BESSA R3A LIGHTMETER

[marlin_olynyk]

not reallly a leica question at all, but a rangefinder question concerning my Voigtlander R3A.

Does anyone who has one notice that the red, digital, ICM disapears from sight in the

viewfinder when there is something bright in the viewfinder. for example sun off something

of a light colour. please let me know if anyone else has had this camera and noticed that this

happens. thanks.

[roy_lahay]

Could it be a UFO?

[terry_rory]

Never had that problem with my old R3A although I used to lose the shutter speed readout (in AE mode) temporarily because I would 'forget' where it was! (I wear glasses so stuff happening at the edge of the VF frame was not always obvious unless I adjusted the angle I was looking through.) In the end I did not bother looking unless I knew the speed was going to be marginal. I never experienced the readout/display disappearing in sunlight though.

[steve george]

Hi there

 

I have an R2A - I'm not sure what ICM stands for (In Camera Meter?) but if you mean you can't read the numbers when pointing the camera towards a bright lightsource, then yes, that does happen.

 

I also find it has a tendency to over-expose when pointed at a scene with a bright lightsource (e.g. taking a picture of the sea with a large expanse pale blue sky). I always have to meter off something neutral and lock (if in aperture priority) or constantly have it set to under-expose by 1 stop...both of these also have the happy side-effect of negating the problem of not being able to see the numbers.

 

Hope that helps!

[anders_sjogren1]

I saw that happening with my R3A (as I do with my M6 arrows, but with that one I use a hand held meter anyway).

 

In critical situations you can quickly block the viewfinder from the front with a finger for a second, and all data becomes visiable. Thats what I did.

 

Anders

[Alex_Es]

Marlin,

 

I know what you mean. In bright light the shutter speed read out

seems to disappear and you wonder what's going on. This seems to be

syptomatic of RF auto exposure cameras. Same thing (sort of) happens

with my M7. The problem with the R3A is that the numbers light up

across the RF window. The slowest is far left and the fastest is far

right. This can be confusing until you get used to it. What I do

now if I want to see the Sh.Sp. in bright light is to cover the

window with my hand. It is something you get used to a live with.

[marlin_olynyk]

thanks all. good to see that it's not just my camera. it's kind of frustrating sometimes when

shooting in aperture priority and when you want to keep an eye on your shutter speed and it

disapears from sight.