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Leica m6 how to expose?


zerocool22
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Hello,

Not a video related topic. But figure some of you might have experience witb this. So Im planning to buy a leica m6 with a leica r adapter as I already own 3 summicrons. I never shot film really, so I load the 800 iso film roll in there. My aputure is fully manual. But how do I know how to expose correctly? As I can not take test shots and adjust(which is how I shoot digitally). And I do not want to run around with an external light meter all the time. I figure the m6 has got one built in, but how does it work. Can the m6 show me the correct settings? As iso is fixed, prob shoot wide open at f2 mostly o1nly shutterspeed remains or am I missing something here.

 

Thanks

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1 hour ago, zerocool22 said:

Hello,

Not a video related topic. But figure some of you might have experience witb this. So Im planning to buy a leica m6 with a leica r adapter as I already own 3 summicrons. I never shot film really, so I load the 800 iso film roll in there. My aputure is fully manual. But how do I know how to expose correctly? As I can not take test shots and adjust(which is how I shoot digitally). And I do not want to run around with an external light meter all the time. I figure the m6 has got one built in, but how does it work. Can the m6 show me the correct settings? As iso is fixed, prob shoot wide open at f2 mostly o1nly shutterspeed remains or am I missing something here.

 

Thanks

Here is a scan of the user guide. Page 74 onwards details the operation of the light meter.

http://www.cameramanuals.org/leica_pdf/leica_m6_ttl.pdf

With regard to exposure control in general, depending on the conditions you are shooting in, you may find the 1/1000th shutter speed to be a limitation if you are using ISO800 film and shooting at f2 as you are describing. In that case you would have to either carry some ND filters with you to keep the correct exposure within those fixed parameters or pull (overexpose) by setting the ISO lower on the camera for the metering and then have the overexposure corrected during development.

For the opposite problem where you do not have enough light you would push (underexpose) by setting the ISO higher on the camera for the metering and then have the underexposure corrected during development.

A guide to pushing and pulling is here 

https://thedarkroom.com/pushing-and-pulling-film/

 

 

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Exposure is fairly easy with the M6 ... three LED indicators ... under arrow correct dot and over arrow. Even half lit to show close but slight under or over exposure. 

The meter itself tends to underexpose with wide angle lenses as the predominant area metered is the sky ... so the manual suggests tilting the camera towards the ground to meter then compose normally ... limiting the predominance of the sky's brightness. With practice you will find the sweet spot for most exposures unless a scene is predominantly white or black .... where you need to add a compensation factor. The meter will also be "fooled" by excessive backlight ... so step up to the subject to meter and then step back to compose and shoot.

Another suggestion is that grass is a close approximation of middle grey ... just point at the grass to meter then accommodate for any offset light that may skew the exposure.

Thorsten Overgaard ... has a decent writeup that may help with using a M camera ... 

Great camera ... difficulty for you is you can only focus by guess ... as the R adapter does not couple to the rangefinder. So F2 on a Summicron may give you a lot of unfocused shots.

With a 24 or 21 at F 5.6 - F 8 you can zone focus and pretty much everything will be acceptable.

 

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26 minutes ago, docmoore said:

Exposure is fairly easy with the M6 ... three LED indicators ... under arrow correct dot and over arrow. Even half lit to show close but slight under or over exposure. 

The meter itself tends to underexpose with wide angle lenses as the predominant area metered is the sky ... so the manual suggests tilting the camera towards the ground to meter then compose normally ... limiting the predominance of the sky's brightness. With practice you will find the sweet spot for most exposures unless a scene is predominantly white or black .... where you need to add a compensation factor. The meter will also be "fooled" by excessive backlight ... so step up to the subject to meter and then step back to compose and shoot.

Another suggestion is that grass is a close approximation of middle grey ... just point at the grass to meter then accommodate for any offset light that may skew the exposure.

Thorsten Overgaard ... has a decent writeup that may help with using a M camera ... 

Great camera ... difficulty for you is you can only focus by guess ... as the R adapter does not couple to the rangefinder. So F2 on a Summicron may give you a lot of unfocused shots.

With a 24 or 21 at F 5.6 - F 8 you can zone focus and pretty much everything will be acceptable.

 

Ah ok, thats is some good info. So maybe the m6 is not for me then, as I wondered about the focus. Maybe the R7 is a better choice for me.

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