diameter of the circular metering field is approx 2/3 of the short side of
the applicable bright line frame. This is pretty darn easy to visualize and
works perfectly in practice.

The issue to me is this:

I go down to my darkroom and run my film and make a dozen contact sheets...
I lay them out and look at them...
How many frames in there stand out as being off the money?
Not many if any.
Some holds true when i get my Kodachrome yellow boxes back and i empty them on
to my 4x8 foot light table. They are all right on the money.

And yes i think buying an expensive camera with a meter in it and not at least
giving that meter a shot and the benefit of the doubt is an insult to the gear
although that would of course not necessarily be the intention.


Mark Rabiner
Is it me or is this a barrage of anonymous trollers? The same person I'd think.

Portland, Oregon
USA

http://www.rabiner.cncoffice.com/

In reply to: Message from "Ethel Red" <ethel_red@hotmail.com> (Re: [Leica] Meter Choices, anyone?)