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read the exposure information on the film boxes: it's not far off the mark.
as a back up I carry a handheld meter, which I check only when the light percepably changes or when lighting situations are tricky.
Posted 23 months ago.
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brianvsweeney [deleted] says:
I typically use a Weston Master II for a hand-held meter with the Nikon's and Leica's. I also use a Polaroid CDS Clip-on meter designed for the Model 180. It is sensitive in low-light, good for the fast lenses. It does include the faster F-Stops, a surprise since the Polaroid was an F4.5 Tominon.
Posted 23 months ago.
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I go by the sunny 16 rule (which is basically using The Force).
Posted 23 months ago.
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Sunny 16 or the exposure info from the box. Somewhere I have a little exposure calculator rule that I've used.
But I've had excellent results shooting velvia 50 through my TLR with Sunny 16, and you don't get film with less latitude than RVP50.
Posted 23 months ago.
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I own several junky old cameras that I use, and most of them don't have meters, or even rangefinders... I just set the shutter and use sunny 16, which works fine with high latitude b&w films that I've been using. Teamed up with auto-balanced scanning of these negatives, I typically get things to 'turn out.'
I don't own a light meter, because an accurate one costs more than most of my entire collection of cameras. Guessing has been working OK. Sometimes, due to slow shutter speeds on these things, I even get lucky and accidentally expose for the shadows more than I would have, had I been using a centerweighted meter.
Posted 23 months ago.
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Before I got batteries for my Nikon FM I used my D50 for metering. Nothing like a histogram!
Posted 23 months ago.
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hah, yeah, some people whose names I won't mention actually recommend carrying around a subcompact digicam to use as a meter. Cheaper and it provides a histogram.
Originally posted 23 months ago.
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wools edited this topic 23 months ago.
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Except that most digital cameras don't actually function at the rated ISOs.
Posted 23 months ago.
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I use a tiny Gossen Digisix meter with my unmetered cameras. And may times with my other cameras, too. :) Mostly in incident light mode.
Posted 23 months ago.
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I use the sunny 16 rule and if I'm unsure I'll bracket my shots manually.
metering is a non issue to me. I've had a lot of failures but I've learned from them, which was my reason for using old manual rangefinders in the first place.
Posted 23 months ago.
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Gossen Digisix meters are wonderful small accurate meters. That said, short of slide, most film has an incredibly forgiving latitude.
Posted 23 months ago.
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Sunny 16 works great, especially if you live in a sunny place. Choose the shutter speed closest to your film iso ie 400 ISO requires 500th second and use F16 for bright sun and then 11 and 8 for cloudy etc.
Posted 23 months ago.
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I would personally recommend a FLASHMETER. This may not sound too exciting at first glance but you get an expanded metering capability when using camera indoors (especially with bounced flash - It is hard to guess-estimate under these conditions).
Other than that, a flashmeter is just another incident light meter during a day. I normally preset the camera based on it`s readings and correct these settings slightly prior to exposure (if needed). There is a DIGIFLASH version of a GOSSEN DIGISIX and the price difference is negligible.
Originally posted 23 months ago.
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AOI-Alt edited this topic 23 months ago.
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I swear by this little guy.
Posted 23 months ago.
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I also use a digisix, and sunny 16. I prefer an external meter to an onboard one, since you have to keep the camera on your nose while metering with the onboard one...
Posted 23 months ago.
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Thanks for the link, Dan. That's a very handy little device.
Posted 23 months ago.
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I use an ultra hi-tech Expomat. :)
Edit: oops, didn't notice Dan also uses the same.
Originally posted 23 months ago.
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popitz edited this topic 23 months ago.
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Out of curiosity, I have a camera that has shutter speeds of 100 and 200, but the film is ISO 160. Would you shoot at 200 with the Sunny 16 rule?
Posted 20 months ago.
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I've made the same experiences as Mawz with sunny 16 and slide films.
For situations with extremely low light or hight contrast like night photography I can highly recommend the Gossen Lunasix F.
One can save a lot of money on vintage rangefinder cameras (for example M-Leicas) if a build-in meter is not on the feature list.
Posted 20 months ago.
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smultron [deleted] says:
There's lightmeters from the 60s that are mechanical and uses no batteries at all, they are accurate and good looking:) Get one of those puppies if you find one, and don't forget to check that it's accurate.
Posted 20 months ago.
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Smultron, you talking about the Westons? I use a Weston Master V and it's really accurate, easily good enough for Velvia 50 exposures. I test it from time to time against my Lunasix F (that thing can meter in pitch darkness btw), and they tally every time.
I'd also be really tempted by the tiny clip-on Voigtlander VCII, altough in truth I also find that, provided I stick to familiar film speeds, I can pretty much just rely on the Force (and experience) to guide me :)
Posted 20 months ago.
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use the f16 rule, yep :D
Posted 20 months ago.
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does anyone here use the zone system with color? meter for zone 3, 5?
just curious.
Posted 20 months ago.
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I thought if you metered using a grey card that was instant zone system (the easy way).
Posted 20 months ago.
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A gray card or an incident meter is a great way to avoid having your meter get fooled by unusually light or dark subjects. But the full zone system is a bit more complex than that.
You could summarize it as: " expose to match the luminance range of the scene to the exposure lattitude of the film; adjust contrast as needed via development time." Ansel Adams' book "The Negative" lays it out in much more detail.
Posted 20 months ago.
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I always use sunny 16 rule and hardly miss a shot. (on regular films) People say that on slide film you should be more accurate... Also have a Weston MAster II lightmeter but never remember of using it... ehe It's so much more fun to guess the exposure!
Posted 20 months ago.
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sunny f16
Posted 20 months ago.
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I use a handheld meter and take a couple of readings using incident to establish the range. I usually will shoot at one shutter speed for a given shooting session, so I adjust the f-stop based upon the light. On some RF cameras I'll adjust the shutter speed rather than the f-stop. Basically, I use the same technique as Harbourlight does (above).
Posted 20 months ago.
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I have an old sekonic meter (circa 1950) I carry but hardly ever use. Sunny 16 and do the math in your head. Need to go up an aperture, adjust shutter speed accordingly.
Posted 19 months ago.
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anti-zoom [deleted] says:
i use the vc-2 very acurate and tiny with a hotshoe rail
Posted 19 months ago.
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I use a handheld meter, gossen luna pro f. Very bulky but I used to that kind of meter, hehehhe
Posted 19 months ago.
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Really useful advice, ideas, tips. Thanks!
Any recommendations on how to adapt Sunny16 for shooting inside?
Posted 19 months ago.
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mm-j: good question, I was wondering the same thing. One thing that makes things easier indoor is usually the light doesn't change.
But I do notice several things, the meter on my Olympus 35 SPn rangefinder which has a fixed lens (42mm/1.7) suggested consistently the EV value of 7 in a reasonably well-lit room.
This translates into getting acceptable to good results using shutter speed of 1/15-1/30 seconds and setting the aperture to 1.7-2.0 varying if I shoot into a projected screen (a tad brighter) or a group of dark-haired people (a tad darker).
CAUTION: I can do this without worrying about blurriness caused by lens shake because the lens is pretty wide (42mm). I'd say even though I haven't tried it yet, this will also work on my OM-1 SLR using the "standard" 50mm/1.8 lens. But of course this won't work if you're using 100mm or longer lens.
HTH
Posted 19 months ago.
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