RE: [Leica] Unintended panoramic shots

["Griffith, Lucian" <griffil1@anz.com>]

From: Rob McClure <mcclure@udata.com>
> I recently got back a roll of Fuji 1600 I had processed at a one hour
photo
> lab.  Four of the prints were panoramic format (4" X 12") though, to my
> knowledge, no Leica M has this feature.  The results are strange to say
the
> least with cut off heads and serious grain.  The lab claims this is the
way
> the machine read the negatives (which look normal to me) and can do
nothing
> to print 4" X 6" prints.  Anyone have a similar experience or know what in
> the heck is going on?
>
> Regards,
> Rob McClure
>

Rob, 

I suspect that using 1600 you were shooting something with lots of dark, and
that some of the negs had larg under or unexposed bits? The "smart" machine
might have read the dark bits as the chopped off bits of "panoramic" format.
I have heard mention before (years ago, when Halley's Comet was hanging
about) that when shooting night / star shots, that an exposure of an evenly
lit subject should be at each end of the roll of film, so that automatic
machines don't cut negatives in half.  Maybe the same principle applies for
negatives with big underexposed bits and "panoramic" format.  (Surely there
has to be a way to turn this automatic function off on these super-dooper
processing machines??).  If the shots looked really grainy this also
suggests that they might have been underexposed.  That'd be my suggestion
without seeing the negs.

cheers,
Lucian G.