Metering with the Leica M6 Classic and the 12mm Heliar

[angeloks]

Hi,

I'm thinking of buying a Leica M6 as an upgrade from my IIf. I'm now wondering if the 12mm Heliar will meter correctly on the M6 or if I will get inconsistent values ?

Thanks,
Julien

 

[funkaoshi]

Just angle it down when you meter. I think the problem people have with the lens is that the sky ends up eating up a lot of space, and the meter thinks the scene is way brighter than it actually is. That or just ignore the meter and do it all in your brain. (Which, i'm guessing you already do since you have a IIf.)

 

[Tom A]

Another solution is to keep the IIf and dedicate it to the 12mm (I know - it is a bit of a hassle to load and set shutterspeeds with the finder in place). This way you can keep the M6 as a "other lens" camera and also as a meter. Otherwise, there is no problem metering with the M6 - provided, as was stated, that you keep excess sky out of the metered area. With the 12/15 and 18mm - I prefer hand held metering anyway.

 

[Ben Z]

How I was taught and it seems to have worked well for me all those years with an M6 shooting slide film, is take the lens off and memorize the white painted spot in respect to the shutter opening rectangle. Then mentally envision the spot, in the same proportion, floating in the center of whatever frame you're looking at through the finder (or a clip-on, then make sure you don't move the camera while you set the LED's in the main finder. With an M7 or M8 in AUTO mode you can just use the exposure lock). That's what the meter will mainly be seeing. Of course the in-camera framelines are shrunken for close-focus framing, so at longer distances you have to sort of inflate your mental white-spot a little, if you want to be totally precise. In practice like I said, it works out quite well.

 

[Andrew Sowerby]

The M6 manual has aproximate metering area illustrations for various focal lengths. Probably not as wide 12mm, but you should be able to get an idea of what the meter's doing.

 

[Colman]

Or pick-up a Bessa-L for the 12mm - the meter on that is apparently biased so that it picks up more of the bottom of the frame than the top.

 

[icebear]

I agree with Tom,

a hand meter is best with such a ultra wide angle. The angle of the lens determines the metering accuracy of the light reflected by the white spot on the curtain. The respective metering area is approximately 2/3 of the length of corresponding vertical frame line for the focal length of the lens attached. The shorter the FL, the larger the "spot". In case of 12mm it's not a spot, it's a patch of the size of a pumpkin. Therefore usually far too much bright sky would be considered for metering and you'll get underexposure.

 

[RdEoSg]

I have the 15mm and use it on my M6. I have never had any real issues with the metering. As others have said, just keep the sky out of the photo as you take a reading and you are usually close enough. Personally, I just go the sunny 16 route and vary it from there if need be. You will learn to guess pretty accurately after shooting a few rolls with it and getting a feel for how it reads.

 

[angeloks]

Thanks for your replies. I guess I don't have to worry about this ! I like Tom's idea of keeping the 12mm on the IIf and using the M6 with the 50mm !