M6 meter arrows blinking even with correct exposure?

[shawn2nd]

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I went thru the existing blinking posts on the forum via search and none seem to replicate what I’m experiencing 😞

I ran into a strange issue today with my M6 and I’m not sure if this is working by design and it actually means something, or if something weird is happening that shouldn’t be 

I went to take a shot outside tonight in low light at 1S shutter speed and about f4 - both arrows for the meter came on but both were blinking, but the exposure looked correct. Does anyone know what this indicates, if anything? I rarely shoot such slow shutter speeds so maybe it is something totally normal and I just never saw it before  

I tested it again at home and could reproduce this  in low light settings. Here’s a video link, the first part of the video shows only the left arrow blinking indicating under exposure at f16. The 2nd half shows both blinking at f2.5. 

The two arrows showing up seems to be again accurate with a correct center weighted exposure. I metered the scene with my phone and also got an exposure of f2.8 1S ISO 400

Battery is new, battery compartment shows no visible corrosion or dirtiness, battery is a new lithium one which is about a month old and cap was def off 🙂.

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[TomB_tx]

Yes, the M6 meter LEDs (on some versions of the meter circuit board) flash at ow light levels as sensed off the shutter "white dot" - so it is triggered by a combination of ambient light level and f-stop. Sometimes opening up the lens will stop the flashing. This happens on my M6 after replacement of the meter circuit several years ago - the original board behaved differently. The good new is that my M6 still meters correctly even when the LEDs are flashing, so I bet yours will too.

[shawn2nd]

Thanks @TomB_tx - I'll follow up when I develop the roll 🙂

[250swb]

This is covered in the Leica M6 Owners Manual Page 23 and if you are having difficulty here is a link

https://www.cameramanuals.org/leica_pdf/leica_m6.pdf

 

 

[davidmknoble]

All older meters have a minimum light level that they can read.  For example, in your case the light level would also have worked with 32 seconds and f/16 (ignoring the necessary extra exposure for film on long exposure times). 

Because the M is reading through an f/stop, low light is even lower with higher f/stops.  The easiest way around it is to meter wide open and adjust the exposure to the f/stop you want.  If wide open doesn’t meter, you need a hand held meter that is more sensitive.

Newer meters have the same issue, but can sometimes meter in lower light than older meters.