Help! Is this normal?

[bcorton]

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Having just (and finally) made hundreds of photographs with the DMR on a recent trip, I found that the 21-35 Vario Elmar R consistently overexposed shots by an average of three (3) stops. It didn't matter which metering mode I was using. Even the center spot metering gave the 3 stop overexposure problem.

 

What up with that?

 

These problems were non-existent with the 80-200mm which I also used.

 

As long as I used manual mode and underexposed by three stops, I got great results. Is this kind of thing normal? (Oh, and yes, it had this problem before it hit the rock--in case you saw my other thread.

 

I thank you in advance for any shared wisdom. Please pardon me if this issue has already been dealt with in this forum.

 

Brent (the other Brent)

[sdai]

I would check if the ROM contacts are dirty or not first, there're chances when the chip inside the lens could go wrong as well. In M or A mode, is the aperture value seen in the viewfinder the same as you set on the lens?

[bcorton]

Thank you,

 

The ROM contacts seem clean as a whistle. They should be; the lens is quite new. And yes, the aperture displayed was always correct in A and M modes. Could the culprit be the chip in the lens, perhaps?

 

Brent

[sdai]

Unmount the lens, turn the aperture ring, also try the aperture control lever at the back mount and see if the diaphragm open and close properly?

[jlancasterd]

Having just (and finally) made hundreds of photographs with the DMR on a recent trip, I found that the 21-35 Vario Elmar R consistently overexposed shots by an average of three (3) stops. It didn't matter which metering mode I was using. Even the center spot metering gave the 3 stop overexposure problem.

 

What up with that?

 

These problems were non-existent with the 80-200mm which I also used.

 

As long as I used manual mode and underexposed by three stops, I got great results. Is this kind of thing normal? (Oh, and yes, it had this problem before it hit the rock--in case you saw my other thread.

 

I thank you in advance for any shared wisdom. Please pardon me if this issue has already been dealt with in this forum.

 

(the other Brent)

 

This certainly isn't normal performance for a 21-35 VE-R. Mine (one of the earliest examples, now 3-4 years old) exposes perfectly on either film or digital, even in fully-auto Program mode. If it is relatively new, your local Leica service centre should sort it FOC.