Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/07/02
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Tina wrote: I have that same grey card in my camera backpack! Usually the backpack is in my hammock which is hanging over the family bed that you have to crawl over the pigs and dogs to get to. I still carry the grey card around (it's a great idea), but I don't think I've ever actually used it in the field. The camera, on the other hand, is always hanging off of my shoulder, even in the latrine. Len responds: Now, Tina - I don't use the grey ALL the time in the field, just when I encounter a lighting situation about which I am unsure. I know and trust that reflective metering off an 18% grey surface is the "gold standard" of exposure measurement and will almost never steer me wrong, unless I get arrogant or cocky and start thinking that I'm a Zone System maven. On the other hand, I have been undone and scuttled many times by too much photographic automation onboard non-Leica systems. After some 45 years of making photographs with Leica rangefinder equipment (M3 to M4 to CL to M6 and now to M7) I tend to not use the onboard meter very much, except to get a sense of what the light is like as it changes. To be honest, when I can I often just dead reckon off the "sunny 16" rule and let the highlights fall where they may. That having been said, my trusty LunaPro S is never very far away, in case I get insecure about what I think I'm seeing... In looking at your published work, which is often exposed in tricky, low level available light conditions, I can understand why reliance on accurate metering is so important to the recorded result. For what it's worth, in the last two months I've exposed about ten rolls of chromagenic black and white film through my M7 using aperture priority setting, and I have yet to find a lighting situation that fools the automation. You could call me an almost believer, especially in the ease of use. As a skeptical technophile, I'll be a confirmed believer once I find the edge of this technology's capability. Until then, the M6 TTL and my grey card stays in the day bag! /Len/ Leonard J. Kapner Tel: (310) 377-5060 E-mail: ljkapner@cox.net - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html