abolit Posted December 9, 2011 Share #1 Posted December 9, 2011 Advertisement (gone after registration) Hi all, I'm a new user of M9 and I'm just getting familiar with a new camera. I also have Nikon D3S and D7000 with bunch of G lens. Back to M9 though. I noticed the metering of M9 is kinda strange. (In aperture priority mode) If the shooting scene consists of half of blue sky and half of say houses or trees, the exposure goes for the sky and the other half of the image is completely dark. It's definitely diferent than Nikon's matrix metering system. So to make the exposure right I have to half-press the shutter and rotate the wheel to compensate EV. Is this only way to get the exposure right? Or I miss something? Thanks Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted December 9, 2011 Posted December 9, 2011 Hi abolit, Take a look here M9 metering. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
jrovner Posted December 9, 2011 Share #2 Posted December 9, 2011 There's a lot of commentary on this forum about good technique for setting exposure properly on the M9. In brief, the M9's only metering method is center-weighted. If the dynamic range of the scene is within the sensor's limits, you can meter off anything of a middle value in the scene (lock the exposure by holding the shutter button down half way), or often just rely on the native metering choice of the camera. When I have a high dynamic range scene like the one you describe, with a lot of highlights (sky) and shadows (darker areas of buildings below the horizon), I look for a middle value approaching neutral gray in the scene and meter off of that. Often a sidewalk or other pavement in the same light as your most important subject will work. If I can't find one, then I use one of the typical proxy methods to find good exposure: 1. Sunny 16 rule 2. Meter off your hand and add a stop 3. Modified zone system: meter off the darkest part of the scene in which you want to retain detail, and subtract two stops, or the lightest and add two stops. Enjoy your new baby. Jeff 7 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
abolit Posted December 9, 2011 Author Share #3 Posted December 9, 2011 Wow! That was helpful! Thanks Jeff! I'm gonna practice your method today. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrovner Posted December 9, 2011 Share #4 Posted December 9, 2011 You're most welcome. I should add that given the challenges of setting the right exposure in high contrast situations, I usually don't use aperture priority. Instead, I find the right exposure and shoot manually, changing the setting only when the light on my subject changes. That way I get consistent shots and can concentrate on composition and focus. And on a bright day, if you've got a small enough aperture or wide enough lens, you don't even have to worry unduly about focus. The M9 can make one helluva great point and shoot. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
enrico.pocopagni Posted December 9, 2011 Share #5 Posted December 9, 2011 1 - exclude hilights from frame; 2 - read and keep exposure by pressing shutter halfway; 3 - recompose image in frame; 4 - wa - la! greetings Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
vk2109 Posted December 10, 2011 Share #6 Posted December 10, 2011 Another quick way I do also...if you are in the city is the meter the sidewalk !! I shot M and since the sidewalk is gray....if give you an idea where to start !! Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
benny19800304 Posted December 10, 2011 Share #7 Posted December 10, 2011 Advertisement (gone after registration) then the moment i want to shoot gone forever. how ? only practice to make myself fast enough ? Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkP Posted December 10, 2011 Share #8 Posted December 10, 2011 then the moment i want to shoot gone forever. how ? only practice to make myself fast enough ? If I undertand what you're saying, by the time you've set the exposure on the pavement (and then focused) you have missed the photograph. If lighting is fairly constant where you are shooting set the shutter speed and f-stop as per the advice above, and you can then make small adjustments on the run if the lighting changes a bit. That leaves you time to focus (or pre-focus/hyperfocal to save more time) and you can then concentrate on framing. Mark Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lars_bergquist Posted December 10, 2011 Share #9 Posted December 10, 2011 (edited) Remove the lens from the camera and look at the shutter. The central blade is white, the two adjacent blades are grey. When you aim the camera at the subject, an image of it is projected by the lens on the closed shutter. The area of the subject that's metered is what falls on the white and grey shutter blades, and the average is taken. That average can be all wrong if there's a very bright area included in it. This is what happened to you. The A mode is remarkably often correct. But you should be aware of what happens. The metering system just averages – if does not know what you want. So you should understand the situations in which this simple system will not work. I do never bother with exposure compensation, even less with exposure locking. I just switch over