Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/09/03
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]>Roger Underwood wrote: >> >> I read an article in a photo mag the other day advocating the purchase of a >> seperate hand held meter for incident light readings in situations where >> conditions are a bit problematic. I have an M6 an will admit to the odd >> unsucessfull exposure though inexpert use. Should this advice be followed, >> or is it simply a matter of practise in using the M6's meter? >> >> Regards >> >> Roger >> >There is bound to be eminent people that could disagree but I vote for the >later. Sure it' always great to get a second opinion if you want to drive >yourself crazy. You might even end up with a camera with no meter in it >one day. >I don't go incident even with studio strobes and I think even the majority of >hard core zone system photographers do. I use a spot flash meter (the >Minolta). >Incident reading are mindless- which in a way is exactly the point. >The meter on your M6 will do well for you and the learning curve on >reflective >metering is similar to most other cameras and should be pretty short. >Mark Rabiner > I'm not one of those to whom Mark refers in his reply above (eminent) and I kinda disagree. For the way I suspect that many use the M camera, another meter would be just an additional burden. On the other hand, sometimes an incident reading is the fastest and best way to get the info I need. Often even before I touch my camera. What I like most about an incident meter is that the guess comes last. By that I mean that the photographer's estimation of subject reflectivity happens after a measurement of the light falling on the scene. With a reflective meter the guess comes first - what part of this scene is about "average"? Then that part is metered. For whatever strange reason, my first knowing about the light falling on a scene is the logical starting point. Then I start making exposure allowances for the subject reflectivity/desired effect. This is not mindless. I start the process with a real MEASURED number instead of a guess! That all said, most of the time I don't bother with the incident meter and use whats in the camera. The M6 meter is certainly good and I rarely have trouble using it. But -when the going gets tough, the tough go incident. That means that when in doubt I whip out the incident meter. (the one that is always in my bag) Very calming to me. Especially transparency film. Henry Ambrose