Hi,

After 4 rolls with my new Leica M, I realize than the meter is almost a spot meter :-) Does anyone know how is it compare (size, approximately 3 or 15% ?) to the spot meter of a classic slr ? Then, when I take a picture with a high contrast, should I meter the dark zone or the light zone ??

BTW, I got my slide today, and the Summicron 50 is FANTASTIC, I still can believe it ! It's really sharp at all the aperture, the out of focus part are REALLY nice (for me, I know than some peoples here prefers the old one..) And the colour rendition are great too, well I'm really happy with it, it's a good first lens to begin for me.. Such a good tool !

I start to be faster with my M, at least It took me the same time than my Hexar now, since the M have NO shutter time lag and the Hexar have 3 seconds :-)

Thanks again to all of you for your good advice !

Best regards..

Simon (felt in love with his new tool :-)

-- Simon (s_alibert@mac.com), June 08, 2002

Answers

Hi Simon; The wonderfull Leica lenses are generally sharp wide open; they are nifty lenses.Kelly

-- Kelly Flanigan (zorki3c@netscape.net), June 08, 2002.

Simon, I'm sure your new M came with a manual which has graphics showing the area being metered. It is different for different lenses and is difficult to explain in words only. As to the area to meter in a contrasty scene: depends if you are using neg or transparency film. B&W or color. The ISO. Even whether the subject focus contains people. A nice book on metering the Zone system might help you out, because it'll show example images that are to complex to post here. I think you mis-typed that the shutter lag on your Hexar is 3 seconds...at least I hope you mis-typed it. Welcome to the "Leica Lovefest" and good luck with your new M.

-- Marc Williams (mwilliams111313MI@comcast.net), June 08, 2002.

The meter is a large spot which covers about 1/3 of the field of view of the lens. For instance, when using a 35mm lens, the spot coevrs about the field of view of the 50. When using the 24, about the coverage of the 35 - at least, that's how I think of it. As to kmetering for shadows or highlights, that's your choice - personally I shoot for a mid tone and let the shadows and highlights fall where they will.

-- rob (rob@robertappleby.com), June 08, 2002.

Simon, take the lens off your camera and make sure the shutter is armed so you can see the white spot on the front shutter curtain. That is the area that is being metered relative to the entire field. The problem is that the viewfinder frames do not correspond exactly to the full field (especially at distances over 3m) so mentally imagining that spot centered proportionally in each frame underestimates its coverage. Most publications tell you to imagine a circle equal to 2/3 the vertical height of the framelines. Another way is to use the preselector lever to call up the frameline for a lens 50% longer than the one you're using, and imagine a circle the same vertical height as that smaller frame. With the 35mm lens, use the 50mm frame; with the 90mm lens use the 135mm frame, and with the 135mm frame use the outer corners of the rangefinder patch. With your 50mm lens, you don't need to use the selector, since the 75mm frames are already in view. Simply imagine a circle whose vertical diameter touches the 75mm frame (first you'll need to mentally extrapolate those little "corners" across the frame!)There aren't framelines 50% bigger than the 28 or 75 so you need to use the 2/3- vertical technique with them.

As you can see, using the M camera involves a lot of mental imagery. Wait till you start trying to deal with depth-of-field, or trying to get accurate framing at longer distances! But there are "tricks" for those, too. Ask when you're ready to know.

-- Jay (infinitydt@aol.com), June 08, 2002.

Simon,

Could you please tell me how to replicate the shutter lag you describe with the Hexar. I have two (the original and the hexar silver). The shutter lag seems to be virtually instantaneous and quicker or equal to my F5.

Could you please tell me the conditions you got this lag so I can be aware of it when shooting.

Thanks,

-- bubble. (bubblegrass@yahoo.com), June 08, 2002.

Yeah I'm interested in that one also, especially the "3 seconds" shutter lag! Even according to Erwin, who has waged a one-man war against the Hexar over the film-plane "issue", the Hexar RF has a 100ms, which is 1/10 of a second...and my Hexar must be the turbocharged model because mine's a hair-trigger.

-- Jay (infinitydt@aol.com), June 08, 2002.