to manual metering – tip of my right index finger, and off we go. Then I aim the camera so that it will meter what I consider important, set the shutter speed dial so that the round red center dot lights up, and fire. The advantage is that this is a robust setting that works for a quick follow-up shot too. Your Nikon tries to think for you. Your Leica assumes that you do the thinking. It just helps you with doing what man's visual system is bad at – measuring absolute levels of light. The old man from the Age of the Selenium Meter Edited December 10, 2011 by lars_bergquist Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaapv Posted December 10, 2011 Share #10 Posted December 10, 2011 And consider that the light sensor looking at the shutter has a lens limiting its angle of view, so the end result is more or lesss a circle of maximum sensitivity that tapers away at the edge. So it is easy to measure various parts of the scenen and decide your exposure - provided you are on manual. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Printmaker Posted December 12, 2011 Share #11 Posted December 12, 2011 While the M9 meter is right 90% of the time, when the light is really tricky, I pull out my Sekonic meter and take an incident reading (the white dome). If the clouds are moving fast, I'll meter full sun and the passing cloud. Then it will be something like F8 for sun and F4.5 for cloud and I'll click back and forth as the lighting changes (on manual, of course). Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sblitz Posted December 12, 2011 Share #12 Posted December 12, 2011 I have begun to experiment using a lightmeter downloaded to my iphone. works great. set the m9 accordingly and off i go. in some ways, better than the in camera meter and quicker too -- as i can ignore the superfluous information from the lightmeter in the camera and just shoot. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
perb Posted December 12, 2011 Share #13 Posted December 12, 2011 I tend to agree with Sean Reid that the histogram is the ultimate light meter, the only snag being that few cameras calculate the histogram directly from raw (my understanding is that S2 does but not M8/9): http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/leica-m8-forum/83671-case-exposure-control.html#post877312 http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/leica-m8-forum/59141-exposure.html#post612192 By all means, read the whole threads Regards Per Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlashGordonPhotography Posted December 12, 2011 Share #14 Posted December 12, 2011 Maybe it's just me, but I actually find the centre weighted metering a refreshing change to the overly complex metering in my DSLRs. The boring centre weighted system is dead consistent. I instinctively know when to over and under expose. It's like getting to know an old friend. Gordon 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
algrove Posted December 13, 2011 Share #15 Posted December 13, 2011 I have begun to experiment using a lightmeter downloaded to my iphone. works great. set the m9 accordingly and off i go. in some ways, better than the in camera meter and quicker too -- as i can ignore the superfluous information from the lightmeter in the camera and just shoot. So what is the name of the iPhone light meter download, please? Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sblitz Posted December 13, 2011 Share #16 Posted December 13, 2011 I have tried a few and they all give the same answer. Thankfully. I have settled on the Fotometer Pro because it can do reflected or incident light. To be clear I have no commercial or moral connection with any of these apps. My intention is only to share my experience. Which has been fun. After all I always have my phone with me 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaques Posted December 14, 2011 Share #17 Posted December 14, 2011 It takes a while to get used to the metering- the first few months and a lot of blown highlights, black subjects, etc. However after a while- metering just seem to happen naturally. It is a good idea to set the shutter speed manually too... if you are shooting fast and don't have time to meter, recompose, etc. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lars_bergquist Posted December 14, 2011 Share #18 Posted December 14, 2011 One handy widget is the ExpoDisc. It changes your TTL-metering camera from a reflected light into an incident light meter, it fits in your pocket or in any nook of the camera bag, and it's not battery dependent. This in addition to its function when doing a light balancing. The old man from the Age of the Selenium Meter Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
asmith Posted December 14, 2011 Share #19 Posted December 14, 2011 Lars, are you not from the age of the Watkins Bee meter? Alwyn Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lars_bergquist Posted December 15, 2011 Share #20 Posted December 15, 2011 Lars, are you not from the age of the Watkins Bee meter? Alwyn No – the first Weston meters were produced at about the same time that I was. The old man from the Age of Guess-The-Exposure Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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