Can I rely on My K1000's Centre Weighted Metering?

[Andrew O'Neill]

 

[film4Me]

Interesting. I have the same meter in my Pentax KM. I've often walked up to the subject and taken a reading and mostly ignored the surrounds. This video explains the situation clearly for achieving extra shadow detail. In the past I've also taken two readings of a contrasty scene and averaged the readings, which I found works pretty well too.

Thanks.

 

[mshchem]

My first real 35mm camera was a Pentax SP 500. Eventually added a Pentax ES, screw mount cameras. I made great pictures with these cameras. Just matched up the needle, or with the ES set to auto. I had to be cool so I traded these in for Nikon F2S, this camera is more center weighted. I bet my color slide success rate dropped by 75%. I rarely use in camera meters unless it's something like a Nikon F5 with matrix metering on auto pilot. I'm better off guessing. I'm actually pretty good at guessing. I use an incident meter. Pretty boring approach

 

[RalphLambrecht]

My first real 35mm camera was a Pentax SP 500. Eventually added a Pentax ES, screw mount cameras. I made great pictures with these cameras. Just matched up the needle, or with the ES set to auto. I had to be cool so I traded these in for Nikon F2S, this camera is more center weighted. I bet my color slide success rate dropped by 75%. I rarely use in camera meters unless it's something like a Nikon F5 with matrix metering on auto pilot. I'm better off guessing. I'm actually pretty good at guessing. I use an incident meter. Pretty boring approach

As far as reflective meters go(which measure lumination) and not illumination, as incident meters do, matrix metering is by far the best, followed by center-weighted systems. Average metering is only reliable with average scenes. Incident metering is great with scenes that are well illuminated but have objects of large contrast distribution (white in front of black or visa versa). Nevertheless, the results are similar to 'sunny 16', which often works just fine. A center-weighted reflected system is a good choice and with some experience, a pretty robust way to go.