mark_lang3

<p>From what you both have said, it seems that the zone system is useful to know because it gets you to think more about the exposure of the entire composition, but is not as practical as using the averaged metering or by using a substitute that fills the entire field as Stephen Lewis said. Thank you for the help both of you!</p>

<p>Thank you for the responses. The reason I am wanting a spot meter is because I want to try using the the zone system in my shots, I do mainly urban landscape shots and street photography. </p> <blockquote> <p ><a href="/photodb/user?user_id=17200">David Henderson</a><a href="/member-status-icons"><img title="Hero" src="/v3graphics/member-status-icons/hero.gif" alt="" /></a>, Aug 22, 2016; 08:47 a.m.</p> <p>You'd be getting major over-exposure since the meter isn't altered by what you propose and would get much of its readings from areas you have made black. If you need a spot-meter you'll have to buy one <strong>though many people meter successfully without one especially if they're using neg. film rather than slides.</strong></p> </blockquote> <p><strong><br /></strong>Just curious, do you say this because negative film has a lot more latitude than slide film, and that even with center weighted metering on a high contrast scene it is still likely that you will get a properly exposed shot with negative film? Would using the zone system be considered overkill as far as effort taken to compose a shot with negative film?</p>

<p>I have a Canon AE-1 which has center weighted metering and rather than buying a light meter with a spot meter attachment I was trying to think of a way to get spot metering out of what I have or with minimal additional parts. What I came up with was this: buying a front lens cap and drilling a hole (somewhere around 0.5" or 0.25" diameter) so that light only reaches the lens through that small aperture and lands directly on the center of the lens. However, this would allow a very wide angle of light to pass through, so I was thinking of 3D printing a small cylinder out of black material with as little reflectivity as possible, with an inner diameter that is the same as the drilled hole, and making it long enough to get the viewing angle down to less than 5 degrees (maybe 2 inches long or so), and then affixing this to the lens cap. So basically it is a goofy looking attachable lens cap with a cylinder sticking out to only let in 5 degrees of light to the lens so that it falls directly on the center. Would this be an effective way for spot metering or would I get bad results?</p>