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Sekonic L558 and ALT mode aperture settings ... Hey Ellis, you out there?


stephen_ratzlaff

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I have a question regarding the L558 and the displayed aperture value.

 

In ALT mode you can set the L558 to display apertures in full stop,

1/3 stop or 1/2 stop increments.

 

I also have a Minolta Flash Meter VI which allows for "direct"

aperture value display (i.e. something different than the normal

aperture values we're so used to seeing). So in the "direct" mode the

meter can display non-full-stop apertures like f/6.7 or f/13.2 or

something similar to make working with cameras which display their

apertures this way a bit easier.

 

Now to my problem and question. Do the L558's ALT aperture display

settings (i.e. the 1/2 and 1/3 display increments) do pretty much the

same thing as the Minolta Flash Meter VI's "direct" setting?

 

I ask because with the L558 set up in ALT mode to display apertures in

1/2 stop increments and while measuring flash I can get the following

types of readings just by moving the meter ever so slightly (an inch

or so) forward or backward with the same exact lighting setup (or it

may also be slight variances in strobe output within 1/10th or 2/10ths

of a stop output between pops):

 

Reading_1:

f/16 4 for [f/16 + 4/10ths]. This is how I'd normally expect the meter

to display f-numbers.

 

Reading_2:

f/19 1 for [f/19 + 1/10th]. This is what I think is strange. I'd

expect the meter to display f/16 5 or f/16 6 or something similar. But

maybe this is where I'm not understanding the 1/2 stop ALT setting

properly. F/19 is a half stop more than f/16, so maybe this is how the

meter works in flash readings.

 

Anyhow, setting the meter's ALT setting to display apertures in

full-stop increments solves the problem and the display is then f/16

4, or f/16 5 or f/16 6 etc. as expected.

 

Anyone have any ideas?

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  • 2 weeks later...
I've been thrilled with the Direct aperture settings and use the 1/3 switch, as I find it much more self-explanatory than f/16 4/10s, which would not be the same as 16.4. I don't understand the half values with tenths either, but if you move switch 3 to direct, you lose the tenths, which is easier to comprehend for either half or third stop settings. Switch 4 controls that choice, and with third of a stop exposures (if your camera offers that - my 10d does), your f stops are 1.0, 1.1, 1.3, 1.4, 1.6, 1.8, 2.0, 2.2, 2.5, 2.8, 3.2, 3.6, 4.0, 4.5, 5.0, 5.6, 6.3, 7.1, 8.0, 9.0, 10, 11, 13, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 25, 29, 32, etc.. Since these are all a lot closer together than full stops, measurement is much more accurate. Shutter values are also more interesting, with 1/200, 1/160, 1/125, 1/100, 1/80, 1/60, 1/50, 1/40, 1/30, 1/25, 1/20, 1/15, 1/13 (!), 1/10, 1/8, 1/6, 1/5, 1/4, etc.. If f16.0 4/10s doesn't make sense, f18 will!
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