My M2 and the not so well exposed slides

[Ronald_H]

Got the first roll of slides back, shot with my 'new' M2.

Shock and horror, most of them were black. Hmm, severe underexposure for most frames. Not sure if it was my meter (Gossen digiflash) or shutter problems. Maybe both even.

A few shots were well exposed, those, I have to say, were very gratifying. This is the nicest:

 

[gb hill]

Run a roll of print film through. Print film is more forgiving than slide film.

 

[PhotoJim]

Mechanical shutters can certainly get out of calibration more easily than electronic ones, but usually they tend to overexpose, not underexpose, as they drift.

My guess would be that you metered poorly, or that your meter was mis-set or is reading inaccurately.

Wait for a sunny day and get a view of the north sky (south for those readers in the southern hemisphere). See if your meter gives you a reading of 1/ISO for shutter speed at f/16. That will give you a quick-and-dirty way of telling if your meter is reading close to what it should be.

 

[Tom A]

If you have "black" frames, that indicates shutter capping (i.e the shutter curtains travel across the filmgate without opening properly). This tends to happen at either slower speeds or at 1/250 and above.
You can check it by taking off the lens, flipping the back open and looking through from the back. Aim the camera at a bright light (lamp, sunny window etc) and cycle through all the speeds. You should see the lightsource at all speeds, albeit for a very short moment at 1/250 and above.
Even a slide film would show signs of exposure, even if under exposed massively.
It is not a big deal to have the speeds corrected and unless the camera is sluggish due to lack of use, it should not require a full CLA.

 

[Ronald_H]

I know how to sunny 16 and thought that my meter readings were a bit odd that day. I also had my Nikon FE with me, which also insisted I'd expose longer than my meter told me.

What I didn't do however is take notes of what combinations of shutter speed and aperture I used, I just ran the camera through all the speeds that would still give me proper exposure (or so I thought).

I also did a check today of my meter against my Nikons. Problem is that the meter is inconsistent. For higher values it is the same, for lower values it will give values that would mean underexposure by a stop or more. There is a fresh battery in it as well. Given the fact that I shot slides with my FE and FM without problems, I have to conclude my handheld meter is off. But given the fact that some slides are ok from the first roll, shutter problems cannot be excluded. To be continued.

Edit:

Thanks Tom. There are no completely black frames, just (severe) underexposure. I already contacted a local Leica repair person, now waiting for feedback. Tomorrow I am going to shoot a roll again, but this time I'll use one of my SLR's as reference and I will make notes of what I did. That will solve the mystery.

In the meantime I am quite annoyed that my handheld meter seems to be off that much, and even more so that I ignored my experience telling me that those exposure values could not be right... Maybe the CV meter will be my next accessory.