[Leica] re: Exposure and Development

[rsphotoimages at comcast.net (Bob Shaw)]

Ted:

I gotta go with on that one.

both my R8 and 9 are pretty much "cemented" into Program Mode, with 
Aperture Priority making up at least 80 percent of all shots.

The Leica Program Mode does such a nice job, I've never had occasion to 
challenge it - unless I was trying to do something goofy, or thought 
(in a moment of stupidity) that I knew better.

Once in a great while, when I'm agonizing over a large scale landscape 
shot with tripod-mounted R Vario 70-180 APO, I might dink around with 
the exposure a bit.  But my point here is that the automated functions 
Lieca designed work really, really well.

Kind of reminds me when I used to shoot Contax R.  I had an RTS II and 
an RX.  The RX was really a great camera.  No autofocus, but it did 
have Focus Confirmation.  Whenever I thought I knew better than the 
Little Green Light, my shot was out of focus.  I finally learned to 
trust the feature and never had out of focus shots after that.

R8; R9:  World's Most Expensive Point and Shoot, I guess.  So sue me.

Thanks for the confirmation, Ted!

Bob



On Mar 3, 2007, at 8:17, Robert Meier wrote:


Ted,

Thanks very much.   You are a fount of wisdom.   Did you find any 
difference when you switched from using incident readings with the 
white ball to using reflected readings with the R cameras?   My 
experience has been that incident readings usually indicate a more 
generous exposure than reflected readings.  And, by the way, when Kodak 
eliminated the 'safety factor' and doubled the published ratings for 
Tri-X (and other films) in the early 60's , did you start giving your 
pictures one stop less exposure?

Robert

>
>> So what you are saying is that you shot at the film maker's 
>> recommended exposure index (except when pushing the film), and 
>> developed it at the developer maker's recommended time and 
>> temperature, for your whole career, and never saw any need to vary 
>> either one?   And you always used an average exposure reading without 
>> taking specific shadow or highlight readings?
>>
>> That is certainly keeping it simple.<<<<
>
> Robert honest, you can't get it any simpler than that! I was, am and 
> have always been a photographer, a picture taker of things and 
> whatever is happening. A technician worrying about or wondering how 
> and why developers & exposures did whatever? It never interested me. 
> It's exactly the same as digital! The only problem with digital? It's 
> a damn sight more complicated with all the numbers and whatever.  :-)
>
> Although I'm finding the more I do my own thing, by my own way and not 
> get embroiled in all the fanciful digi talk, gizmos and numbers I do a 
> fairly good shoot and the prints look very fine.
>
> People actually pay a very nice fee for the finished prints! Hey what 
> more can you ask for! :-) So my simpliciity must be working. :-)
>
> Actually I do on most occasions get a damn fine 13X19 print  from a 
> Digilux 2 and my ever present 20D Leicanon! With of course a variation 
> of Leica R glass which is becoming a pain in the ass because I have to 
> remember to focus after becoming hooked on Canon auto-focus glass. ;-)
>
> There isn't anything like KISS, in photography nor with a beautiful 
> woman! :-) Life is good when you keep things simple and uncomplicated 
> without a bunch of bloody numbers, exposures, shadows, and other 
> stuff!
>
> Yeah I know I should know all this techie stuff to be a good 
> photographer. :-)
>
> But you know what? The less you know, the less you worry, the less you 
> feel bad because you don't know it.................... But you sure as 
> hell have a wonderful time taking pictures and travelling the world on 
> assignments and having a great time doing the most marvellous "job" 
> one can have! And better still........ be paid for doing it! :-) And 
> better better still? The end product looks smashing! :-)
>
>>> And you always used an average exposure reading without taking 
>>> specific shadow or highlight readings?<,
>
> Hell all I ever did was hold up the little white ball on the meter in 
> the same light as the subject, look at the meter, set camera and 
> shoot! SURPRISE!!! And it always looked beautiful and I was always 
> assigned again to shoot a new assignment in some other incredible 
> location! :-)  KISS baby, that's the secret of the game! :-)
>
> Then when I got into Leica R cameras I just set the camera for 
> whatever film it was, pick the aperture and let the camera to do what 
> the hell I paid for... pick the right shutter speed.
>
> Take a look at my last book, "Women in Medicine. A celebration of 
> Their Work."
>
> It's all tri-x rated at ASA 800 with Leica M7's, 3 of them with 
> different lenses set on aperture priority, the camera selected the 
> shutter speed and I went click! :-)
>
> See how easy it is even when you shoot 500 rolls of film and never 
> lose a frame using   camera set at "A."  Hey some of you guys make it 
> all so damn complicated I could never understand why you ever bothered 
> with being photographers. :-)
>
> Me? It's always been fun and enjoyment! To hell with all the details! 
> Because it's the simple picture moment that counts anyway!!
>
> So there you go eh? ;-)
>
> And you thought I'd give you some big technical meaningless answer! :-)
>
> ted
>
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