Mamiya 6 - Metering Issue - What to do?

ornate_wrasse

ornate_wrasse

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Hi,

The metering on my Mamiya 6 seemed to result in underexposure so I ended up doing a test. I compared the readings from my Leica M6, FM2N, and Sekonic 308 to the Mamiya meter reading. The results were as follows:

Mamiya 6 - f/8 at 1/60 second

Leica M6 - f/8 at 1/30 second

FM2N - f/8 between 1/15 and 1/30

Sekonic 308 meter - f/8 at 1/30

Clearly, the Mamiya is underexposing at 1 and possibly 2 stops. When you look at the negatives, you can tell they are underexposed.

The question is: What to do about it and who should I send it to for repair?
Or, should I just expose according to the meter and forget about any repairs.

Also, does anyone know how much it should cost for a repair of this kind?


Thanks.

Ellen
 
I noticed the same, the 6 seems to be very 'optimistic' here. the fun thing is that it still seems to be right, I rarely get wrong exposures in AEL mode and IF it happens they're mostly OVER-exposed.
 
The Mamiya 6 meter seems to have been designed for slide film, i.e. protecting the highlights at the expense of shadow detail. With negative film this unvariably results in underexposure. I don't think your particular camera is faulty, it's just that the meter was designed to behave this way. One thing that I've heard can be done is to add some kind of baffle to reduce the contribution of the upper part of the frame (usually the sky) to the overall exposure, but this will only mitigate the problem, not solve it completely.
I shoot black-and-white film exclusively in my Mamiya 6 and never trust the built-in meter. A hand-held incident meter (or guesstimating exposures) and manual mode is the way to go with this camera.
FWIW
Vincent
 
Thanks all for your replies. I feel better knowing that I'm not the only one that has experienced this in my Mamiya 6.

Frank Harries: Could you describe what kind of film test you're talking about?

Ellen
 
250swb said:
If ther Mamiya 6 meter is anything like the Mamiya 7 meter its more like a spot meter. So either point it at a mid tone to make a reading, a gray card, or use a hand held meter.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip. I think, based on your reply and the replies of others, that I'll meter with my Sekonic 308 external meter whenever I use this camera.

Ellen
 
Ellen,
Many people write off the M6 metering issue by saying it's designed to expose slide film. This is incorrect. The problem with the meter is that it is heavily influenced--by a stop or more--by light entering the finder from above. Any bright sky in the finder will cause underexposure. This is easily solved by cupping the left fingers around the finder to block out extraneous light (in the same manner as shielding your eyes from bright light). When this is done, the meter will agree or be very close to other meters (in my case, my Sekonic R558).

This can also be tested by aiming the camera at a VERY uniform object, like an evenly-lit wall. It should agree with your hand-held meter.
Scott
 
katgut@earthlink.net said:
Ellen,
Many people write off the M6 metering issue by saying it's designed to expose slide film. This is incorrect. The problem with the meter is that it is heavily influenced--by a stop or more--by light entering the finder from above. Any bright sky in the finder will cause underexposure. This is easily solved by cupping the left fingers around the finder to block out extraneous light (in the same manner as shielding your eyes from bright light). When this is done, the meter will agree or be very close to other meters (in my case, my Sekonic R558).

This can also be tested by aiming the camera at a VERY uniform object, like an evenly-lit wall. It should agree with your hand-held meter.
Scott
Click to expand...

Scott is right that bright sky highly influences the meter reading. I also use the cup or cover method over the VF, and it almost always brings the meter reading down one stop; ie. from 1/60 to 1/30. Sometimes on a sunny day, I adjust my ISO down a bit to compensate; ie. I shoot Provia 100F at ISO 80 or 64 depending on the brightness.
 
katgut@earthlink.net said:
Ellen,
Many people write off the M6 metering issue by saying it's designed to expose slide film. This is incorrect. The problem with the meter is that it is heavily influenced--by a stop or more--by light entering the finder from above. Any bright sky in the finder will cause underexposure. This is easily solved by cupping the left fingers around the finder to block out extraneous light (in the same manner as shielding your eyes from bright light). When this is done, the meter will agree or be very close to other meters (in my case, my Sekonic R558).

This can also be tested by aiming the camera at a VERY uniform object, like an evenly-lit wall. It should agree with your hand-held meter.
Scott
Click to expand...

I find the meter in my Mamiya 6 accurate enough with print film. Another story altogether with slide - where in the past I have found the camera meter underexposes a lot.

However - the issue Scott mentioned had never occurred to me though and I will try that out for sure.

These days I mostly use a handheld meter with my Mamiya 6 - for the type of shooting I do with the camera it doesn't slow me down.
 
katgut@earthlink.net said:
The problem with the meter is that it is heavily influenced--by a stop or more--by light entering the finder from above. Any bright sky in the finder will cause underexposure.
Click to expand...

I agree. I routinely shade the finder with my left hand if there's a bright sky. I've found the meter quite accurate if I do this. It surprises me that Mamiya could not design this problem out - my little Olympus XA doesn't suffer from the same problem at all.

Richard
 
The problem with the meter is that it is heavily influenced--by a stop or more--by light entering the finder from above. Any bright sky in the finder will cause underexposure. This is easily solved by cupping the left fingers around the finder to block out extraneous light (in the same manner as shielding your eyes from bright light).
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip, I will try it to see if it makes a difference.

This can also be tested by aiming the camera at a VERY uniform object, like an evenly-lit wall. It should agree with your hand-held meter.
Click to expand...

In the test I mentioned in the first post of the thread, I was outside of my house and aimed it at an evenly lit wall. This test resulted in a shutter speed of 1/60 second, whereas the meter and the other cameras were at 1/30 second. In this case, it definitely did NOT agree with my hand-held meter. However, maybe the fact that it was done outdoors and some light from the sky influenced the metering.

OTOH, I had my camera with me in Denver last month and was taking pictures right after the snowstorm that dumped 5-7 inches on the city. The images I took did not seem to be underexposed. There was, of course, lots of snow in the foreground of the image.

In any event, I'll be attuned to this "problem" with the meter and make plans to shoot with that in mind.

Thanks.

Ellen
 
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