[Black and White] Evaluative mode ??

Hi there !

 

I'm going to Santa Barbara this week-end and I wanted to shoot real

black and white. I usually shoot with my elan 7e with Ilford XP2 and

evaluative mode. No problem. Perfectly exposed neg. But the lattitude

of the film is different from real B&W ...

 

In short, the question is: Do you trust your evaluative metering when

shooting B&W ?? When do you use it ?? When don't you use it ??

 

Thanks for your help !

 

Fred

It's true that XP2, or any other chromogenic B&W film, has enormous latitude. However, you can get close to it with special developing techniques using regular B&W film like Tri-X or Delta 100.

 

The short answer to your question is that although I'm not a great fan of evaluative metering I would certainly trust it for any and all B&W films. Except perhaps ultra slow B&W material like Kodak Technical Pan, which I very much doubt is what you plan on using!

 

The areas where I don't trust evaluative metering, or at least not if there's a cloudless sky, is transparency film or digital, both of which only give about five or six stops of exposure latitude.

I use my Elan II as my meter for all my 4x5 B&W shots with Delta 100. I don�t often shoot B&W in 35mm. Evaluative metering works fine. I will check shadows for exposure if the scene has extreme contrast, but rarely have to change the exposure given by the evaluative mode. That being said, be aware of the instances where your meter can be fooled. Shooting back lit subjects, or scenes that are mostly white regularly fool the meter on my Canon.