karl_yik1 Posted August 16, 2002 Share Posted August 16, 2002 Hello fellow members. Ive noticed recently that colour neg shots done with my VC 15mm lens often gives slightly underexposed shots, though I am very confident the meter on both my M6s reads correctly. I assume this to be due to the extreme wideness of the lens that it meters a lot of the Sky?? Do other members have this problem and do you often over exposure by one stop as a general rule when using this lens? Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bds1 Posted August 16, 2002 Share Posted August 16, 2002 point it down when you take your reading. That 15mm eats a lot of sky..... B http://www.briandavidstevens.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johann_fuller Posted August 16, 2002 Share Posted August 16, 2002 Just looking at some negs I took with it yesterday BTW! - yes you need to point it well down when taking a reading - also light fall off is a problem with all superwides ( I have a centre filter for my 58mm on my 5x4) as the centre of the film is so much nearer th elens than the edges. Therefore you are better giving the film a bit more exposure i.e slightly overexposing the centre in order to get enough exposure at the edges. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
al_kaplan1 Posted August 16, 2002 Share Posted August 16, 2002 Brian's idea is a good one for outdoor shots. Are you also getting underexposed shots indoors? It could be your meter needs adjustment. Color neg film has a lot of latitude so you have to underexpose by at least a stop to really notice. Also, the lens vignettes, more so at 4.5 and 5.6 than smaller apertures, underexposing progressively towards the corners of the frame. Try setting a lower ISO such as 64 for 100 speed film. Let us know what happens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karl_yik1 Posted August 16, 2002 Author Share Posted August 16, 2002 Ive got 2 M6 bodies which I have tried with lens so I think the meters are correct, Transparencies taken with this lens seem fine, its always neg stuff that dissapoints. Ill try overexposing with neg and report the changes! Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
al_kaplan1 Posted August 16, 2002 Share Posted August 16, 2002 Transparency film looks saturated when exposed for the highlight areas. I might be that the auto exposure of your labs printer is the problem too, trying to compensate for the less dense corners of your negatives. Have you asked them about it? They have over-ride controls on the printer. I've only shot B&W with my 15, doing my own printing. I probably bias my exposure a bit for the shadows when shooting. After over 40 years of photography I really don't think about what I'm doing or remember what I did - the "automation" in my brain works well enough that I don't worry about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aoresteen Posted August 16, 2002 Share Posted August 16, 2002 I never have exposure problems with my 15mm. Since my If doesn't have a meter I use a handheld incedent meter (Sekonic L508) and everything is fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
albert knapp md Posted August 16, 2002 Share Posted August 16, 2002 Karl: Wide-angles always underexpose and telephotos always overexpose. The former confuse the meter given the inordinate amount of sky and this is further excacerbated by the vignetting that automatically occurs in the corners as light fall-off is quite dramatic. Therefore, overexposure by one stop or more with negative film and 0.5 stops with transparency film should resolve BOTH problems. The converse is true for telephotos. Needless to say, all critical shots should be bracketed (especially when using slide film.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
albert knapp md Posted August 16, 2002 Share Posted August 16, 2002 Karl: I agree with you that, given the fact that your metering is dead on with other lenses, the RF metering system is not at fault. (:>))) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kelly_flanigan1 Posted August 16, 2002 Share Posted August 16, 2002 I believe the 15mm heliar sometimes fakes off some meters that meter thru the lens. I have used by handheld meter when using the Heliar; and not the internal Bessa R's meter. No real formal tests have been run here to see if there is a problem; just I have felt more confident in the external hand held meter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
godfrey Posted August 16, 2002 Share Posted August 16, 2002 When shooting with the 15mm, consider the ENTIRE standard .72x Leica viewfinder (and then some) as the sensitive area for taking a reading. I usually just go to a handheld incident meter when shooting with ultrawides, it's more reliable. Godfrey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kajabbi Posted August 17, 2002 Share Posted August 17, 2002 I agree with Brian. With any lens wider than the 35MM, I ALWAYS point the camera down to take a meter reading. If i have doubts, I'll bracket. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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