F100 - slide film.

[RaymondC]

<p>I am spending some time with the F100, not shot film for a long time which when I was in EU the dSLR was in service, I chose to use C41 because it was easier lol. </p>

<p>Anyway. This time I am using slide film. Some in the freezer. I have read and read from a book of mine, which it is an older book which is based on a CW light meter or a spot meter. How well is 3D Matrix with slide film? Would you just rely on that or would you meter carefully? I don't want the sky to fool the frame. Also Velvia 50 RVP should be fine for night shots right with an understanding to overexpose for long shutter times. Not doing portraiture so Velvia can be good for everything else right?</p>

<p>I am just about to download the Velvia datasheet. </p>

<p>Cheers.</p>

[walterh]

<p>Well careful metering is always preferred to guesswork by a small computer-chip in a camera (called matrix metering). Obviously metering by hand and "biocomputer" is not only better but also more tedious and time consuming. Just to carry Ansel Adams book and a zone system calculator with you all the time is annoying (just joking). On the other hand the metering system of the F100 is fast and not bad at all as you probably already know.</p>

<p>You could bring a digital camera along and if set up well use the histogram and the image on the LCD to find optimal exposure.</p>

<p>A more personal taste: Unless you want to project slides I see no reason not to shoot negative film. Negatives give you more playroom for scanning and professional wet printing. If you always have bright but low contrast light that may be different.</p>

[anthony_valvo]

<p>I think you will find that matrix works quite well for slide film. I use an F6 and F4 without much issue in most scenes. Where you need to be careful is in high contrast scenes. If using Velvia, you have about five stops of latitude to work with. This means you sometimes have to pick and choose just how you want the shadows or highlights to exposed. Sometimes compromises need to be made.<br>

Now to do this all you really need is to understand Spot metering. Theres plenty of information out there, but its not hard to do. <br>

My technique for most landscapes is first to meter the scene in matrix. Then I switch to Spot and I check where the highlights, shadows, and midtones will fall at the camera's suggested exposure setting. If I need to make changes then I do. So for instance, I could sacrifice some detail in the shadows (let them go darker) in order to get a more deep blue sky, etc. <br>

Its all about choices. However, I will say with confidence that your matrix exposure is likely to be within 1/3 stop of the correct exposure about 90% of the time. I would not worry to much.<br>

I rarely use CW metering, except for portraits.<br>

Slide film is great. You will love the results of Velvia. For true color and fine grain, go with Astia. Astia is also great for high contrast winter scenes, as it holds detail in the highlights very well.<br>

Have fun an good luck.</p>

<p>Here is some recent Velvia color. Its hard to get this with negative film.</p>

<p>Anthony</p>

<p> </p><div></div>

[somak_ray]

<p>I use a Nikon F5, and matrix metering with AF lenses most of the times. The results are just perfect.<br>

For AI-s lenses the CW metering is also aboslutely fine with most type of scenes. Of course you've to be extra cautious when shooting very contrasty scenes like those of sunrise, sunsets etc. But then the spot meter is there to help you.</p>

[photo5]

<p>Matrix metering on the F100 is pretty good, remember it isn't RGB Matrix metering like on the F5, D70, and D200/D2/300/700/3 series. Shooting a white wall is still shooting a white wall, you want to open up a couple stops. Same for shooting a black wall. The meter sees in neutral grey, regardless of matrix metering. Matrix metering just helps it see different parts of the frame at different times and try to compute what it could be seeing. I found the metering on my F3HP to be the most reliable metering I'd ever used when shooting slides, as good or better than the Matrix metering on the F100 and 35Ti. I haven't shot slides for a couple years and I miss it. Planning to shoot some frozen Kodachrome this summer with the F100.</p>

[Two23]

<p>I always found the matrix meter on the F100 to be fairly predictible and reliable. Obvious exceptions such as photo'ing a white snowy scene or black steam engine, of course. The F100 meter was more consistent than the one on the D80 anyway.<br>

Kent in SD</p>

[photo5]

<p>Kent, don't get me started on the terrible matrix meter of the D80!!!</p>

[Peter_in_PA]

<p>Dave,</p>

<p>Weren't you the guy who rather strenuously defended that D80's metering here?<br>

<a href="http://www.photo.net/nikon-camera-forum/00L9nL">http://www.photo.net/nikon-camera-forum/00L9nL</a></p>