Re: [Leica] M7 update 2. and more :-)

[Ted Grant <tedgrant@shaw.ca>]

Jesse Hellman wrote:
>>> Ted, your description of how you use the M7 is clear, but very puzzling
> to me. And everyone else who is using it says the same thing: focus,
> shoot. Great negatives.<<<

Hi Jesse,
I've not done anything different than put the M7 to eye, focus, wait for the
moment and trip shutter! Not even a blink of a thought of where the "white
spot" maybe reading as it's taking it right out of the middle of the frame,
other than the shutter speed flashed in the viewfinder on first touch to
make sure the shutter speed is fast enough that I can hold the camera steady
at the selected speed.

>>> But the light meter is the same as in the M6, right? Same size spot. No
> matrix or averaging.<<

That's right and when I unpacked the M7 I checked the meter against my M6's
to see if there was any difference and they read the same. On a few
situations I had a slightly different shutter speed reading only due to the
electronic fine tuning it, but hardly worth the difference camera to camera.

>>> In your book you described how you meter. And it was different with the
> M6. I have never heard any M6 user say he just aimed and shot in the kind
of lighting > you are describing<<<

But that's what I do. I basically point and shoot with the M7. The M6 I
still look through the viewfinder, adjusted for two little arrow heads lit
and shot! With the M7 that's eliminated. Now I look and shoot almost
instantaneously.

I'm interested in the "light - eyes - action" and I don't spend much time
thinking about how the light is shining on one area or the other and when
you do that... "think about things too much"... that's when one screws-up.

I shoot 99% of the time by eye & gut feeling in what I see, if the light is
right, the eyes are right, the action is right... what else is there to be
concerned about, but shoot!

>>> So what is different? It has seemed to me that when I just do what the
> M6 meter says, without regard to tonal values, I often have
underexposed.<<<

The only time I ran into this was when I first used the 15 on the M6 because
I forgot how much "sky area" was being read and I fixed that quickly by
tilting the camera down to cut sky area and had great results after that.

And since 1985 when the M6's were put in my hands I rarely if ever did
anything different than... light those arrowheads ... and shoot! As soon as
they lit it was quick time shoot time.  Maybe I've just been lucky over the
years in using my M6's but I've always tried to keep picture taking as
simple as possible. And in that manner it does appear it works well for me.

>>> It would seem that either a lot of people have been making the M6
> metering too complicated (including Leica in its instruction manual) or
> Leica has found some way too improve the averaging quality in the meter.<<

I imagine folks making the M6 metering complicated happens because they
think about things way too much... If they just light the lights and shoot,
they'd have few screw-ups.

It's learning to completely trust your gear and that's what I've always
done. And it's never failed me. If it has.... it's only because I thought
about the situation too much... over road the internal system and blew it..

If Leica were to say something very simple: "When the two arrowheads
light... shoot and your picture will be properly exposed." Then it wouldn't
be complicated. But that's way too simple for them to sell! ;-)

ted

Ted Grant Photography Limited
www.islandnet.com/~tedgrant


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