Leica R5 and Ektar 100

Hi everyone

I'm looking for some exposure advice about using Ektar 100 with my Leica R5. I haven't used this combination before: I'm still pretty new to film shooting and have previously only used Portra and TriX with this camera. I have found the camera's metering with those films to be pretty good (I have been shooting it in aperture priority).

I have a couple of rolls of Ektar: is there any exposure advice from you guys please? Does it expose nicely out of the box, or would you have any other tips and tricks for using it? I'll probably be shooting things rather than people with it.

I appreciate that my question is a bit general, but any advice would be gratefully received!

Many thanks for the help,

David

Use a light meter, or learn how to meter your palm as a grey card with your camera's built-in meter.

Hi, many thanks for your reply! I do have access to a meter. I was wondering though with Ektar whether you would just shoot at the settings the meter gives, or whether you might overexpose a bit a get the best results. I haven't used Ektar before so I was just wondering if you'd go with exact meter readings or not.

Thanks again.

it is hard to generalize. The meter in your camera takes an average of the scene, center-weighted. This works well for average scenes. For starters, set the camera's meter to the film's listed speed, shoot a roll, see how you like the results. If they are consistently underexposed, set your meter at a lower speed, such as 75. When in doubt, overexpose, film handles slight overexposure nicely.

If you want more accurate metering for more difficult situations, it would be wise to learn to use the spot meter built into the camera. Set it to the spot meter setting (that switch around the shutter speed dial). If you are taking a picture of someone with a bright light behind them (window) and you want to see their face, for example, you would get close enough so the spot meter only fits in their face (spot meter reads the central round area of your viewfinder) and take the reading, lock it or transfer it to the shutter manually, then step back and take the picture.

Ektar is pretty forgiving -- when in doubt add half a stop of overexposure. But mostly, read up on the spot metering in the camera, which is very useful.

Thank you very much, summicron1, for your very helpful reply

Start out at box speed (100) and make decisions based on the results. There are no "right" answers.

Ektar is considerably less forgiving than Porta or TriX. If you can consistently get correct exposures on slide film, well then, Ektar will be easy.
But when in doubt, it's better to SLIGHTLY overexpose it rather than underexpose.