Zone VI Modified Meters

Without being funny, how can you tell a Zone VI Modified Digital

Pentax meter from one that has not been modified.

I am asking because I just bought one for a very reasonable price.

It has the "Modified by Zone VI Studios Inc" sticker on the side.

But is there another way?

 

thanks, david

No, I believe the sticker is the only practical way (if you knew what you were looking for you might be able to tell by taking the meter apart but this seems like a pretty radical method). However, the sticker couldn't be obtained from Zone VI Studios without having the meter modified. I suppose someone might have been able to steal a sticker somehow, or get one meter modified and then put the sticker on another meter for some reason, but short of outright and pretty clever dishonesty the existence of the sticker means your meter has been modified.

Possibly. Check my answer to the same question over on the Medium Format forum [i hate double posting!].

 

The fact there are 2 copies of my answer over there is solely due to the Forum's software error. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

The modified meter actually shows you the Zone numerals. The regular meter does not. The upgrade is of little value and the unmodified is the way to go unless you can get a great price.

As I recall, one of the primary Zone VI mods was a special infrared filter. I believe Fred Picker claimed "standard" meters will give a much different reading (for some subjects) in late afternoon light compared with mid-day light. Green follage readings in particular are supposed to vary with the amount of IR present (important to a landscape photographer). If you can compare your meter readings with another, non-modified meter, and get quite a difference in late day light, I would take it as a good indication your meter has been modified. In other words, at mid-day, both meters would come close to the same reading, but late in the day, they would vary in readings of the same subject. I've never had one of the modified meters, so I've never tested the idea.

No, Bob, the Zone VI-modified Pentax digital meter does NOT display "Zone numbers". The reading scale was not modified. The meter gives readings exactly like an un-modified meter with the Zone VI accessory stick-on scale, which permits direct conversion from the meter reading to a particular zone when set appropriately.

 

The modifications consisted of internal changes adding anti-reflective coatings, some filters to narrowly define the light being admitted to the meter cell, and a new meter cell itself. In addition, the new cell could be re-calibrated by them in the event it ever changed during use. I'm sure Richard Ritter can perform some of that work in his camera repair business.

Alec, I know the Zone readings stick on the barrel, I didn't say the meter displays...(I have the meter). Cheers

Shows - displays. Same thing in your terminology. Now, you're just playing games with words.

 

Otherwise, why say "The regular meter does not." He's talking about the "Modified" sticker. A regular meter, with the accessory zone sticker is an Unmodified meter. Either one, with the zone sticker, "shows" or "displays" the same thing.

 

Obviously, you don't like the meter, but your response was just wrong, not to mention absolutely non-responsive to the question raised. David asked a serious question, and deserves a serious answer.

Alec is correct about the meters.

 

It is best to have someone check the meter that knows what they are looking for. I have worked on meters that were opened by people who didn't know what they were doing and have lost or broken the filters that are part of the modification. There are also meters that are modified and no longer have the modification stickers on them.

 

Another thing I see on these forums are people saying the meters will not work with color film. This is wrong. Color and black and white film sees light the same way. One of the tests I did when the meter was developed was to test it with color film. There are photographers that use this meter mainly for color work.