Does my M6 underexpose?

[Ecaton]

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After not having shot film for a long time, loaded my M6 TTL with an X-Tra 400 and had the first roll developped yesterday. My first reaction was: great and rich colors, good lab, RF spot on, but the meter underexposes somewhat.

However, the sunny day shots show excellent highlight details, but also very high contrast with very low (not to say extremely low) shadow details. When shooting with the M8 and the same lens, CV 75, I observe less of a contrast and noticeably more shadow detail. Highlight details are rendered excellently with both cameras.

I'll do some testing concerning the meter and also shoot the next roll with different lenses, some shots slightly overexposed, some with the ISO setting lowered, some with bracketing etc etc to compare results.

I read that quite a number of people had issues with the M6 meter, but if the meter underexposed, would highlights still be detailed and rendered "just right"?

Or, could the X-Tra, or the lab be one of the rootcauses to the vey high contrast results?

 

I appreciate your input

[stunsworth]

Labs - 1 hr ones at least - tend to mess around with the contrast and saturation to give an image with what most people perceive as a higher 'wow' factor. Typically they'll boost both contrast and saturation.

 

This was one of the forst things I moticed when I originally started scanning my film negatives.

 

It may be worthwhile trying a roll of slide film - though not Velvia <grin> - to see how that performs.

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[Mark Antony]

This is a tough one without looking at the negs. Some films are quite contrasty, Kodak Gold and Fuji X-tra are certainly made to 'pop' in compact cameras, but long tonal range....

Personally I'd treat your M6 to a roll of Kodak Portra NC, this film has a very natural colour palette much more suited to keeping shadow detail and natural colour.

above image Kodak Portra 160 NC, M4-P Elmar 50mm

That would be my first suggestion.

 

Another would be that if you have them printed on a Fuji Frontier or similar then they will scan, sharpen, and print with jpegs even if you use film.

Mark

Photo Utopia

[giordano]

However, the sunny day shots show excellent highlight details, but also very high contrast with very low (not to say extremely low) shadow details.

 

Prints from colour negs don't reveal much about the exposure, one needs to look at the negatives.

 

Look first for the shadow detail. If that's present the neg is probably not seriously underexposed. Ideally the thinnest parts of the negative image are still a touch darker than the unexposed film base.

 

Also examine the highlight areas. If these are on the thin side it indicates underexposure.

 

As others have suggested, slide film gives a better idea.

 

HTH:)

[Lucklik]

When shooting slides I overexpose with 1/3 of a stop.

Not a big deal.

 

rgs

 

Luc

[pemayeux]

your best bet would be to do some controlled tests shooting a 18% grey card setting exposure by the camera meter, then another set using a handheld meter. Then read the density of the negative.