M11 intermittent over exposure

[PeterKelly]

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As I mentioned in another thread I have just bought a gently used M11 and I am spending time getting back into rangefinder shooting which I haven't done since the early M8 days.

I have shoot a couple of hundred images with the new (to me) camera and so far no freezing issues but I am experiencing intermittent and random overexposure images. There have been four or five examples of this. I was shooting in pretty bad, high contrast light with bright highlights and deep shadows. My settings were - Manual mode with Auto ISO, Highlight weighted metering, f5.6 to f11 shutter speed between 1/500 and 1/250 and Exposure compensation between 0 and minus 2/3. I have installed the 2.11 firmware.

I would guess the frames in question were at least one or two stops overexposed.

I was able to find a thread on this but it was a  couple of years old and seem to point to a firmware fix that was on the way but can't find any recent update on this.

Can anyone give me some advice or thoughts on how to solve this issue

[M11 for me]

I just wonder: Do you have the latest firmware installed: v 2.1.1

[Knorp]

I'd try Center-weighted instead of Highlight-weighted.

[PeterKelly]

As stated I do have firmware 2.11 installed 

 

thanks

[RobW0]

I have found that you have to be careful with having the shutter release half pressed and reframing the shot. This has been the cause of any overexposed frames I have had. 

[lct]

1 hour ago, RobW0 said:

I have found that you have to be careful with having the shutter release half pressed and reframing the shot.

+1

[hdmesa]

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3 hours ago, RobW0 said:

I have found that you have to be careful with having the shutter release half pressed and reframing the shot. This has been the cause of any overexposed frames I have had. 

Does high speed shooting have an active meter or does it keep the reading from the first shot for the burst? I can see that causing overexposure if the photographer is panning the camera during a burst of shots.

[Derbyshire Man]

I've had this from time to time. It's reported on here elsewhere too.

[RobW0]

57 minutes ago, hdmesa said:

Does high speed shooting have an active meter or does it keep the reading from the first shot for the burst? I can see that causing overexposure if the photographer is panning the camera during a burst of shots.

That is a good question. I don't really use the high speed shooting. I have gone to the M cameras to slow down and shoot more like I did back in my film days without a motor drive. 

 

Edit:

I just did a basic test from bright to dark and from dark to bright then dark and it seems to keep the same exposure for all of the shots. This was on an M11-M

Edited June 14, 2024 by RobW0

[PeterKelly]

6 hours ago, RobW0 said:

I have found that you have to be careful with having the shutter release half pressed and reframing the shot. This has been the cause of any overexposed frames I have had. 

I’ll keep an eye out for this 

I shot about 50 frames this afternoon and it happened once but this time it was user error - I inadvertently rolled the aperture dial from f9 to f2 which obviously overwhelmed the Auto ISO ability to adjust to a correct exposure.

Interestingly the dramatically over exposed frames from the previous shoot show the same EXIF data as the proceeding and following frames which are correctly exposed.

 

[elmars]

vor 11 Stunden schrieb PeterKelly:

As I mentioned in another thread I have just bought a gently used M11 and I am spending time getting back into rangefinder shooting which I haven't done since the early M8 days.

I have shoot a couple of hundred images with the new (to me) camera and so far no freezing issues but I am experiencing intermittent and random overexposure images. There have been four or five examples of this. I was shooting in pretty bad, high contrast light with bright highlights and deep shadows. My settings were - Manual mode with Auto ISO, Highlight weighted metering, f5.6 to f11 shutter speed between 1/500 and 1/250 and Exposure compensation between 0 and minus 2/3. I have installed the 2.11 firmware.

I would guess the frames in question were at least one or two stops overexposed.

I was able to find a thread on this but it was a  couple of years old and seem to point to a firmware fix that was on the way but can't find any recent update on this.

Can anyone give me some advice or thoughts on how to solve this issue

From the very beginning, the M11 had the problem that occasionally, out of the blue, there were extreme overexposures that could not be explained by the characteristics of the subject or the type of metering. The ISO usually increased by three or four stops. I had this myself every 200 to 300 pictures (rough estimate). I haven't had it since firmware 2.1.1 and I've now taken several thousand photos with it. Leica also claims to have worked on the problem. But perhaps not all the causes have been eliminated yet.

