Light metering with Leica Ms with no meter

[furcafe]

When using a meterless camera, my habit is to carry around a handheld meter (Gossen Digisix). However, as others have posted, it is not necessary to meter every time you take a shot, only when the light has changed from your last reading. I'll use Sunny 16, etc., to double-check my meter readings.

It all comes down to knowing your tools. Once you've learned how to properly use a handheld meter, it is just as accurate as most on-board meters (yes, you can even shoot slide film), if not as convenient. As kevin mentioned, you might also learn how to read light more carefully, which greatly reduces the # of times you'll need to take readings & is helpful for photography overall (even if you're using TTL metering).

Seems that the Leica M2, M3 and M4 are popular still. I'm curious to know how people work with light metering when there's no meter on your camera. Do you carry around a meter, and take regular readings, or do you "wing it" by using the Sunny 16 rule etc?

Personally, I don't have enough confidence not to use a meter, and the thought of having to use a hand held meter every time I take a photo seems a bit like too much work.

 

[Tuolumne]

Sunny 16, previous experience, a Sekonic Twinmate in the pocket for when I'm unsure, and Jonathan Sachs's Expose on my phone as a backup.

The Sekonic Twinmate is a great portable meter, and it can be shoe mounted if you so desire. I hate digital light meters (I can never remember how to use them), and the Twinmate is simplicity itself, being all analogue. It also does both incident and reflected light measurement.

Analogue meters for analogue cameras - just what the doctor ordered!

/T

 

[mmikaoj]

I use the VC meter II all the time with most of my cameras. It is very accurate.
Alltough I can understand the point of having a analog meter with a needle instead of the little lights.

When the light is tricky or changing it is easy to have the VC meter in the camera hotshoe and take meterings in the palm of my hand. I prefer this way as opposed to have the meter in the cameras viewfinder since I dont have to look with the camera to check the light.

 

[kevin m]

That's an excellent way of putting it - I expect I'll plagiarise it in the future

Be my guest, I might have stolen it myself. 😀