metering blasphemy!

Just a question.... Right now I can't afford to buy a dedicated light

meter. Can I use a smaller camera that I already have to meter for my

4x5 camera?

 

Cheers

-vic

Dear Victor,

 

I did just that for almost a year. I finally ran across a cheap spotmeter (not a great performer, but it seems to do the job) and it made shooting 4x5 a lot easier.

Yes- it's been done. More bulk to tote around. Helps if the camera is accurate. Use longish lens for spotmeter. Beware of zooms that change aperture (actual aperture, not marked aperture) as you zoom.

Contrary to the sales and camera companies the sunny 16 rule will work over 90% of the time. Just do some testing and you'll never need a meter again. Whites will be white and blacks black. And everything else will fall in the right area. You can easily adjust up and down the zone scale by exposure changes. Easy and saves you lots of money and stress.

A lot of people have done this. WOrks fine.

 

Another alterrnative worth considering is the Sverdlovsk 4 meter.

 

You'll find them on ebay for $20-30. They were made in the 80's in Ukrania I believe. I've got one, and for $20, I'm perfectly happy with it. It seems quite accurate. It agrees with my EOS cameras and my fancy Seconic meter.

 

It's a little odd to use, but I actually really like it-- you look through it like a spotmeter, but it's not a spotmeter-- it has an angle of view like a moderate telephoto.

 

The problem I had with using my camera as a meter was that I would have different speed films in the two cameras and inevitably expose one or the other wrong.

I concur with the recomendation of the sunny 16 rule. With a little practice it becomes second nature. If you use a compensating developer, minor exposure errors will fall within the latitude of the film. Try it, you might be surprised.

 

Jay

<I>Can I use a smaller camera that I already have to meter for my 4x5 camera?</I>

<P>Why these complex answers to a simple question?<P> As

long as you aren't doing close up work, yes. Closeup work requires factoring bellows

extention factors.

I use a spot meter nearly all the time, and I'm surprised at how often I shoot pretty close to the "sunny f16" exposure.

a dedicated light meter doesn't calculate bellows factors either!

Yes you can.

 

Or you can use the sunny 16 rule (especially if using B+W negative film)

 

I'll put in another vote for the Sverdlovsk 4. They work well, not too big, have narrow view reflective and incident options and take just about any 3.5-4.5v battery that can be made to fit. You can get them off ebay for US$15-25 boxed.

 

Paul

Works for me, as does the sunny/16 rule in good weather outdoors.

I think I will use my canon s50 to meter then to blow a bajillion dollars on a new meter

 

Cheers

-vic

I don't get it,.. You spend money on 4x5 camera, half decent lenses, (I presume), holders, accessories etc,.. then you try to cut corners on something as important as light meter? Assuming that you don't have enough experience to work without the meter.

I'm sorry if I have ofended anybody,

Well... presuming that using a prosumer Canon P+S has a significantly crappier light meter than a light meter. For me it's not cutting corners, rather its financial sense. I'd rather save the cash for film and processing.

 

My 4x5 stuff is from years back.. I'm just dusting it off.

 

Cheers

I think the situation is more like: you spend what little you have on a camera, a lens, scrape together enough for a few holders, hangers, tanks, supplies, etc... and hope to do without a meter for awhile because you're out of money. That version sounds familiar to me.

 

After all, one of the great things about large format is that with that giant negative you can still get really fine images without the latest, sharpest lenses or even a modern camera. Great bang for the buck, but when you're trying to get started it adds up.

 

Of course, in my case, the equipment is defintely _not_ the limiting factor in my images. But that's another story...

I'm probably not the one to ask, but what the heck.

 

On ebay search for GE PR-1. Look for one with it's incident adaptor. Should cost less than

$10 and it will probably be the best little selenium meter you could ever hope to find. The

manual is available for free online via a google on the name.

 

If you don't care for selenium, it gets a wee bit more difficult...

 

William

Yes, blasphemy.

 

Thou hast grievous sinned....

 

Before I got a good meter I used to meter the palm of my hand with a regular ol' meter, nothing fancy. Open up one stop and you've got it. Very similar to "sunny 16". Open up one stop on overcast days.

 

In other words, use whatever works, and don't worry about what anybody else says. If you're getting out and photographing, using your equipment instead of sitting around talking about it, you've got an ace in the hole already.

 

When you can afford it, shop around and find the meter you want. Or, if you can't afford it, get a used older one that works well when you can afford that. Just so long as you can buy film, too.

 

Until then -- you got any prints to show? You can post 'em here, you know....

I'll see what I can do..... I'm sorely in need of practice.

why not go the whole hog and use a digital....that way you can previsualize as well...good when i comes to high contrast scenes.

if you use a camera or a meter, make sure it is calibrated accurately, invest in a wallace expodisk, which is much cheaper than a meter, and it comes with instructions, to calibrate your "in camera" meter, you can also use it to preflash your film if you need more lower value details.

Yes you can use an in-camera light meter. And you will get the same results as you always did with it. Either over exposed or under exposed negs. Either flat or too contrasty a neg. There are two reasons to use a large format. One is the flexibility of prospective (movements) and the other is the ability to develope each negative separately to get the correct contrast range. To just use the sunny f16 rule is ok if you don't care about the contrast range of the negative. Hell just use f8 and be there. You'll get a neg that you can print every time. But the work to print it and get a nice print will be great. The whole reason to use a spot meter is to know what the contrast range was in the scene and expose accordingly and then process in order to bring the negative within the range of the paper you will be printing on. When I teach I find that most people can't get a decent print because they don't have a decent negative. And that is because they didn't expose and process the neg properly. So if you want negs that will give you great prints consistently, get a spot meter. If you just want to shoot film and don't care if you get good results consistently, then use your point and shoot as a meter and shoot away. And no amount of contrast adjustment in the darkroom will give you the same results as exposing and processing the film properly.

I love my Weston Master II I got off E bay for about $12.00.