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Metering and Exposure


snajczuk

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Just left the Nikon D3 for the M9. Having a hard time getting the hang of obtaining the right exposure. Everything seems to be too dark, light or a combination of both. Any tips on the best approach. I am using the summicron 35mm at 2.0 with auto shutterspeed.

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Just left the Nikon D3 for the M9. Having a hard time getting the hang of obtaining the right exposure. Everything seems to be too dark, light or a combination of both. Any tips on the best approach. I am using the summicron 35mm at 2.0 with auto shutterspeed.

 

The metering system is not evaluative/matrix style as in a dSLR. It is heavily weighted towards the central area (almost like a generous spot metre). The camera metering system will try to get this patch to 17-18% grey. Just remember that and you should be fine.

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..... the hang of obtaining the right exposure...... Any tips.....

 

Learn manual metering and how to get an optimal exposure with a well balanced histogram and no highlight clipping. It will take practice, but first do a search on the M8 Forum; metering technique has been well dealt with there. Lots of practice,............ good luck.

 

................ Chris

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I just got my M9 as well. I also shoot a D3. With the D3 I shot strictly spot meter and manual exposure. I'd spot on the brightest spot in the scene and then I'd adjust shutter speed until the exposure meter was just shy of 2 above zero. If no bright areas I'd spot on something neutral ie grass and set the exposure meter on zero. With the M9 I'm trying to do the same sort of thing. Although I'm starting to use a spot meter more. I get the exposure for the brightest spot set exposure in camera then add 1 2/3 ev. This seems to get the highlights with a few blinkies but easily recovered in post.

 

Adolfo

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Just an addition to this excellent post - in daily practice it is much more practical to go to manual instead of using the expose-lock-recompose method. That way the camera will be locked without having to hold the shutter button half-pressed.

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That depends on the lens that's mounted! With a superwide lens, the metering patch is BIG. With a 90 or 135mm, its -small-. Remember, the light is metered through the lens, not through the finder. That's an unfamiliar distinction to a SLR user, because with a SLR, you do both meter and 'find' through the lens. A Leica M, like a British upper class household, has a 'upstairs' and a 'downstairs'. Different things happen on the two levels.

 

You can actually see the metering pattern you are asking about. Just remove the lens and look at the shutter curtain. There it is. The meter cell 'sees' the white and the grey parts, metering the light that is reflected from them. This means that it gives greater weight to the white part than to the grey parts, and it does largely ignore the dark parts. That is what 'center-weighted metering' means.

 

Now when you have a lens mounted and look through the finder, imagine that white/grey pattern suspended inside the frame for that lens. This is what you are metering. A M is like a car with stick shift: You must understand what you are doing.

 

I do also second Jaap's tip about switching to manual when the subject is such that a straight metering won't do. This is fast and also, you don't have to do it again on the follow-up shot, and the next one, and the next one ...

 

The old man from the Age of the Leicameter M

Edited by lars_bergquist
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I must say that unfortunately, the explanation in the manual is very deficient. There is no discussion of the metering pattern at all!

 

You're right, I just checked online. Very strange that they left this out for the M9!

 

To the original poster, grab the PDFs of the M7 and M8.2 instructions from the Leica website. On pages 104/105 of the M7 instructions you'll find an illustration of the metering fields which should be pretty similar (maybe even identical) to those on the M9. On page 127 of the M8.2 manual (English version) there's a picture of the metering pattern itself. It might not be identical to that of the M9, but it'll give you an idea of how this "not-quite-spot" meter is implemented.

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Lars wrote:

That depends on the lens that's mounted! With a superwide lens, the metering patch is BIG. With a 90 or 135mm, its -small-.

 

Let's discuss it, here can be a misunderstanding. The metering "eye" which measures the light reflected from curtains has its fixed size. It is irrelevant which focal length you use, the area measured from the curtains is the same. So, basically, within in the picture frame the area of the spot is not changing. What changes with focal length, is the coverage of the measuring spot on the image subjects. For tele lens this spot would cover less subjects (say, the face of a person), and for a superwide lens it would cover more subject's (e.g. person's body, trees and the sky behind). In this meaning it is big. But if you measure the spot in relation to the picture frame, it would be exactly the same. What do you think?

