[Leica] Learnt something about my R8 today.

[rdcb37 at dodo.com.au (Rick Dykstra)]

It's about 9 years that I've been using R8's now and today I learnt  
something new.  A feature I like with set-piece nature shots is the F  
mode, where I can check for ideal dosage of flash ahead of time.  Its  
always bugged me that the F mode and the m mode were at opposite ends  
of the dial as I like to check the ambient light conditions before  
testing with the flash.  The thing I 'discovered' today was that it's  
possible to get an ambient-light-only reading with F mode - just  
leave the flash off and press down the depth of field preview  
lever.   Bingo, the light meter scale illuminates and displays the  
results based on ambient light only!  Turn on the flash and do it  
again to see what the flash is contributing.  This is good.  The  
flash meter built into the R8 and R9 is a great feature.

I drove up into the mountains again today simply to finish off a roll  
that I've been slowly working through over the last three trips.  'Da  
boyds' decided to help me out.  A mum and dad pair of Scarlet Robins  
took turns landing 2.7 meters away from my 560mm lens, and copped a  
dose of precisely metered Metz flash.  I'll post the shots later this  
week.

Rick.