Shooting Film with the Leica R6.2: A Practical Guide

The Leica R6.2 is a precision mechanical camera designed to be used, not displayed. This guide takes you from unboxing through to finished negatives — loading, metering, choosing film, understanding the shutter, and developing a working method that suits the camera's deliberate character.

There are cameras that invite spontaneous, reactive photography, and cameras that encourage a more deliberate approach. The Leica R6.2 belongs decisively in the second category. It has no program mode, no scene detection, no ability to select ISO automatically from a DX code on the film canister. It has a manual advance lever, a match-needle meter requiring active engagement, and a mechanical shutter that fires at whatever speed the dial is set to, regardless of what the meter suggests. In 2026, this makes it a camera that actively requires the photographer to think — and for those willing to engage with that requirement, it produces results that justify every moment of that engagement.

This guide assumes you have an R6.2 in hand, a lens mounted on it, and a roll of film. It will take you from that starting point to a completed roll ready for development, explaining each step and the reasoning behind it.

Before You Load: Check the Camera

Before loading any film into an R6.2 — particularly one recently acquired — it is worth spending five minutes on a basic inspection. Open the back by pressing the back release latch on the left side of the camera (facing the back), and examine the interior with a torch.

Check the light seals in the channels around the door perimeter and the mirror box surround. These should be soft, springy, and black. Degraded seals are sticky or crumbling and will allow light to fog the edges of your film. If the seals look suspect, replace them before loading — it takes about an hour and saves an entire roll of wasted film and lab fees.

Check the shutter curtain for any holes, tears, or wrinkles. With the back open and the lens removed, hold the camera up to a light source and check the curtain carefully — any pinhole will show as a bright spot. A damaged shutter curtain must be professionally repaired; do not proceed with a defective curtain.

Check that the film gate is clean and free of debris. A single dust particle lodged in the gate will leave a consistent white mark on every frame at the same position. Use a dry blower brush or short burst of compressed air to clear any visible particles.

Setting the Film Speed

The R6.2 has no DX coding system. You must set the film speed manually using the ISO dial, which is concentric with and located just inside the shutter speed dial on the top plate. To set it, lift and rotate the outer ring of the shutter speed dial — the inner ISO ring rotates with it. Align the white triangle index against your film's ISO rating.

The ISO range on the R6.2 runs from ISO 25 to ISO 1600. Films beyond this range — ISO 3200 or ISO 6400 colour negative films, for example — require you to set the dial to ISO 1600 and then apply +1 or +2 EV exposure compensation using the exposure compensation dial. Most commonly used films (ISO 100, 200, 400) sit comfortably within the native range.

Set the ISO before you load the film, while you have the canister in hand and the ISO rating is in front of you. It is an easy setting to forget.

Loading Film

Loading the R6.2 is straightforward but has one step that catches new users: the film advance must be set to the correct position before the take-up spool will accept the film leader.

Open the back. The film chamber is on your left as you face the interior, the take-up spool on your right.
Drop the film canister into the chamber with the protruding end (the short length of leader) pointing toward the centre of the camera. The canister should drop cleanly into place and the spindle at the bottom of the chamber should engage with the canister's spool.
Pull a short length of film leader across the camera and insert the tip into one of the slots on the take-up spool, then advance two or three times with the lever on the top plate while holding slight tension on the film with your thumb at the left side of the gate. This ensures the film is evenly wound and the perforations have engaged the sprocket teeth.
Close the back. The frame counter will reset to S (for Start). Advance twice more with the shutter release — two blank frames, both normal — and the counter will show 1. You are ready to shoot.

After loading, look at the rewind knob on the top left of the camera. When you advance the film, the rewind knob should rotate slightly in the opposite direction — this confirms the film is advancing from the canister rather than slipping. If the rewind knob does not rotate, the film is not loaded correctly; open the back, reload, and check the perforations are engaged.

Understanding the Meter

The R6.2 uses a centre-weighted TTL (through-the-lens) exposure meter, powered by a single CR 1/3N battery. The meter reads the full frame with an emphasis on the central area, which in practice means it produces accurate readings for most standard scenes — evenly lit landscapes, portraits against a neutral background, street scenes with broadly average tonality — without requiring any input beyond the match-needle confirmation in the viewfinder.

The meter readout in the viewfinder is a needle display, visible in the lower right area of the finder. When the needle is centred between the two index marks, the exposure is correct for the selected shutter speed and aperture combination. Needle above centre indicates underexposure at current settings; needle below indicates overexposure. Adjust your aperture ring or shutter speed dial until the needle centres.

Unlike fully automatic cameras, the R6.2 requires you to actively manage both shutter speed and aperture; the meter only tells you whether your chosen settings are correct. Developing a working method for this is essential, and most R6.2 photographers settle on one of two approaches:

Aperture-led: Set the aperture for the depth of field you want, then adjust the shutter speed until the needle centres. Good for static subjects and controlled situations.
Shutter-led: Set the shutter speed based on what you need to freeze or blur motion, then adjust the aperture until the needle centres. Good for moving subjects or when you need to ensure at least a certain shutter speed to avoid camera shake.

Metering Difficult Scenes

Centre-weighted metering is reliable for average scenes but needs deliberate management when the subject departs from average. The classic difficult scenarios and how to handle them on the R6.2:

Backlit subjects. A person photographed against a bright window or sky will fool the centre-weighted meter into underexposing the subject, making them a silhouette. Move close to the subject (without changing your final composition) and take a reading from the subject's face or clothing, then recompose and shoot at those settings. Alternatively, apply +1.5 to +2 EV positive compensation using the exposure compensation dial.

