Re: [Leica] The M6 Fugue

["Julian Thomas" <Mimesis@btinternet.com>]

A lot of this has been said before BUT...

The more controls you have the more you fiddle. All of Horsts's comments
ignore the fact that any metering system in the camera is a compromise and
the only accurate way of measuring exposure is an incident reading. Now, if
I was Ted Grant and had shot so many rolls that I could over ride exposure
when the need requires I'd be ok - but I'm not and I find an incident
reading to be the only safe way for me. I use an M4-2 and an M6 and I prefer
the M4 because I have no distractions. if the meter is in the finder I can't
resist twiddling or checking and it slows me down. The finder ont he M4 is
for composing ONLY. i think it was Elliot Erwitt somewhere who said that the
viewfinder on an M camera is for putting a frame around a picture you see.
When I'm  using the M exposure and rough focus is set before I bring the
viewfinder up - then focus frame and shoot. Electronics get in the way!!

Now, how about an M6 w/a with frames only for 21-28mm?!!

Julian


- ----- Original Message -----
From: "A.H.SCHMIDT" <horsts@primus.com.au>
To: <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
Sent: Thursday, March 23, 2000 10:53 AM
Subject: Re: [Leica] The M6 Fugue


>
>
> Dave Richards wrote:
>
> > If I may kick in my two cents worth, you seem to equating
ever-increasing
> > automation with progress.  Automation has it's place.  After all, email
> > would be pretty difficult in a world that considers the postage stamp
the
> > height of technological enlightenment.  But it also has it's price.
> >
> > I submit that the fully manual camera offers something that the fully
> > automatic camera cannot, and that is the ability to look at a subject
and
> > decide for yourself how it should be photographed, without reliance on
wat
> > an engineer or programmer considers an acceptable exposure most of the
time.
> >
> > When I moved to Leica I gave up the convenience of an automatic Nikon.
> > Except that Nikon lenses are visibly inferior to Leica optics, the N90
is
> > considerably more convenient, and best of all, can rip through a
> > 36-exposure roll of Kodachrome in less than 8 second.  But my M6 has
made
> > me think, which is more than I have been able to say about a Nikon since
I
> > sold my Nikkormat FTN.
> >
> > Dave
>
> Dave, If you really think about it, your fully manual M6 isn't really
fully
> manual at all.
>
> Firstly, when you set your exposure, what do you do? Do you have a guess
how
> bright it is?
> Not really, you use your automatic exposure meter and do what it tells
you. OK,
> you say:
> "Yes, but I can then alter the exposure if i don't agree with it." Exactly
the
> same happens if you have an automatic exposure setting in your camera. All
the
> light meter does, is to set the
> shutter speed, for example, where you would have set it to. And if you
don't
> agree with it (like before), you cane use your + or - exposure
compensation or
> set it manual if you like.
>
> However in 95% you'll find, the automatic exposure control will do exactly
the
> same as you would have done. The other 5%, it is up to you to set it to
what you
> prefer, or think it is more appropriate. After all why should an exposure
meter,
> that drives some automatic be less accurate then the same meter having to
be
> read by you?.
>
> I don't think it would be wise, to have a M6 with automatic, but then a M7
will
> do.
>
> I bet you, if it came to the crunch, people would by the M7 too.
Especially, if
> , as many people seem to prefer, the flash synch speed is faster at the
same
> time.
>
> If you look at it in a practical situation. Say you photograph a
landscape, or a
> group of people in the open. It is a cloudy sky. The clouds are broken up
and
> reasonably fast moving.  You get from one moment a bright and then a
cloudy sky
> and then bright again and so on. All the automatic will do, is to change
the
> (say) shutter speed up or down, exactly what you would do, only you could
keep
> the camera at your eye and didn't have to twiddle the shutter speed dial
and
> compare a couple of LED's in the few finder. I would say, you
> could concentrate more on what you are supposed to be photographing.
>
> A couple of years ago, I took a trip in Switzerland with the Glacier
Express
> Train from  Zermat to St. Moritz. My son had my old  SL2 I had given him.
I had
> my  Pentax Super-A
> on this trip.  We made pictures all the way,  hanging out of the window.
> When it was all over, back in Australia, we had a look at our prints. My
son had
> about a 70% success rate (Exposure wise) and I had 100% correct exposures.
Why?
> My camera was set to shutter priority I set it to 1/250sec. . His of
course was
> fully manual.  Now during the trip, the weather was variable, we drove
through
> short cuttings, through forests. over and under bridges. In other words,
the
> light situation changed quite often rapidly.
> The automatic to care of this. Even if I wanted to, I would not have had
the
> time to measure, think and then set the right exposure in all cases.
>
> I believe, there is nothing wrong, with some automation, as long as one
cane see
> in the view finder what's going on, and as long as it can be switched to
manual
> if required.
>
> This does in no way take the creativity or the thinking away from the
> photographer. You can always supervise what's happening.
>
> I am looking forward to a M7 with aperture priority, a LCD display in the
> viewfinder
> and a separate meter on-off switch.
> Then  a M8 with fully automatic exposure control, settable to program,
aperture
> and shutter priority and manual control.
>
> Regards, Horst Schmidt
>
>
>