Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1996/08/02
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 07:19 AM 8/2/96 PDT, ThomasP@nacm.com wrote: >All meters were manufactured by Gossen and, frankly, seem a bit on the >flimsy side; use off the camera is tricky as the click stops conferred by >the shutter speed dial are lost. This simply isn't true -- look at the side of any of these meters. They were ALL manufactured by Metrawatt AG of Nurnburg, the same firm who today produce the light-metering circuitry for the M6. All of the Leica meters produced by Metrawatt from the original LC60 of 1939 are tough, durable, and accurate. They are all worthy additions to the Leica system -- after all, Leica marketed them as an integral part, and Leica would and will not sell something through its dealers which is of lesser quality than the camera. Leica never distinguished between the MR meter versions -- "MR-4" is really street slang. To Leica, these meters were always just MR meters wherever the switch was located and both MR and MR-4 bore the same catalogue number (14217 for chrome, 14218 for black, whether black paint or anodized). The authorities consistently mis-state the saga of these meters -- Laney, Lager, and van Haesbroek all have some annoying errors carried over one to another. A nice (German-language) article was published in VIDOM (the journal of Leica Historica, the German Leica society) several years back, and I did a short piece on these meters for VIEWFINDER a year or two back. One final note: selenium, for all of its drawbacks, has a frequency response range most closely matching that of photographic film. It may be slow and insensitive, but the readings it produces are more accurate than those of later CdS or SPD meters. Marc msmall@roanoke.infi.net FAX: +540/343-7315 Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!