Mamiya 7ii meter and underexposure...a real science!

[Turtle]

See page 11 of the Mamiya 7 sales brochure http://www.mamiya.com/assets/pdfs/M7II/M7II_Brochure_English.pdf for an example of just how center weighted the metering is. (Sorry, I am too lazy to figure out how to cut and paste that particular graph)

I will say mine gives consistently accurate readings. But I do shoot manual after an independent ambient reading while shooting chrome.

Most importantly, I always look at the meter reading when using AE and see if it makes sense. I never rely on the meter blindly.

I rely on it 100% with monochrome but would be reluctant to do so for chromes. You can use the spot like function to build up a picture of brightness ranges.

 

[loic.sans]

Thanks all for your replies.
There's no mistake on my side, the meter in my camera underexposed everything by 1 to 1.5 stops.
Now my problem is to find a Mamiya repair center in UK.
Any suggestions?
Loic

 

[joachim]

I would try the distributor and see what they can offer. It is a current product still.

 

[loic.sans]

Hello All,
Last week I went to a camera repair technician in London.
We spent an hour looking at the camera:
The meter has a weird behaviour, basically setting the iso dial at 50 and the camera get the correct exposure, then 100 it's about half a stop underexposed, at 200 as well then at 400 it's about 1 stop underexposed this to reach 1600 iso where it's about 1.5 stops underexposed.
The technician has never encountered anything similar before. Me neither. I have been told it won;t be an easy fix, and he promised me he'll call when he found the problem, I am still waiting for his call.
Has anyone heard anything like this before?
L

 

[dprees]

If your technician can't fix the problem, try Johnsons Photopia -- they service my M7 bodies when needed, and do a good job. They are the official Mamiya repair centre, I believe.

FWIW, I used to use a Pentax spotmeter with my M7 system, but a year ago stopped bothering, and switched to using the internal meter. I shoot Velvia, Astia, NPS160S and XP2, and all are well-exposed. I treat the internal meter as a large spot meter, and take the reading immediately below and to the right of the rangefinder patch. I then adjust exposure as necessary by using the exp.comp. facility on the camera.

 

[Avotius]

this metering problem I used to have with the Mamiya 6 as well and it was one of two reason I got rid of the system