Toomas

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Just left the Nikon D3 for the M9. Having a hard time getting the hang of obtaining the right exposure. Everything seems to be too dark, light or a combination of both. Any tips on the best approach. I am using the summicron 35mm at 2.0 with auto shutterspeed.

I use A mode and manual depending on what I'm shooting and the light conditions. You may prefer any of the ways of exposing but A mode works perfect. May be your settings are wrong. Check if the exposure compensation menu is right.

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A related question: how do you people set exposure compensation on M9? The biggest disadvantage of M9 for me is the lack of a physical button to set exp comp. I use halfpress-wheel to set it, but the only way to see the result is via menu (or via viewfinder while setting), which is very inconvenient.

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Just left the Nikon D3 for the M9. Having a hard time getting the hang of obtaining the right exposure. Everything seems to be too dark, light or a combination of both. Any tips on the best approach. I am using the summicron 35mm at 2.0 with auto shutterspeed.

 

I've just been reading through this thread, and a thought has occurred to me. Were you using the 'Active D-Lighting' option on your D3? If so, then you may notice quite a difference in high-contrast subjects, as the M9 does not offer such a feature. You may need to 'dodge & burn' parts of your image in post-processing to achieve similar results. But the M metering is pretty good for most things. The heavily centre-weighted, or 'Fat Spot' pattern is very predictable once you become familiar with using it.

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A related question: how do you people set exposure compensation on M9? The biggest disadvantage of M9 for me is the lack of a physical button to set exp comp. I use halfpress-wheel to set it, but the only way to see the result is via menu (or via viewfinder while setting), which is very inconvenient.

That is because it is based on a manual camera, being an evolution of the M6. Again, the best way is to go manual and use the arrows to set your dedicated exposure. EV compensation is more of a semi-permanent thing which is practical to use for unchanging light.

Edited by jaapv
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That is because it is based on a manual camera, being an evolution of the M6. Again, the best way is to go manual and use the arrows to set your dedicated exposure. EV compensation is more of a semi-permanent thing which is practical to use for unchanging light.

 

Jaap, I am also using auto al the times, with heavy usage of EV.

You use manual, and -I guess- with practice you know what you need by looking at the led arrows intensity right? However, you use manual all the time? Or just use it when you "feel" a need to exposure compensate??

I wanna try that thing and see if I like it more... basically it seems like the other side of the same coin, but my M8 doesn't have the easy dedicated EV wheel like your M9 does...

 

Edit: hmmm I just tried it looks ....better...might switch to fully manual :)

Jaap: please tell me if you use LED arrow intensity at all

 

Edit2: only thing I hate is that you have to depress half way for the arrows to appear... well...

Edited by diogenis
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I use manual mainly when the light is something else than average.You know the routine: red dot spot-on dot+arrow 1/2 stop, arrow full stop or more., but I find using the spot character of the meter usually eliminates the need for EV correction.

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You should either use it fully manual, with a base EV of 0,

Or use it in auto (A) with an EV of whatever you choose for the particular frame.

There is no need to offset the EV once you use manual.

 

Your way is more funnier, since after all you also "feel" the clicks of that dial too :p, also its more precise, as I can't "play" with EV a lot, due to the absence of a dedicated EV wheel.

On the other hand you have an M9 and a dedicated EV wheel, so you, being A may be a bit faster than manual. For M8 manual is preferred...

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Just left the Nikon D3 for the M9. Having a hard time getting the hang of obtaining the right exposure. Everything seems to be too dark, light or a combination of both. Any tips on the best approach. I am using the summicron 35mm at 2.0 with auto shutterspeed.

 

Since I left the D300 for the M8 I lost the spot metering, so I prefer to go by the "sunny 16" rule, eventually taking further shots after chimping. It requires a bit of adapting, because it forces one to think about what is he doing, but IMHO it's worth the pain. And I chimped and adjusted even with the D300, so it doesn't change a lot.

If you'll elect so to do, just get used to the rear monitor, as it's not in the same league of the Nikon's one.

 

I rely on the camera meter only to expose in manual mode when I'm unsure about the light, mainly artificial.

 

Cheers,

 

Bruno

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