jonnymoondog Posted February 16, 2016 Share #1 Posted February 16, 2016 Advertisement (gone after registration) Hi folks, My meter in my mp is overexposing by a good three stops. Anybody have any idea what the problem might be and how much it will cost to fix? I bought the camera with this problem at a discount, so I don't know much about the history of the camera, when it started, how it was used (it appears it saw light use). Thank you, Jon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted February 16, 2016 Posted February 16, 2016 Hi jonnymoondog, Take a look here Leica MP meter 3 stops off. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
wattsy Posted February 16, 2016 Share #2 Posted February 16, 2016 Does the white spot on the shutter curtain look normal (should be slightly grubby looking)? Is the MP overexposing consistently across a range of ISO settings? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pico Posted February 16, 2016 Share #3 Posted February 16, 2016 How do you know it is three stops off, please? Tell of us the symptoms. Do you have exposure compensation set? Are you using nonstandard film cassettes? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonnymoondog Posted February 16, 2016 Author Share #4 Posted February 16, 2016 The seller told me it was three stops off. Actually I think he may have been wrong and just didn't know how to use the camera. I just checked it against my M8 to compare the meters. I'll post back if there is indeed a problem, as of now I'm not sure there is one. The camera arrived with the ISO dial set at 3200. Thanks for the responses Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
NB23 Posted February 16, 2016 Share #5 Posted February 16, 2016 It's the door. You probably have a M6 door on it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
A miller Posted February 17, 2016 Share #6 Posted February 17, 2016 It's the door. You probably have a M6 door on it. yes, it very well be made of parts of lots of different film Ms. I know people who have done this. Buyer beware and I would return and buy a camera in your price range that is from a reputable dealer and in at least excellent condition... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
earleygallery Posted February 17, 2016 Share #7 Posted February 17, 2016 Advertisement (gone after registration) There are often threads on here about new film M owners saying their camera meter isn't working properly. I think mostly it's user error - they think the meter will work like a an SLR. The important thing to do first is read the manual, carefully, and understand how your meter works. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fotoklaus Posted February 17, 2016 Share #8 Posted February 17, 2016 There are two possibilities: 1. Take the good old grey- card and make some measurements on that. Compare that reading with another camera or light meter. 2. Put a slide film into it and take some pictures of normal sujets under nromal light conditions. The light meter is just measuring inside the white rectangular field in the middel of your Viewfinder, so almost a spotmeter (depends on the focal length of your lens) You have to remember that, when you measure the light with your camera. So if you point it to a rather dark or bright area of your subject, this might be a wrong reading. There is no 1568- field supermatrix- 3D- integral- intelligent- computer. Just one photocell. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirkFletcher Posted February 18, 2016 Share #9 Posted February 18, 2016 Don't compare to your M8 meter as the ISO isn't the same between digital and film. Can you explained this, it could not me more wrong. Dirk Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
250swb Posted February 18, 2016 Share #10 Posted February 18, 2016 The camera arrived with the ISO dial set at 3200. This would cause the camera to under expose, so maybe the previous owner was compensating using the ISO dial. But you could also check the battery is the correct type and all the contacts from the door to body are clean. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaapv Posted February 18, 2016 Share #11 Posted February 18, 2016 Why don't you have the camera checked out by one of the independent repair shops? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
NB23 Posted February 18, 2016 Share #12 Posted February 18, 2016 Why don't you have the camera checked out by one of the independent repair shops? It's the door. That''s the usual culprit. Too bad the op has disappeared. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirkFletcher Posted February 18, 2016 Share #13 Posted February 18, 2016 Hey there Erfahrener, The very last thing that i want to do is start 'a he said she said', or any sort of debate here, its not my intention. Last night, my post might have been curt and I apologize. That being said, both the first message that i responded to, and this longer response are both incorrect. The closest that i can figure is you are referring to an EI or an 'exposure index' that professionals would refer to back in the film days which by definition is a 'personally tested ISO.' Going back before digital was even a idea or dream, professionals would buy large lots of the same emulation and personally test it for color and speed. This would ensure that when they exposed film heading to a separator the color and exposure was what the photographer and client wanted and what would be expected on press. Now that were in a digital world, the standardized viewing booth is a thing of the past. Everything is numeric. ISO is an international standard