[Leica] Re: A meter is a convenience feature

["Doug Richardson" <doug@meditor.demon.co.uk>]

Mike Johnston <michaeljohnston@ameritech.net> has described his
technique for exposure estimation.

Mike,

Thanks for an interesting posting.

I've got a couple of questions:

>For me this is Tri-X exposed at an approximate equivalent of E.I. 200
or
250, because full exposure fits my visual tastes in prints. That's
only
an example--there's nothing magic about my choice. But for that film,
my
end-point reference "anchors" are that broad daylight is f/11 at
1/250th, and ordinary "bright" interior light (fluorescent office
lighting is an example) is f/4 at 1/60th.


At the top end it sounds like you are giving twice the exposure
suggested by the 'sunny 16' rule. Is this because you prefer a denser
negative?

The bottom end seems a bit optimistic, only five EVs down from the top
end. Perhaps US offices and homes are brighter lit than their US
countparts. For the office I work in here in England, 1/60 at f1.4 is
about right (eight stops from the top end).

>Between those two "anchors" there are only four other EVs:

>1/250 @ f/11 <---ordinary outdoor daylight exposure
>1/250 @ f/8
>1/125 @ f/8 --four other EVs in between--
>1/125 @ f/5.6
>1/60 @ f/5.6
>1/60 @ f/4 <---ordinary levels of interior light

Would I be right in thinking that those middle four EVs correspond to
the traditional classifications of light level which I learned as a
teenager - hazy sun, cloudy bright, cloudly dull, and very dull?

How well do you find your system works with 'chrome?

I remember once dropping my exposure meter as I was about to take the
first pic of the day, and simply using the exposures suggested by
leaflet which came with the film. I was surprised when all the slides
seemed OK. With my next film, I tried bracketing a shot one stop over
and under, and could see relatively little difference between the
three slides - that old Ferraniacolour must have had a good exposure
latitude.

On vacation last month, I spent a lot of time "chasing the LEDs" in
the M6 finder with lots of plus or minus one stop changes. In the days
of meterless cameras I'd simply metered with a hand-held to find the
current light level, and only metered again if the light changed or if
a new subject was obviously lighter or darker than what I'd been
shooting.

For the Xmas and New Year vacation, I'm going to take an LTM outfit
and a hand-held meter and see how I get on.

Regards,

Doug Richardson