Bessa meter bias ?

[Peter_Jones]

Apologies if this has been answered before, but is the meter in a Bessa (R2) biased toward transparency like many other cameras ?

[Al Kaplan]

The meter in my Bessa L is the same meter and I suppose it woul be great for transparencies because when I shoot negative film I try to give it an extra half a stop.

[Takkun]

forgive me if I don't understand properly, but doesn't the R2's meter, like the other models, make a measurement based on reflection from the shutter and not the film itself?

[Peter_Jones]

Originally Posted by Takkun

forgive me if I don't understand properly, but doesn't the R2's meter, like the other models, make a measurement based on reflection from the shutter and not the film itself?

Yes, it meters from the shutter, not off-the-film, but (generalising here) depending on the film used, it might be set up for highlights(slide) or shadows(neg). It looks like Al Kaplan has answered my question (cheers Al), I was wondering whether or not to expose according to the meter, just now testing against an OM2 gives similar results, and that likes a bit of extra exposure on negs.

[photophorous]

Not sure this answers your question, but my Bessa R2A exposes slides very well on aperture priority.

[Micky D]

Be careful where you place the metered area.
Here is a pic of the R's centre weighting. Check Cameraquest site for other models.

Bessa-R meter.jpg

[Al Kaplan]

What I usually do when I'm just out and about with the Bessa L/15 Heliar combo is meter off the palm of my hand. I'll make several readings, tilting my hand this way and that so I'm measuring both the shadow side and the brightly lit side, then I make a judgement call based on those readings. Living in South Florida and being outdoors a lot my skin, even the palms, is darker than a lot of you northerners are likely to have. You really have to do your own trials and see what works best for you.

[Takkun]

Actually Mickey D,
the M-Mount models are a little different--rather than centerweighted, they are bottom-left-of-center-weighted.
http://www.cameraquest.com/voigtbmeter.htm
The R2 included.

And I apologize for my complete lack of brain function back there... I used to be a camera salesperson and had to explain the Nikon i-TTL versus Matrix TTL so many times that my brain automatically went to OTF metering.