Less than a full stop bracketing with ETRSi

[cosmo]

I've searched photo.net and google but can't find the answer to this.

 

I'm new to MF and have only been shooting period for about a year. I

have a Bronica ETRSi with 40mm lens (full f-stop adjustments) and a

Sekonic L408. My question is this:

 

I take a reading of a scene and it says that at F11 I should use

1/200th - fine I can handle that :-) It's when it says that I should

shoot 1/200th @ F11 AND +2/3 that I come unstuck.

 

Is there a way to work out how to get that +2/3 on an ETRSi? given

it's "limited" aperture and shutter speed settings? I assume

(possibly incorrectly) that given a range of shutter speeds and

apertures that almost any exposure is possible - is there a table

somewhere?

 

Thanks for your help.

 

Marc

[tom_bowling1664874721]

1/3 stop should be within the film's latitude, even slide film. Is a 408 a spotmeter? I think so - I have the 508. If so, move it around the scene and take a series of readings. All sorts of things in your scene would probably be higher and lower than the simple reading you're taking. Read a few of them, note them down. Then you have to start making choices. Might be worth reading St Ansel Adams on light readings though lots of people are just as good without ever mentioning the dreaded zone system, which seems to have the status of a religion among American photographers.

[david_henderson]

Sounds like you have an older (E?) lens which has only full stop detents. The newer PE lenses have half stop detents I believe - or at least that's the way things work on the SQAi system. If you're setting the exposure manually then the lenses do close down between detents so that, taking your example setting the aperture half way between f11 and f16 will give you close to the exact exposure.

 

On a different issue I don't know how you're setting 1/200th manually, and it's best to try and set up your meter so that one of the parameters gives you a reading you can actually set on the camera. So for example the Sekonic 508 set to aperture priority will always give a shutter speed of 1/125; 1/250; 1/60 etc which corresponds to my available camera settings, whereas the f stop may contain a fraction. Having one dimension requiring mental gymnastics is OK; having both can lead to mistakes.

[trevor_littlewood]

Marc

 

You don't say what form of viewing you're using. If it's a waist level finder then you can only use the ETRSI in manual mode. If so, to bracket, your easiest method is to settle upon a shutter speed you're content with and then bracket using the f stop setting. That's perfectly easy simply be placing the index dot on the f stop ring 1/3 of the way between two main stop detents.

 

If as it seems you're using E series lenses, bracketing 1/3 stop fractions is probably a little easier than with the modern PE ones, because on the E's, there's no intermediate click stop between main f numbers for the ring to 'drop' into when you try to select a third. With a PE lens, if you try to set the ring at a third, that means it's only one sixth of the travel from the intermediate half stop position. Hope that's clear!

 

Using the AEII prism finder you can set 1/3 (and obviously 2/3) stop adjustments on the dial on which you set the film speed, you could of course also do it by altering the film speed itself -BUT- don't forget to change it back after! However if using a separate meter it's much easier to use the camera manually anyway so the first solution then applies. I don't have AEIII prism but it will be very similar and probably also give viewfinder info. that the exposure adjustment has been applied.

 

I too am a little puzzled as to how you would set 1/200, on the camera - in fact you can't, though via the AE prisms you can conjure it so that the camera will give you that, though with the AEII you wouldn't exactly know it! Perhaps you'd use 1/250 which would be close enough anyway. (Probably the AEIII will give LCD reading of intermediate shutter speeds.)

 

Trevor

[cosmo]

Thanks very much for your replies.

 

I have indeed got an older stlye lens with the full stop detents and am using a plain prism (or WLF) I didn't realise you could just move part way between them but tried it today and there was a noticable difference in aperture size - problem solved!

 

As for the 1/200th it was just an example and I just picked it out of my head :-) I'm not using it in any of my calculations.

 

Cheers