6008i: 2-stop meter overexposure?

[jhbeckman]

I was just doing some shooting with my 6008i and had an unusual

experience.

 

I almost always use a handheld, as I did in this case; however, the

recommended exposures were so different, I tested the Rollei on spot

against a hand-held with spot and against another camera with spot.

 

The Rollei overexposed by 2.3 stops against the other devices.

 

I made sure I was using the same ISO settings among the different

devices, and I made sure that the exposure compensation was set to

the same (0) on all of them. The Rollei consistently recommended 2.3

stops more exposure.

 

I cannot absolutely recall calibrating it against other devices

before (though that is customarily my habit, so I would remember this

kind of discrepancy). And I am pretty sure that I have gotten

perfectly fine results relying on nothing other than the in camera

meter (though, as I said, I usually carry and rely on a hand meter).

 

I'm re-charging up a battery now, though I do not think that is the

issue.

 

Any thoughts or similar experiences?

[thomas_diekwisch1]

Unfortunately your observation is accurate, under certain conditions. It's one of the few weak spots of the 6008i. I was told it was corrected in the AF. Hopefully, that's true.

 

So, what are the certain conditions? The camera indeed overexposes up to 2 stops in bright sunlight, e.g. mid-day sun, with lots of blue in the spectrum. To make things worse, it underexposes to the same degree at sunset, you may have guessed, with lots of red in the spectrum.

 

Explanation? It doesn't take a physics major to figure out that the 6008i light meter hasn't been corrected for the redshift which is a typical feature of silicium blue cells. Can't really comprehend why every other manufacturer on planet Earth does it and Rollei doesn't. At least not considering the price of the camera. BTW, in a balanced spectrum, overcast sky, etc., the light meter is quite on target.

 

You should trust your handheld light meters. Alternatively, you can compensate for the 6008i by using the override features of the camera, which is quite easy to do if you know what's wrong. I kind of got used to it, but it took me a number of rolls and some lost precious shots to figure out. Actually the problem was even more pronounced in the SLX and 6006 given their other control issues.

 

Just out of curiosity, please verify that your recent measurements were in bright sunlight?

[roy_jackson2]

My 6008i experience has been that for transparency films it overexposes by about 2/3 of a stop. For 100 speed films I set the magazine at 160. This is for all lighting conditions. For negative films I set the magazine at film speed which results in a slightly overexposed neg ... which I like.

[fwstutterheim]

John, Any results of your shooting? How about the angle of measurement of your spotmeters? Did you check center weight measurement? Just some questions. Ferdi.

[jhbeckman]

Thomas -- Interesting, but my findings didn't fit the pattern, I'm afraid: my photographs were not being taken in daylight; they done indoors using window light from the side.

 

Ferdi -- I should have contacts sheets pretty soon, but I am was not rigorous about marking down which shots were based on the hand-held meter and which shots used the camera's meter. As I mentioned, I checked the readings against a hand-held spot meter and two other cameras with built-in meters with spot capability. The other units all agreed with one another (within reason) and disagreed vastly with the Rollei. I tried to make the spot angle the same for all to the best of my ability (I was careful to be sure I had the spot meter set on the Rollei); regardless, though, I tested the meters against uniform surfaces -- an off-white wall, a green chalkboard, a royal blue duffel bag. Got the same results each time. I also tried it with two different lenses -- same result.