Are you on the level?

[Marc B-C]

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I also have the same issue.

Considering, however, the number of people I seem to share this with on this thread / forum and taking a quasi existentialist approach: Leica owners are on the level, it is the rest of the world that is askew! 😀

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[Olaf_ZG]

Being Dutch, I wonder why should there be anything wrong with a bit of Dutch tilt…

[Viv]

I sometimes suffer from this, even though I try to be careful.

The tilt is usually slight, so can normally be corrected in post, necessitating a small crop.

[Alberti]

On 3/28/2024 at 3:04 AM, erl said:

the same effect happens regardless of camera type.

I think it must be a brain thing. The eyes response to the VF, with or without framelines.

My reasoning is as follows. In often my case I often align such as the right (or wrong😉) frameline. The other side is then dangling dependent on the focal length. Mostly I calculate some tilt in, like here.Then other elements go awry. But the LR-auto helps only to totally kill the picture.

 

Focal length 24mm:

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[KFo]

Been shooting crooked horizons since the way back.  If I take a moment to level it (when it really matters), I hit it.  I say just go all in; make everything askew.  It’s a style not a defect.

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M10P, Canon 28 f/2.8 LTM (1958)

Edited March 31, 2024 by KFo

[algrove]

I have but one working eye so leveling is a challenge. I gave up trying to get it perfect in camera while missing the important shot. I just correct in C1 and all is fine.

[Ronazle]

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If I just use the viewfinder, I seldom get a level view.  I usually have a cheap circular bubble level in my accessory shoe and try to use it if practical. The net result is I get more leveled shots and often a stright horizon.  Obviously, a tripod and care solve the problem. regards, Ron

[lct]

•

Edited April 5, 2024 by lct

[XMan]

My first Leica was a 35mm film SLR, decades ago, and I have forgotten the exact designation, but the majority of shots I took had sloping horizons.  With prints this was an embarrassment to me.  Enlargements could be corrected of course.  I had found the shutter pressure was really high and my tilt was in the direction of the shutter pressure.  Whilst the camera gave great results in every other respect I got rid of it because of the shutter pressure and my frustration with my tilted results.  Several years later I told this story to a Leica rep who told me that the shutter pressure could have been reduced.  Not sure if that is correct but it is what the man said.

[pgk]

We all have a 'natural cant' that is to say our inbuilt sense of level is slightly off (mine's about 1.5 degrees). Its that simple. I've tried to correct for it for decades but can't (well its hit and miss because its small and difficult to consistently correct for) so I live with it. Look on the bright side, its easy to correct in software, easier than correcting by skewing the enlarging easel and a lot easier than trying to adjust a slide in its mount.

[erl]

I've always said I would have a tilt at anything.

It certainly works with my pictures. 

[spydrxx]

If the earth isn't flat (sorry flatliners😁) IMHO there is nothing wrong with a slight tilt in photos, in fact in some cases it can be an artistic enhancement. I find perspective being askew more annoying than a slight tilt. Like others, if either is distracting, I will correct it in post processing...or not.

[graphlex]

Street photos don’t need to be level—thus spake Mary Ellen Mark. 

[erl]

22 minutes ago, graphlex said:

Street photos don’t need to be level—thus spake Mary Ellen Mark. 

She was right when she was right, but wrong when they do need to be level.

Absolutism always falls over. 

[artur.blaszak]

I have the same level problem, but the cause is astigmatism. The camera is blameless.

Edited June 27, 2024 by artur.blaszak

[andybarton]

Google Translation:

"I have the same problem, but the fault is astigmatism, not the apparatus."

 

Artur - sorry, but the language used on the International side of the Forum is English.

[250swb]

On 6/10/2024 at 1:40 AM, erl said:

She was right when she was right, but wrong when they do need to be level.

Absolutism always falls over. 

In Photoshop or ACR it’s easy to put a grid overlay on the image to check for a tilt against something in the image, like an horizon. And even tiny corrections to horizontal can make a difference to the feel of the image to obviate the sense of unease in the viewer if something looks like it should be level but isn’t. But it’s a check, harmony or disharmony, but it’s easy to use as a check like pressing ‘Auto Contrast’ can be a check. There are so many things in modern software that can do the same job a friend in the camera club could have pointed out for a photographer.

[erl]

5 hours ago, 250swb said:

In Photoshop or ACR it’s easy to put a grid overlay on the image to check for a tilt against something in the image, like an horizon. And even tiny corrections to horizontal can make a difference to the feel of the image to obviate the sense of unease in the viewer if something looks like it should be level but isn’t. But it’s a check, harmony or disharmony, but it’s easy to use as a check like pressing ‘Auto Contrast’ can be a check. There are so many things in modern software that can do the same job a friend in the camera club could have pointed out for a photographer.

Pressing a button to activate a 'correction' seems sort of counter intuitive when probably the the 'problem' was originally created by pressing a button! 

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[250swb]

7 hours ago, erl said:

Pressing a button to activate a 'correction' seems sort of counter intuitive when probably the the 'problem' was originally created by pressing a button! 

I didn't suggest pressing a button to activate a correction, I suggested checking an initial decision with the tools available to show if an alternate decision can be better.

What is controversial about making a variety of decisions that remain possible after pressing the shutter button? Shouldn't it be intuitive to check the horizon is level, or the colour balance is checked, or any number of other things which photographers shouldn't be warned off doing to make their images better just because you call it 'counter intuitive'? 

[erl]

It would seem that humour does not travel well across the equator. Aussie humour has oft been considered controversial, but mostly harmless.