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If you have a Leica M Rangefinder you might be wondering which flashes work with it.
Let’s find out.
Which Flashes Work with Leica M Rangefinder Film?
Leica branded flashlights will work with Leica M Rangefinder film. The flashlights of other brands like rangefinder may be cheap but they won’t be compatible with the Leica rangefinder causing problems for you.
The M6 TTL is compatible with most Leica flashes, including those from third-party manufacturers such as Metz and SUN PACK. Leica specifically recommends using its SF20 flash or any of its SCA3000 flash units with an SCA3501 adaptor.
If you’re not using TTL flashes often enough to know what they are, then you probably don’t need one.
The M6 TTL has a fast flash sync of 1/50 seconds, which is an intermediate notch between the faster 1/60 and slower 1/30 marks on the shutter speed dials. Flashbulbs/cubes can be synched from 1/30 down.
An In-Depth Guide To The Leica M6 Ttl – Emulsive
It was made for only four years between 1996 and 2002, but the Leica M6 TTL (TTL stands for through the lens) was the successor to the 1984-96 Leica M6 and brought several new features including an ergonomic design, a built-in electronic viewfinder, and TTL flash metered autofocus.
You may think that the huge shutter dial isn’t a big deal, but in fact, you could walk away from this article without realizing that the M6 TTL has some extra features compared to its predecessor.
With the TTL flash metering upgrade, Canon introduced a new feature that would eventually become one of its most popular features. It was a big change from the previous system, but it made sense for the company to move forward.
It comes in black or white chrome or a titanium-finished body with three titanium-finish lenses.
Design/Looks
The Leica M6 has been designed around the same classic design of its previous models, but there is one major change: the TTL flash circuitry needs the top plate to be two millimeters (2mm) taller than its previous models.
If you don’t notice it when using the 50mm f/1.8 prime lens with “Goggles”, then you’ll probably be surprised by the results when you start shooting with the 50mm f/2.0 prime lens.
The M6 TTL camera has the quick loading system of its predecessors, the M2R, the M4, and later models. It also has an angled flip-out rewind mechanism similar to the one found on the M6.
The rewind lever provides much better ergonomies than the pull-down knob of early Leica rangefinder cameras.
Frame lines
The base version of the 0.72 M6 has the same parallax corrected 0.72x magnification viewfinder as the M4-P. It displays three pairs of six frames per second when using any of its lenses.
Like the short-lasted M6 0.85 (which was discontinued), the M6 TTL 0.85 dropped the 28/90 framelines from the 28-90 pair, making it one of the few Leica SLs with just a single 90-frameline option.
A new M6 TTL 0.58 was released in 2000, which kept the same frame lines of the 0.72, but dropped the 135mm lens. This makes it the first Leica since M2 to feature single focal lengths of 35mm.
Which Flashes Work With Leica M Rangefinder Film?
Viewfinder
The viewfinders’ magnifications above represent the view you would actually be seeing if you were looking at the scene through the viewfinders as a fraction compared to 1-to‑1 (the actual size of the image you’d be seeing if you were viewing the scene through the view finder as a whole).
The 0.58 magnification of the three Leica M7 TTL lenses tells us that the real world is shrunk by half when viewed through the viewfinder. The 0.72 and 085 magnification of these lenses tell us that the real world has been further reduced by one third and two thirds respectively.
A lower number means that you can see a wider field of vision. In practice, the difference between high and low magnifications is how they allow easier focus or frameÂing on longer and wider lenses.
Each time you mount a Leica M lens to the body of the Leica M2, the automatic exposure meter (AEM) shows you the current settings for the selected aperture setting. You can then use the manual focus ring to adjust the focusing distance until the AEM indicates that the correct depth of field has been achieved.
When wearing eyeglasses, the 28 and 35 millimeter frames can be difficult to see at once on the 0.72 and 0.85 finders, respectively. However, when using the 0.58 viewfinders, all of the lens line markings are clearly visible even if you’re wearing eyeglasses.
Parallax correction
Like all Leica M cameras, its viewfinders are fully parallax corrected via the rangefinder.
The main purpose of a rangefinders’ camera is to adjust its autofocus system by moving the rangefinding focusing patch for focus. It also adjusts the viewfinder’s framing lines so that they match what the lens will capture, which is called parallax adjustment.
You can get an exaggerated look at this phenomenon by taking off your lens, looking through your viewfinder, and lightly touching the rangefinder cam.
When you turn the camera off, the cam sets its own framing lines.
Rangefinder Mechanism, Effective Base Length (EBL) And Focusing
Viewfinders and focus systems are the first and perhaps the most important part of every digital SLR (single lens reflex) or DSLR (digital single lens reflex).
It doesn’t really matter whether the viewfinder is good or not; if you don’t like using it, then you won’t enjoy using the camera.
Rangefinder Mechanism
We’ll start by looking at a picture from one of Leica’s marketing material. It shows the Leica M4-p rangefinder assembly (the same basic mechanism used in the 0.72X M6 TTL).
This is the brain of your Leica camera and includes:
- A rangefinderscope that couples with your lens.
- Viewfinder window (right side)
- Frameline mask Window (center).
- Rangefinder window (left side)
Effective Base Length (EBL)
One way to improve your focusing ability is by using a rangefinders’ viewfinder magnification feature. Another way is by adjusting its rangefinders’ rangefinder bases.
Longer the rangefinder base and the higher the viewfinders magnification, the easier it becomes to get critical focus, especially when shooting wide open with long focal lengths.
To compare the potential accuracies of different rangefinders, we must first establish a common ground. This number is known as effective baseline length or EBL. EBI is calculated by multiplying the rangefinder’s actual baseline length (RB) by the viewfinder magnification factor (VM).
RBC x VMC = EBV
As long as your rangefinder has an EBL, the longer its rangefinder’s EBL the better you’ll be able to accurately focus.
The Leica M3 camera has the distinction of being the “golden” benchmark for all Leica M cameras. It has a 0·91x viewfinder and a 68·5mm rangefinder base length. Multiplying these numbers together gives us a total length of 62·33mm.
Focusing on the Leica M6 TTL
If you’re used with DSLRs, you may use a matte focusing grid, a technique that uses your eyesight to determine whether or not your subject is in sharpness. You may also use a split-image fresnel, which divides the center of your viewfinder into two parts, each part representing one half of a circle. When you bring these two parts together, you’ve got perfect sharpness.
When you first start out using a rangefinders, it can be quite confusing. However, with some practice and a lot of experience, using a camera rangefinder will soon become second nature for both snapshot and critical focus.
A rangefinder camera has an advantage over a DSLR because its viewfinders don’t show the lenses’ actual depth of field.
Shutter
With its horizontal focal-point-shuttered, the M6 TTL has a rubberized-cloth first and second curtain. It is not advisable to point the M6 TTL at the sky without a lens cap on because you could burn a hole through the first and second curtains in just a few seconds.
The shutter speeds run from 1/1000 second up to 1 second in 1/3rds of a second intervals: 1/1000 second (1/3), 1/500 second (2/3), 1/250 second (5/6), 1/125 second (10/12), 1/60 second (20/24), 1/30 second (40/48), 1/15 second (80/
The lens’ single shutter button has a standard thread for attaching accessories such as timers, cables or air bulb releases.
Conclusion
We hope this article was helpful to you.
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out in the comments below.
