Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2014/01/31
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]It doesn't matter how you meter and with what; you still have to know what that meter is doing. If you're shooting Tri-X in a 19050's Leica a lot, you get pretty good at measuring the light with your eye. That's your meter. If you shoot 4x5 and you use an incident meter for transparencies, you get to learn that behaviour. If you shoot 4x5 and you meter with a Sinarsix, there too is a learning curve but you can get exactly what you want and you have full information on your contrast range with more precision that your experience will provide. If you shoot with a Leica M6, you learn what that big spot does, and when you shoot with an M9 you learn that what it meters isn't the same as what the M6 does nor does the sensor (film) respond the same. When I shoot with the Olympus (usually on aperture preferred), it's easy to see what will be overexposed and what the contrast range is, and there is a handy dial to make adjustments. Unless it's a very consistent scene, that's the fastest way to shoot with that camera. It will allow me to produce the best (exposure wise) technical files of any digital camera I've used; the EVF is essential to that. With the M9, manual or A worked equally well, as the compensation dial was very handy and effective. On the M, because of the stupid exposure compensation implementation, manual works better. It doesn't really matter what your system is; you just have to learn and get used to how it sees and interprets light. The only stupid, largely unuseable systems IMHO are those that decide things on their own in an erratic, non-disclosed fashion (see major exhibit A, the Nikon FA - one of the first cameras with multipattern computer decided metering). Today's multipattern metering is better, but still rather erratic, so on digital you are forced to underexpose in general to get useable results which wastes DR. So that type of metering is only useable with something like the Olympus EVF that displays over and underexposed areas before you push the button; in other words, you get feedback on what it's doing before you've done the deed. In practice, I tweak the exposure on probably 75-90% of the shots but I know what I'm going to get. Henning On 2014-01-31, at 12:47 AM, Geoff Hopkinson <hopsternew at gmail.com> wrote: > Each with our own preferred methods for different scenarios. Just work with > what you have in any Leica body or any other I guess, just don't wish extra > stuff onto my next Leica ;-) > ......I think I hear Ted entering the room.... > > > Cheers > Geoff > http://www.pbase.com/hoppyman > > > On 31 January 2014 13:47, Richard Man <richard at richardmanphoto.com> > wrote: > >> The point is, for street photos, a simple +1 lever is simple and works >> well >> most of the time. >> >> >> On Thu, Jan 30, 2014 at 7:39 PM, Doug Herr <wildlightphoto at >> earthlink.net >>> wrote: >> >>> Even if I'm sitting still my subjects are jumping in and out of different >>> lighting conditions with a wide variety of backgrounds. >>> >>> Auto exposure has not worked well for me unless the critter stays in the >>> same light as the background and is the same tonal value as the >> background >>> and if that's the case what's the advantage of auto exposure? >>> >>> Just more stuff I don't need to remember: >>> >>> Is the animal staying in the same light? if so, is the meter going to be >>> fooled by the background? if not then I can use auto exposure. If this >> is >>> where AE works, what's the point of it? >>> >>> Doug Herr >>> Birdman of Sacramento >>> http://www.wildlightphoto.com >>> >>> -----Original Message----- >>>> From: Richard Man <richard at richardmanphoto.com> >>>> Sent: Jan 30, 2014 6:36 PM >>>> To: Leica Users Group <lug at leica-users.org> >>>> Subject: Re: [Leica] Comparing B&W M9/MM >>>> >>>> Different horses for courses. In a fast moving street situation, >>> auto-stuff >>>> is useful and one can learn exactly how much the meter is fooled. If you >>>> are sitting around in one area or in areas where the exposure is >>> relatively >>>> similar, then of course manual is just fine. >>>> >>>> >>>> On Thu, Jan 30, 2014 at 5:52 PM, Doug Herr < >> wildlightphoto at earthlink.net >>>> wrote: >>>> >>>>> Geoff Hopkinson wrote: >>>>> >>>>>> Or more precisely, the Leica large spot meter is a dumb, simple >> system >>>>> that >>>>>> does exactly what a dumb system does, accurately and predictably. >> What >>> you >>>>>> told it, not what you meant! No training wheels ;-) ;-) >>>>>> When you get the wrong result (as I do regularly) the error is not >>> inside >>>>>> the camera ;-) ;-) ;-) >>>>> >>>>> Exactly why I use manual exposure 100% of the time. The light meter >> is >>>>> totally, predictably dumb. I never have to guess what the meter is >>>>> compensating for and guess how much compensation I need to reverse. >>>>> >>>>> Doug Herr >>>>> Birdman of Sacramento >>>>> http://www.wildlightphoto.com >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> _______________________________________________ >>>>> Leica Users Group. >>>>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >>>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> -- >>>> // richard <http://www.richardmanphoto.com> >>>> // http://facebook.com/richardmanphoto >>>> >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> Leica Users Group. >>>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Leica Users Group. >>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >>> >> >> >> >> -- >> // richard <http://www.richardmanphoto.com> >> // http://facebook.com/richardmanphoto >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Leica Users Group. >> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >> > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information > Henning Wulff henningw at archiphoto.com