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Leicaflex standard: is meter calibration worth it?


steed

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Hello all

I have been away from the forum for some time, but return with renewed vigor and a Leicaflex Standard (first version). The meter is light sensitive, but very optimistic (it overexposes by several stops). The body is gorgeous, and I am wondering if anyone has experience with recalibrating original Leicaflex meters. Are they good enough when working properly to be worth recalibrating? Cost ranges? I am used to setting exposure without a meter in a variety of settings, but always like a meter around just the same. Any advice would be welcome.

Regards

John W

 

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Hello John,

 

Welcome back to you & the Mrs.

 

Having an external meter which reads from an EV of 2 to an EV of 18 @ ISO 100/21 can be useful in many situations. The first Leicaflex uses a PX13/625 mercury oxide battery which is replaceable with a zinc air equivalent or the meter may be recalibrated so that it can use a silver oxide equivalent #357. Silver oxide batteries tend to produce more reliable results than their alkaline alternatives.

 

Even if it is a meter that you would only use occasionally the advantage to having the meter done is: It is always with you when you are using the camera anyway: So you might as well have it operating.

 

The meter covers a fixed angle of view that is the same as the angle of view of a 90mm lens (27 degrees diagonally). This is the same angle of coverage as the angle of coverage of an MR or an MR4 meter. Many people are happy as clams with this angle of coverage on their various film M's.

 

Best Regards,

 

Michael

Edited by Michael Geschlecht
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Hello Again John,

 

As usual, Toby's advice is well worth considering.

 

Altho Cds meters, like the meter in an Original Leicaflex, are less prone to fatigue than their 20th Century selenium contemporaries.

 

I know a number of people who have a variety of cameras with built in CdS meters or who have separate handheld CdS meters from that time period (1960's & 1970's), who have had no problems other than battery availability/conversion.

 

Best Regards,

 

Michael

Edited by Michael Geschlecht
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A common problem with CdS cells is moisture penetration that lowers the normal high resistance in darkness. This can result in a meter that can be adjusted for "good" accuracy in higher light levels, but will think low light levels are brighter than they are. This happened to a couple of Leicaflex SLs of mine. The only way to get low light accuracy back was to find a technician with a replacement correct CdS cell, which Leica no longer has.

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Thanks to all for the welcome back and sage advice. Given the diminished value of Standards lately, and the difficulty in fixing the metering issue, I will use the handheld and just enjoy the incomparable build of the 'flex. 

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My Leicaflex  I bought on e-bay as is had a eaten up battery spring. After reading the repair manual it decided to just excavate around the remaining metal and cleaned and burnished the metal and tinned it with solder, then milled a channel to the center of the chamber and soldered a thin wire to the stub and filled the cavity with epoxy. Later I soldered  a small metal spring to the center of the chamber with the wire then epoxied it in place. after inserting battery low and behold it worked. The reading compares with my Gossen and Sekonic meters. I'm glad that I didn't have to e calibrate it which would entail removing the top and more time spent. And as stated it covers about 90 degrees . llFirst results were great.

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  • 1 month later...

Hello all

I have been away from the forum for some time, but return with renewed vigor and a Leicaflex Standard (first version). The meter is light sensitive, but very optimistic (it overexposes by several stops). The body is gorgeous, and I am wondering if anyone has experience with recalibrating original Leicaflex meters. Are they good enough when working properly to be worth recalibrating? Cost ranges? I am used to setting exposure without a meter in a variety of settings, but always like a meter around just the same. Any advice would be welcome.

Regards

John W

 

You didn't mention which battery you had installed when the meter indicated an overexposure. If it wasn't a mercury battery (hard to obtain now, of course), the cause of the inaccurate meter reading could be an incorrect battery voltage.

 

I use a CRIS adaptor with a silver oxide cell in my Leicaflex and it works fine (differs from a handheld Gossen by one-half stop). There are less expensive alternatives available on eBay. The convenience of having an on-board meter is worth something to me.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hello again all, and particularly to Photon

It turns out that someone somewhere gave me a PX625 that was supposed to be equivalent to the old mercury cell, but was not. As a last resort, I bought Wein cells from Amazon, put one in the Leicaflex,(first version) and voila! The meter is reasonably accurate. I would caution all with a Standard to take the battery out when the camera is not in use because of the lack of an on-off switch on the first version.

Regards

Steed 

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Hello John,

 

For the most part it was only the early Original Leicaflex with the "pie shaped" frame counter window that did not have a meter shut off.

 

Most of the "round" window'd later versions shut the meter off when the film advance was pushed in all the way & turned it on when the film advance lever was pulled out to the "stand off" position. Like with the later Leicaflex SL/SL2 models.

 

Best Regards,

 

Michael

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Hello again all, and particularly to Photon

It turns out that someone somewhere gave me a PX625 that was supposed to be equivalent to the old mercury cell, but was not. As a last resort, I bought Wein cells from Amazon, put one in the Leicaflex,(first version) and voila! The meter is reasonably accurate. I would caution all with a Standard to take the battery out when the camera is not in use because of the lack of an on-off switch on the first version.

Regards

Steed 

I believe that in the absence of an on/off switch, one can just put a lens cap on the camera. The CdS photocell resistance becomes very high with no light striking it and, in effect, shuts the metering circuit off. I did this, successfully, for quite some time with a Spotmatic F, a camera that also lacked an on/off switch.

 

It is worth commenting that Wein cells can self-discharge and, once activated, can run themselves down slowly even if outside of the camera. You might want to consider the CRIS adaptor or the like.  There is a less expensive one listed on eBay now.

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