Look also here:

I have linked this thread there because Leica is watching there.

 

Edited June 15, 2024 by elmars

[Derbyshire Man]

I initially didn't experience it until I upgraded to 2.x

I have it on the latest firmware too. As you say, random, 1 in 300 or so. Always the most annoying shot!

It's almost like the firmware has been written by black box machine learning!

Edited June 15, 2024 by Derbyshire Man

[Rollei35]

18 hours ago, Derbyshire Man said:

I initially didn't experience it until I upgraded to 2.x

I have it on the latest firmware too. As you say, random, 1 in 300 or so. Always the most annoying shot!

It's almost like the firmware has been written by black box machine learning!

You will all stop complaining about overexposure when and if you get a m11-d which you can't even check the pictures taken. Peace of mind. 😁

[Derbyshire Man]

3 hours ago, Rollei35 said:

You will all stop complaining about overexposure when and if you get a m11-d which you can't even check the pictures taken. Peace of mind. 😁

I had been wondering about that!

[PeterKelly]

It happened again last night on two frames out of approximately 50. A review of the exif data seems to point to Auto ISO being the culprit on this occasion . Two shots taken consecutively of the same scene where the first was correctly exposed at ISO 64 and the next one dramatically overdosed at ISO 2000. Settings were F8 1/500 with Auto ISO enabled with a 3200 limit.

i will experiment some more to see if it repeats.

[le7]

vor einer Stunde schrieb PeterKelly:

It happened again last night on two frames out of approximately 50. A review of the exif data seems to point to Auto ISO being the culprit on this occasion . Two shots taken consecutively of the same scene where the first was correctly exposed at ISO 64 and the next one dramatically overdosed at ISO 2000. Settings were F8 1/500 with Auto ISO enabled with a 3200 limit.

i will experiment some more to see if it repeats.

Was the overexposed image in landscape or portrait format? Just asking, because all of my overexposed images during the last 2 years habe been in portrait format. I have no clue whether this is a pattern or just by accident….

[PeterKelly]

1 hour ago, PeterKelly said:

It happened again last night on two frames out of approximately 50. A review of the exif data seems to point to Auto ISO being the culprit on this occasion . Two shots taken consecutively of the same scene where the first was correctly exposed at ISO 64 and the next one dramatically overdosed at ISO 2000. Settings were F8 1/500 with Auto ISO enabled with a 3200 limit.

i will experiment some more to see if it repeats.

 

5 minutes ago, le7 said:

Was the overexposed image in landscape or portrait format? Just asking, because all of my overexposed images during the last 2 years habe been in portrait format. I have no clue whether this is a pattern or just by accident….

One in each orientation I  am afraid so no consistency there

[lct]

Would be interesting to see your photos as f/8 1/500s should be very dark at night at 64 iso i guess.

[elmars]

vor 2 Stunden schrieb PeterKelly:

It happened again last night on two frames out of approximately 50. A review of the exif data seems to point to Auto ISO being the culprit on this occasion . Two shots taken consecutively of the same scene where the first was correctly exposed at ISO 64 and the next one dramatically overdosed at ISO 2000. Settings were F8 1/500 with Auto ISO enabled with a 3200 limit.

i will experiment some more to see if it repeats.

Raising ISO is typical. But sometimes shutter speed gets longer. 

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[PeterKelly]

2 hours ago, lct said:

Would be interesting to see your photos as f/8 1/500s should be very dark at night at 64 iso i guess.

I deleted the original overexposed one but here are the others - settings were f13 1/360  auto ISO with minus 2/3 exp comp. The underexposed one is at ISO64 and the overexposed one is where the ISO jumped to 2000. I was shooting into the setting sun and trying to underexpose to hold detail in the sky and then experiment in post on recovering the shadows. The M11 is new to me and I am experimenting to try and learn it's exposure bias.

Can only upload one at a time - here is the underexposed one

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