Can't I use AE (by prism) in Bronica GS-1 with MLU ?

[alex_z]

After burning my first Velvia roll in a recently acquired GS-1 I was

confused getting the slides that were severely overexposed (apparently

by several stops). I was metering by center-weighted through my rotary

AE prism. The metering values were quite close to these produced by

matrix metering of my EOS-3.

Only one frame came out well exposed, but unfortunately I didn't

record the data, so no track information available.

 

Up until this moment, this fact has raised certain worries about my

GS-1 operability (metering seemed to be OK or near that, whilst the

film was burnt out severely), and only now I realize the possible

reason for that:

I was shooting with MLU almost entire film and prior to that, playing

woth teh camera I noticed once metering by the prism and then implyign

MLU - teh meter did not freezed up the exposure he suggested prior to

locking up teh mirror, but rather continued to measure and obviously

(mirror is up roducing darkness inside) pried to "light up" that

darkness inside the camera. I was wondering about that but quickly

forgot that fact.

 

Solution as I can imagine:

1. Either or meter manually and shoot in manual mode once shooting

with MLU;

2. Or meter by the prism prior to implying MLU, then switch to

Exposure Lock, imply MLU and shoot.

 

What else do I miss ?

[pavelp]

You can use the meter in prism for metering without exposure lock but you need to avoid AE mode (I believe it is marked by A on shutter speed dial). In manual mode (any of the speeds on dial), meter will still tell you how to set exposure but it has no control over camera settings, so once the mirror is up, your exposure settings will stay. The meter will see dark, but who cares, your exposure will be already correctly set.

 

It would be nice if camera could tell the prism that the mirror is up and to lock metering, but that's apparently not happening.