OM-1n long exposures

[donaldamacmillan]

<p>Hi folks</p>

<p>Hope someone can give me some advice .... I'm almost certainly making a 'brave' decision ... At the end of this week i'm almost certainly taking my OM-1n plus a couple of Zuiko lenses with me on my week's holiday to the Scottish Western Isles .... I've not used my OM-1n as much as i'd have liked by now so i'm wondering how i best achieve good creative exposures using Cokin P neutral densities? </p>

<p>Any tips and suggestions re correct metering/exposures most gratefully received! </p>

<p>Kindest regards<br>

Donaldo</p>

 

[SCL]

<p>If I recall correctly, the camera will automatically adjust for the ND filters (at least I know the OM-2 does). If you want to check a manual, I think one is here: www.butkus.org</p>

 

[chrisnielsen]

The camera meters thru the filter but it is match needle exposure so once you get past one second you are effectively

stuffed, you will need to meter with an external meter then apply filter factor and then shoot on B with a cable release An

om2n would be much better for this with its awesome autoexposure

[luis_g]

<p>Do not forget to compensate for reciprocity failure with long exposures, and it's probably not a bad idea to bracket anyway. I would use a hand-held meter --- and at least shoot one practice roll of long exposures with the camera before going on your trip.</p>

[matthew_newton]

<p>The camera does not meter effectively below about 1/4s at ISO400. Adjust that by about a shutter speed stop per f/stop of ISO sensitivity. This is in large part because of how the meter works and the ISO dial. So at ISO1600 it is really only accurate to about 1/15s, at ISO100 it is accurate to about 1s.<br>

I'd personally use a hand held light meter. Its what I normally do. Then adjust based on what strength ND filter you are using, try to add a little compensation for reciprocity failure, and then attempt a little bracketing if you can.</p>

<p>Anything longer than 1s and you should probably add about 50% to the exposure length and beyond around 5s probably about double the exposure length. That was my rule of thumb and usually got me fairly usable images. That said I haven't done all that much long exposure photography with my OM-1 (a few dozen frames, mostly star trails, a few full moon, midnight scenes).</p>

<p>If you are going for a night time shot where your handheld light meter won't even give you a reading (I don't remember the sensitivity of my Sekonic, but I think it'll go to like ISO100, f/1 and 30s, whatever that EV level corresponds to, like -5EV or something). Full moon figure correct exposure is, I think, 30 seconds at ISO400 and f/2.8, not including reciprocity failure. Half moon would be double that exposure length, quarter moon double again. No moon...well a really long time.<br>

30-45 seconds using ISO400 color film and f/2 or f/2.8 has gotten me a number of good night time exposed full moon pictures</p>

[lex_jenkins]

<p>With the OM-1 and Canon FTbn I found the match needle meter display very difficult to read in dim light, especially with heavy filters. I'd generally use an incident meter other than for nighttime exposures. For the latter I used to guesstimate until I found <a href="http://www.fredparker.com/ultexp1.htm">Fred Parker's Ultimate Exposure Computer</a> charts, which greatly simplified matters by extending the "sunny 16" guide down into the netherworld of really dark scenarios.</p>

<p>Beyond that, just account for the reciprocity characteristics of your film. I found Fuji Reala very friendly stuff for long nighttime exposures. For color slides, Sensia and Provia worked well enough, tho' Sensia seemed to show more color shifts. In b&w T-Max 100 has excellent reciprocity characteristics but Fuji fans say Acros has it beat - virtually no reciprocity failure.</p>