Snow or very light scenes. The meter will try to render a snowy landscape as mid-grey rather than white. Apply +1 to +2 EV compensation to preserve the brightness of the scene.

Very dark scenes. Conversely, in predominantly dark scenes the meter will overexpose in an attempt to bring everything to mid-grey. Apply -1 EV compensation to preserve shadow detail and prevent blown highlights in any lighter areas.

Spotlit subjects on dark backgrounds. Concert photography, stage performance, and similar situations work best with a spot reading from the lit subject itself. The R6.2 doesn't have a separate spot metering mode, so move close to your subject for the reading, or use the Sunny 16 rule as a starting point and bracket from there.

The Sunny 16 Rule

The Sunny 16 rule is one of the most useful tools in film photography — particularly valuable with a camera like the R6.2 where manual operation is the only option. It provides a baseline exposure for common lighting conditions without needing the meter at all, which is useful as a cross-check, as a backup when the battery fails, or when shooting quickly in changing light:

Bright sun: f/16 at 1/ISO (so 1/400s at ISO 400, 1/100s at ISO 100)
Hazy sun / light cloud: f/11 at 1/ISO
Overcast: f/8 at 1/ISO
Heavy overcast / open shade: f/5.6 at 1/ISO
Deep shade / indoors near window: f/4 at 1/ISO

In practice, film's exposure latitude (particularly negative film) means that exposures within one stop of these values will produce usable negatives. The rule is more accurate than it might seem for most outdoor daylight photography.

Choosing Film for the R6.2

The R6.2 is compatible with any standard 35mm film in either DX-coded or unDX-coded canisters. The choice of film is a significant creative decision that affects the character of the final image as much as the lens choice. Here is a practical overview of commonly available options:

Black and white negative film. The most versatile medium for manual-metering cameras like the R6.2, with wide exposure latitude and a characteristic tonal gradation that digital capture has never quite replicated. Ilford HP5 Plus (ISO 400) is the most forgiving all-purpose option — it responds well to push processing up to ISO 1600 and is tolerant of exposure errors of ±2 stops. Kodak Tri-X 400 has a slightly coarser grain structure and a contrasting character that suits street and documentary photography particularly well. For finer grain in good light, Ilford FP4 Plus (ISO 125) or Kodak TMX 100 offer exceptional resolution with the Summicron-R lenses.

Colour negative film. Kodak Portra 400 is the standard recommendation for colour negative work with the R6.2 — it is fine-grained for its speed, handles mixed lighting with grace, and produces skin tones that flatter portraits shot on the Summilux-R 80mm f/1.4. Kodak Gold 200 is a more affordable alternative with a warmer rendering that suits outdoor and travel photography. Fujifilm Superia 400 and Kodak UltraMax 400 both offer good value at the expense of slightly more visible grain.

Colour slide film. Transparency (reversal) film has essentially no exposure latitude — you need to be within a third of a stop of correct exposure for the highlights to be properly rendered. This makes it demanding with the R6.2's centre-weighted meter, and it rewards careful exposure assessment. Fujifilm Velvia 50 produces vivid, saturated results particularly suited to landscapes and natural subjects. Fujifilm Provia 100F is more neutral in rendering and better suited to portraiture and general use.

Pacing and Deliberation

The R6.2 enforces a natural pace on photography that most modern cameras actively resist. With 36 exposures on a roll, a manual advance lever, and a meter that requires active attention, you cannot spray-and-pray. Every frame costs you time and money — the cost of the film, the cost of development, the cost of time. This creates a working discipline that is, for many photographers, one of the primary reasons to shoot with a manual camera in the first place.

Practically, this means taking a moment before every shot to confirm the exposure, check the focus, and consider the composition rather than shooting first and editing later. The R6.2's viewfinder makes this easy: at 0.72× magnification with 93% frame coverage, it gives you a large, bright image that rewards careful viewing rather than a hurried glance.

Many photographers who return to the R6.2 after shooting digital for years report that their hit rate — the percentage of exposures they consider genuinely successful — improves significantly. Slowing down does not mean missing moments; it means approaching each potential moment with greater intention.

Rewinding and Unloading

When the advance lever stops moving freely after the last frame, the film is fully exposed. Do not force the advance lever or you risk tearing the film from the canister.

To rewind, press the rewind release button on the base of the camera (a small button on the camera bottom that, when pressed, disengages the film transport). Unfold the rewind crank from the left top of the camera and wind in the direction indicated by the arrow — you will feel resistance as the film pulls off the take-up spool, then a sudden release of tension when the film leader comes free of the spool. At that point, stop rewinding. Many photographers prefer to leave the leader protruding from the canister for easy identification of exposed vs. unexposed rolls — if you want to rewind fully into the canister, simply continue winding until there is no resistance.

Remove the film canister immediately and store it in a cool, dry place until development. Exposed film is not significantly affected by normal indoor temperatures for periods of up to several weeks, but extended storage or high temperatures can degrade the latent image.

Getting Film Developed

The final step is development, which transforms the latent image on the exposed film into visible, permanent negatives or transparencies. For black and white film, home development is entirely achievable with modest equipment and produces results that rival professional labs if done carefully. For colour negative and transparency films, most photographers use professional mail-in labs, as the chemistry is more complex and temperature-sensitive.

Whichever route you choose, the consistency of development is what separates good negatives from excellent ones. A well-developed roll of HP5 Plus shot on the R6.2 with a Summicron-R lens produces negatives with a tonal richness that reflects the quality of every component in the chain — the camera, the lens, the film, and the development process. It is, at every stage, a process that rewards care and attention. The R6.2 is simply the element of that chain that demands it most directly.