Manual or Automatic exposure?

[Thardy]

I'm interested in a Bessa, but I'd like opinions on automatic exposure Bessas v. manual exposure . What do you like better , and does it slow you down.

Also how can I get into RF photography with a Bessa "cheaply". My wife thinks I have too many cameras now. :rolleyes

 

[sepiareverb]

I'm a big fan of Aperture Priority- I use it about 90% of the time. I shoot M7's and G2's in AP, and it has really become 2nd nature. Dial in some exposure compensation if needed as I approach the subject and fire away. My feeling is that you then have it when you want it, if you don't want it you still have manual. Drawback is batteries, but I'm a meter user, so I carry spare batteries in every bag.

 

[dostacos]

I'm interested in a Bessa, but I'd like opinions on automatic exposure Bessas v. manual exposure . What do you like better , and does it slow you down.

Also how can I get into RF photography with a Bessa "cheaply". My wife thinks I have too many cameras now. :rolleyes

manual all the way, I get too lazy if I let the camera do too much, might as well be using my digital😱

 

[Keith]

I like aperture priority but I tend to let the metering spot roam around the subject a bit (taking note of the differences) and then lock it when I have decided where the correct exposure resides in the image and then frame and shoot!

 

[dazedgonebye]

R3A for me.
I haven't felt the need to shoot it in manual, since it does pretty well all by itself.
I have used the exposure compensation dial and the exposure lock button on a couple of ocassions where I felt the AE might be fooled.

 

[fishtek]

I use the Bessa R...manual exposure...and I trust the meter. Having said that, I think you learn pretty quickly when any scene has values that can fool your meter and personal perception of a scene. Further, I think we all like to fool with metering in order to come up with certain results, i.e. under/over expose on purpose to provide with shadow/highlight differences.

OTH, I do use auto exposure, both aperture and shutter priority with my cameras that have the ability. Technology doesn't always lead to laziness, sometimes it adds a "tunable" variable that can produce a better image. Like everything else, YMMV.

Regards!
Don

 

[kshapero]

I have owned both the R3A and the R3M. Once you "learn" your camera, manual is a more mystical experience. 😱

 

[Rob Skeoch]

I feel I'm more involved with the shoot when I use manual. I pay for attention to whats going on... and get better shots.
-Rob

 

[0bli0]

AE is great, but i typically use my camera in meter assisted manual mode. i generally expose for the brightest part of the scene. if i'm using 400 then i'll not worry about it too much and just shoot . if i'm shooting 100 or 64, then i'll find a good medium but make sure i don't blow out the sky.

 

[peter_n]

I have R4A and M7 so you know which side I'm on. You get manual control and AE when you need it. Perfect! 🙂

 

[back alley]

i have the ae zeiss ikon and the manual r4m.
when i was thinking about getting an r4 the battle was if i should stay with ae or go for a non battery dependent (except for the meter) version of the camera. obviously i went for the m version and have no regrets. it's nice having to pay more attention to the exposure again. that being said, the meter in the zi is dead on most of the time and i will continue to shoot it exclusively in ae.

i guess i like both.

 

[pvdhaar]

One of the pitfalls of auto exposure is that the meter gets fooled by how light/dark the subject is, because it tries to render it middle grey. To get a proper exposure for a dark subject you need to dial in - exposure compensation, and for a light subject you need to dial in + exposure compensation. On the other hand, with a manual camera, I measure a grey object once, and leave the exposure set there unless the light changes.

So, basically, with AE set, you need to compensate for change of subject, and with manual you need to compensate for change of light. That means that in the end, neither is faster than the other I guess and it's a matter of preference..

I prefer manual over AE, because it gives me more consistent results. But that's just me.

 

[Shaocaholica]

The R3A+VC40 is a pretty cheap combo if you look for it used.

As for metering, I usually shoot AP since I scan my film directly at 16bit/channel, I can usually get away with being off by 2-3 stops in either direction. I also carry around a incident and spot handheld light meter so I can be spot on if I wanted to.

 

[pcfranchina]

AE and use it when you want it. Expose manually when you want. The fact that you need a battery is no big deal. They are small and sold everywhere.