Yesterday I bought me an old LEica M3 DS. I saw on the shutterspeed dial that the slower times are notthe same like the times on my M6. For example: M3: 100 M6: 125 50 60 25 30 10 15

I also wanted to buy a Leicameter or Voigtlaender VC-Meter, but the slower time are the same as the times of the M6! Would this give a noticeable effect on the photos ?

Thanks for answers!

-- Cris (gooneybird@gmx.net), February 01, 2002

Answers

The differences of the old speeds represent about a 1/3 stop difference as compared to the new speeds. I doubt you will notice any deleterious effect on anything other than perhaps a highly technical transparency, in which case you would likely bracket anyway.

:-),

-- Jack Flesher (jbflesher@msn.com), February 01, 2002.

Given the variance in the M's shutter the difference in marked speeds is academic.

-- Jay (infinitydt@aol.com), February 01, 2002.

My Leica M3 is the smae way. My Leica meter still couples fine to the shutter speed, and the readings giving the needed F stop are accurate. For example, if I set the shutter speed at 1/100, it will just click stop in between the 60 and 125 on the meter's scale, and the direct read out of whatever f stop is needed will be indicated. Not a problem at all.

-- Andrew Schank (aschank@flash.net), February 01, 2002.

The older Leica-Meters had the same shutter speed scale as the early M3DS. You could probably swap parts to convert a newer one. The early DS also have one less speed than the later ones.

-- John Collier (jbcollier@powersurfr.com), February 01, 2002.

I have an M3 DS, too, and the continental shutter speeds annoyed me because it threw off the old equation I use to get the aperture and shutter speed given an EV: EV = Av + Tv where Av and Tv are the values assigned to specific f/stops and shutter speeds:

value	f/stop	speed
0	1.0	1
1	1.4	1/2
2	2	1/4
3	2.8	1/8
4	4	1/15
5	5.6	1/30
6	8	1/60
7	11	1/125
8	16	1/250
9	22	1/500
10	32	1/1000

For example, if I get a reading of EV 8 then I can use any combination of aperture and shutter speed that sum to 8, say, f/2.8 (3) at 1/30 (5).

To continue using the formula, I computed how many stops the M3 shutter speeds were from the modern speed settings. These are the equivalent numbers I came up with:

value	speed
2.3	1/5
3.3	1/10
4.3	1/20
5.6	1/50
6.6	1/100

Every 0.3 is 1/3 stop; 2.3 for example means 1/5 is 1/3 stop faster than 1/4. Since the 5cm f/1.5 Summarit doesn't have 1/3 stop clicks I usually round down (towards more exposure) by a half-stop. This may be more anal than you'd like but I'm not perfect <g>. It's easiest with a digital meter that can show EV in 1/10 stops. Have fun!

-- Bong Munoz (bong@techie.com), February 01, 2002.