that designed to insure consistency across all photographic standards. It is in no way up to interpretation whatsoever. With film, you would shoot a range of exposures of a grey card and read it on a densitometer to determine the proper (or exact) middle tonality of the film. This is for color transparency, C-41 and black and white. In our modern digital time accurate results are faster and more accurate. Shoot a grey card bring it into photoshop, Lightroom or Capture One and read the card numerically. Middle grey is R:127 G:127 B:127. This is science and cannot be disputed. While 'proper exposure' can be tailored to ones liking, some people like things darker, some lighter, think of how movies have different looks and feels, I can't imagine Blade Runner being a stop or two brighter! It was a dark movie that was meant to be dark, that was the decision of Ridley Scott and his DP Jordan Cronenweth. Camera manufactures design, build and calibrate their cameras to expose to this known standard. Wether the meter does its job or not is a completely different discussion. I responded to the statement that ISO is fluid and different, it isn't. Last night (while i haphazardly responded to your post) I was leading an assignment where students create ten images of a mirrored cube on a sheet of black glass, each image needs to have specific and measurable tonality on each side of the cube and an evenly gradated background. Each tone (white without detail, white with detail, light grey, middle grey, dark grey, black with detail and black without detail) have a specific numeric value in both digital and film. I recently posted a discussion on my blog about metering with an in camera meter vs. an incident or hand meter which you can see here: http://dirkfletcher.blogspot.com/2016/01/metering-irl.html and a couple years ago I posted a document we use in the classroom that covers the sunny 16 rule only more accurately then what you described. Your description is sloppy as you are just rounding up or down the 1/3 of a stop. Its more accurate with both digital and E6 to hit the exposure dead on. If you are shooting color neg, you would prolb need a densitometer to see the 1/3 stop difference. Here is the link to the document: http://dirkfletcher.blogspot.com/2013/01/revisiting-sunny-16-rule.html. There is another article that is pretty eyeopening about the doors that are being opened with the unbelievably high ISO modern cameras are capable of that came out of a discussion: http://dirkfletcher.blogspot.com/2013/10/quantity-of-light-vs-quality-of-light.html#more. Again, i'm not trying to be a jerk, pick a fight or in anyway be a tool, its just indicating that different manufactures have different 'interpretations' of ISO's is simply incorrect. I wholeheartedly believe that each manufacturer has its own look and feel, but it has absolutely nothing to do with ISO. I wish you were in Chicago, we could meet for coffee and go shoot! cheers! Dirk Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
NB23 Posted February 18, 2016 Share #14 Posted February 18, 2016 Iso is a standard. Wether the Histogram is the same from digital sensor to another, that is not the question. But even an uneven histogram doesn't mean bad exposure. Raw files are so flexible, it's easy to make them look underexposed even if the exposure was 100% accurate (just like a Fomapan 200 film is actually a iso 50 film). But all in all, a given ISO is a standard. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaapv Posted February 18, 2016 Share #15 Posted February 18, 2016 Yes - but the ISO film standard specifies specific densities. The ISO sensor standard specifies a comparability to film exposure, leaving plenty of leeway for interpretation by the manufacturer, as amplification is not specified at all. That explains the observed differences between film and digital exposure and between cameras of different brands ( and even within one brand). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirkFletcher Posted February 18, 2016 Share #16 Posted February 18, 2016 It's still a measurement of light though. Regardless of whatever is behind the lens, ISO is a factor in the measurement of light. If your incident meter reads 1/60 at f/5.6 at an ISO o100, I can shoot a sheet of Provia in a 4x5 camera, an M6 with Plus-X, a Canon 5D, an M-E or an S-E, we are going to get either a digital file that's shows a grey card in the 127's or a densotometer reading of middle grey... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
NB23 Posted February 18, 2016 Share #17 Posted February 18, 2016 Yes - but the ISO film standard specifies specific densities. The ISO sensor standard specifies a comparability to film exposure, leaving plenty of leeway for interpretation by the manufacturer, as amplification is not specified at all. That explains the observed differences between film and digital exposure and between cameras of different brands ( and even within one brand). Dude, It's a light measurement standard. Now wether camera makers are cheating this with their liberal own definitions, that's just a sad state of affairs. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Albertson Posted February 19, 2016 Share #18 Posted February 19, 2016 One thing you might try is to run the film speed dial through the full range of speeds a couple of times. The contacts in it are gold-plated and shouldn't suffer much corrosion, but doing that might scrub off any oxidation that has built up on them. It's been known to affect meter readings. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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