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Metering: Blown Highlights
The Leica M11M metering system frequently blows highlights, even using Multi-Segment metering. Indoors or out, you are left with pure white areas which cannot be recovered.
This page looks at the camera display, RawDigger histograms, Photoshop raw conversion, etc.
Example — Sleepy Tigger
Automatic exposure, exposure compensation +0, highight warning 253.
The M11M badly mis-meters this scene, resulting in blown highlights covering much too large an area, including the white fur on Tigger’s jaw area. This metering is unacceptable because bad metering happens all too often. And with monochrome capture, it’s even less acceptable than with a color sensor. It is why when using the Leica M11 (color) I gave up on auto exposure (meaning either manual exposure or auto exposure with careful attention to exposure compensation).
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Diglloyd Guide to LEICA contains in-depth coverage of Leica M system cameras and lenses, with additional coverage of Leica M Monochrom, Leica Q.
Special emphasis is placed on Leica M lenses and certain Zeiss ZM lenses.
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