Just received the Black Chrome meter. It was easy to install on my M3…bought it for an M—A that has yet to arrive. Setup with the supplied instructions was straightforward. Meter readings were consistent with other incident meters.
bwcolor wrote:
Just received the Black Chrome meter. It was easy to install on my M3…bought it for an M—A that has yet to arrive. Setup with the supplied instructions was straightforward. Meter readings were consistent with other incident meters.
Depending on which M3 you have - DS or SS - make sure you calibrate the reel accordingly as I posted here earlier. The older M3 reels omit two exposure stops shown without calibration on the Keks meter which can then potentially over- or underexpose by accident up to one stop if not calibrated/aligned.
retrofocus wrote:
Depending on which M3 you have - DS or SS - make sure you calibrate the reel accordingly as I posted here earlier. The older M3 reels omit two exposure stops shown without calibration on the Keks meter which can then potentially over- or underexpose by accident up to one stop if not calibrated/aligned.
I have the SS and the shutter readout seems to accurately correspond with the camera setting. Thanks for the heads up. I purchased this meter for my black M-A, but it looks good on the M3. Mine is in a black leather half-case with red stitching.
bwcolor wrote:
I have the SS and the shutter readout seems to accurately correspond with the camera setting. Thanks for the heads up. I purchased this meter for my black M-A, but it looks good on the M3. Mine is in a black leather half-case with red stitching.
I’d be interested in that half case. I have a mint M3 DS that has no case and I’d like to protect it!
rji2goleez wrote:
Pre-ordered some time ago, the KEKS M-Meter for meterless Leica M bodies arrived today. Looks just like the old M-Meters but this is rechargeable and gives digital readout. Adjusting shutter speed feels smooth. Display is wonderful (brightness can be adjusted)! We will see how accurate the meter is but I've had other KEKS light meters and they work great.
retrofocus wrote:
I just received my Keks meter for Leica M - decided to give it a try. I ordered the chrome version because I will predominantly use it on my M3, too. So far I really like it - the OLED display is very clear. Nice that it comes with USB-C charging option - it arrives uncharged, full charging takes about an hour. A bit tricky to attach the meter to the correct position - both meter and camera reel need to be set to B positions as shown in the manual. It took me three attempts to make the meter's center pin and the small ridge fitting into the corresponding slots on the camera reel. But after it was aligned, it works all perfectly.
I also had to calibrate for the correct exposure stops aligning the camera's reel with the meter dial. Two steps on the meter were not needed with my M3 DS based reel - for 1/15 (set to jump directly to 1/30 from 1/8) and for 1/60 (set to jump directly to 1/125 from 1/50). Will test it with film, too but I don't think there is an issue getting great photos using this meter.
One little thing to mention: After calibration, when the meter is turned to the exposure which was adjusted/calibrated, it will still quickly show on the display the interval which is now ignored before displaying the correct calibrated value. In my example when I move to 1/30 sec, it will briefly display 1/15 sec even it is excluded by calibration. ...Show more →
Correction in regard to my suggested Leica M3 DS calibration - turns out the Keks meter actually includes a specific calibration just for the M3 DS stops on the exposure reel. The setting is within the RESET settings as last menu option which I always overlooked earlier. This setting has the stops B - 1 - 1/2 - 1/5 - 1/10 - 1/25 - 1/50 - 1/100 -1/250 - 1/500 - 1/1000 exactly according to the attached reel.
Another thing I found out is that the Keks meter battery seems to drain rather quickly when not using the meter. 4 weeks after I last used it, it had no juice left and needed full recharge. It has kept the changed settings even with drained battery fortunately.
retrofocus wrote:
Correction in regard to my suggested Leica M3 DS calibration - turns out the Keks meter actually includes a specific calibration just for the M3 DS stops on the exposure reel. The setting is within the RESET settings as last menu option which I always overlooked earlier. This setting has the stops B - 1 - 1/2 - 1/5 - 1/10 - 1/25 - 1/50 - 1/100 -1/250 - 1/500 - 1/1000 exactly according to the attached reel.
Another thing I found out is that the Keks meter battery seems to drain rather quickly when not using the meter. 4 weeks after I last used it, it had no juice left and needed full recharge. It has kept the changed settings even with drained battery fortunately. ...Show more →
The battery drain is disappointing. I would rather they used a 3V non rechargeable lithium battery that lasts at least 5 years.
rji2goleez wrote:
Agreed but charging is simple and I do so every time before I go out just to be sure.
Yes - minor thing but I wish the charging cable would have been a bit longer! I connect it to the USB-C port of my Mac Mini, and if the meter sits on top of the camera, the distance between camera and Mac is very short.
The meter itself works fine. One thing I needed to get used to is the variability between one time metering and continuous metering by pressing the meter button twice. I am used to continuous metering with my external Gossen Digisix 2 meter. After the Keks meter turns off (I set it to 30 seconds display), the continuous metering needs to be manually activated again since by default it is in one time metering mode (likely to save battery). Wish there would have been a menu option to set it by preference either to single metering or continuous metering by default.
Also, the display row showing the EV value should be made optional and able to be turned off. I see no purpose of having the EV number displayed.
Make sure that you order from a local vendor. I ordered a black chrome from B&H and three days later I was using the meter. Previously, the beginning of July, I ordered a chrome for my M3 and after a long wait I tried to cancel, but that didn’t work. There is no real benefit ordering direct.
bwcolor wrote:
Make sure that you order from a local vendor. I ordered a black chrome from B&H and three days later I was using the meter. Previously, the beginning of July, I ordered a chrome for my M3 and after a long wait I tried to cancel, but that didn’t work. There is no real benefit ordering direct.
I ordered directly online from B&H when the meter was available for a discount. The whole process worked smoothly at least in my case. I didn't pre-order it.
I tested my new Keks meter more thoroughly this weekend. As the above mentioned review article stated, I observed this issue here every time I pressed the button:
"Fifth, on one or two occasions I got wildly inaccurate readings on a first press of the rear button (the readings come on instantaneously), cured by a second button press. The errors are so egregious that you are not about to be fooled. Just press the button again."
Instead of F/8 or f/11 at about 1/500 sec and ISO 400, it showed on the first button press consistently f/1.4 which obviously is wrong. This is clearly a software bug - a second press on the rear button then showed the correct f-number.
Desmolicious wrote:
The only bummer w this meter is the size - I love that it connects to the shutter speed dial.
My Voigtlander VCii’s are much smaller.
It's about the same size as the original Leica meter which connects to the speed dial.
One thing I like about the KEKS M meter is that is turns the shutter dial experience on my M3 into something similar to what I had on my M6 TTL. Easy one finger adjustment just reduces the usage strain a skosh. It's wasn't a huge nuisance but it does improve my ride.
