Does anybody have any clever tricks for preventing that glare you sometimes get in the rangefinder of an m6 which makes focusing next to impossible. I've found it to be the most annoying in indoor situations where overhead lamps cause this glare without bringing alot of ambient light on to the subject, creating a viewfinder image that is barely visible around the bright spot that appears in the center of the frame, let alone critically focusable . I haven't figured out how to hold my hand up, support the camera, and focus at the same time yet.

-- Tom Nutter (tmnphotos@erols.com), February 01, 2002

Answers

Tom, The problem is inherent in the M6. Lutz Konerman sells a nifty little device called the "shade" to fit over the light collecting window that pretty well eliminates this flare. I used one for awhile, but it also dims the framelines slightly, which I didnt like. A small rectangle of black tape placed in the middle of the light collecting window works well for me, but it took a bit of experimenting to find the right size. Best,

-- Marke Gilbert (Bohdi137@aol.com), February 02, 2002.

Tom, I also us one of Lutz's shades and find it to do the job really well. As Marke says the framelines are a little faint in some circumstances but it hasn't bothered me so far. It certainly doesn't bother me as much as the flare. I have not tried the piece of black tape but have certainly heard of it being used. I, and I imagine you too, would be interested in coment from anyone who has compared the two alternatives ie. tape v shade. Cheers,

-- Tim Gee (twg@optushome.com.au), February 02, 2002.

I have found that on the rare occasions when that's happened to me I can cure the problem by just shifting my eye a bit in the finder.

-- Jay (infinitydt@aol.com), February 02, 2002.

As Jay says, center your eye and it disappears. When I first got my TTL, I found it very annoying. Now I am so used to it that my eye just automatically centers and I do not even notice it now.

-- John Collier (jbcollier@powersurfr.com), February 02, 2002.

One of the reasons I have an M2 as a second camera is that under some circumstances such as you describe, the M2 doesn't have any glare.

-- Michael Rivers (mrivers@mac.com), February 02, 2002.

I agree with Jay about postioning the eye to eliminate the flare. I remember also reading a similar statement from Ted Grant, on either the LUG or the LEG.

-- Ray Moth (ray_moth@yahoo.com), February 04, 2002.

I should remove my "Lutz Shade" and try it for myself but to save me such back-breaking work can Jay, John and Ray (or any combination of the three) tell me if the 'centering the eye' technique works when wearing glasses? Cheers,

-- Tim Gee (twg@optushome.com.au), February 04, 2002.

It does for me. I wear progressive bifocals, which I bloody-well HATE. They have to be the dumbest thing ever invented. They nearly caused me to fall on many occasions, especially when going down stairs. I always take them off for reading, anyway, so I plan to go back to ordinary short-sight-correction glasses.

Actually, I have never found flare to be a particular problem with either of my M6 TTLs - a .58 and a .72 - with or without specs. One point in favour of the hated progressive bifocals could be that one has to train oneself to position one's head according to the distance of the object at which one is looking, because in any other position the focal length is "off". This may possibly help one to adopot, habitually, a correct position for the eye when looking through a camera's viewfinder.

-- Ray Moth (ray_moth@yahoo.com), February 04, 2002.