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Light meter
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I forked out €69.00 for a model like mark’s GOSSEN LUNASIX 3.
Couldnt get one for cheaper was beaten in an auction!
Plant to get the lubitel up and running when I get the meter, ill give the Holga
a rest for a while.I would actually say that focal length does matter!
If you set the exposure at 24mm FL and then zoom to say 70mm
there will potentially be less light available in the scene!Ya… I had thought the same to be honest. I don’t get too caught up in these technical matters but it certainly makes sense. I’ve googled but can’t find anything specific. I was waiting to be corrected with some mathematical formulas… most likely from his lordship.
Humm… actually now that I think about it I’m back to being 99.9% certain it doesn’t matter… sure if it did your light meter would need you to input focal length and I’m pretty sure it doesn’t… not that I have one and know for sure or anything.
(I love being a Photography Cowboy)
as far as I know, more than the focal lenght, it’s the field-of-view of the exposimeter’s cell.
normally the gossen lunasix/sixtar etc. have a 30deg. reading area. (now don’t ask me how much is of a 35mm frame, look at page 5 of their manual)somehow also the focal lenght, speaking of TTL meters, matters. The longest, the accurate is the area of which we take the reading.
obviously this works better with a spot metering (1 to 3 degrees)the answer is, yes you can use you dSLR TTL-meter. it’s just more weight to carry around.
sorry if I sounded pedantic :)
oh by the way, I forgot the main reason why external meters are useful. because of the ability of reading both incident and reflected light.
ok I’ll shut up. where’s jb7 when it’s needed????The angle of view is somewhat important, I’d say. A greater angle of view may result in a greater dynamic range which may result in a different average light level (of course it might be exactly the same). In any case 30 degrees is roughly the field of view of a 50mm lens on 35mm film according to Wikipedia, and hence also a 80mm lens on 6×6.
Well, it all seems to be going really quite well without me Gizzo-
Just to recap, there are 3 types of metering referenced here-
Reflective- that’s Robbie’s one, I think-
you point the meter at the scene and press the button, and read off the scale-Incident- for general purpose metering, probably the most useful 95% of the time-
That’s the white dome one-
you point it back to the camera position,
and the dome collects the light and averages it out for you-and Spot.
You need to know why you want to use a spot meter-
It’s essential if you want to test, expose, and process for the Zone system.As Gizzo mentioned, it’s also useful for exposing transparency,
and you can use it to calculate gradual filter values.Robbie’s meter can be made to act like an incident meter by the addition of a grey card-
you simply put the card in the scene, point the business end of the meter at it, and meter-
you can use other known values too, grass, your hand, or whatever’s handy- your hand, then…
You will need to test, and adjust as necessary-Just as long as you can get the meter close enough that the prisms collect all the light from whatever you’re pointing it at.
Alan (aoluain) made a claim earlier about changing focal lengths-
potentially correct, but maybe only at close distances,
if using a much longer lens changed the magnification, and therefore the bellows extension, significantly.
There’s also perhaps an issue with complex zooms-
they contain a lot of elements, and a lot of glass-
that’s why they use T stops (transmission stops) in the movie industry-An ƒ-stop is a geometric measurement, and doesn’t take absorbtion of the glass into account-
obviously, not really an issue for the prime lenses you’re planning on metering for-Mark’s one is good, by sliding the lumisphere, or whatever Gossen call it,
you can have either incident or reflective readings.Metering can be involved and complicated-
but it can also be quite simple-
and if you’re shooting multiple pictures on a roll, in mixed lighting,
you’re not really going to be able to use the zone system properly.So an incident reading will be fine.
Or reflective.If you’re shooting slide film, and have access to grads, and are working in a subject brightness range greater than 4 or 5 stops,
then spot metering will be useful…Not sure I should have started now…
a lot of food for thought there.
As always Joseph good indepth info and very informative.
Well I have never used a meter before, but have seen lots of photographers including JB7
at the lo-fi day using them it seems really like point and shoot.set the ISO and F# your are using and pop away.
Bish Bash Bosh.
I hope
Incident… I like those stats…. 95%… I could live with that.
Appreciate it.
J
Well my Gossen Sixon arrived today in the post. Grand little gadget…spotlesslessly clean in very good nick..leather puch, chain, the whole lot. A little gem of 1950’s design.
It appears to be working..responds when i expose the sensor part to light anyway. Now to figure out how to use it and make sure it’s relatively accurate.
Downloaded the manual for it and it doesn’t look that complicated…which is good for me.. :wink:
Ok Got my
downloaded the manual . . .Feel like jumping out the window. The thing makes as much sense
as eating an onion covered in chocolate.The manual tells me what everything is but not a squiddly peep about how to
read the fheckin thing.I set my ISO fine, click the button and get a reading of say EV8, I have a dial with
time markings on it rotating around an inner dial with f stops . . . nothing on the
internet which gives a simple explanationSo much fro BISH, BASH, BOSH.
Can you tell im frustrated :twisted:
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