DSLR Metering?

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E.Jensen

E.Jensen

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Let me rephrase that last question so it makes more sense to me, if f/11 and 1/125th of a second is the correct exposure for a 35mm piece of film, if i were to put that piece of film into a 4x5 camera(i know it will only be part of the frame) and set the 4x5 to f/11 and 1/125th of a second, removing all other variables, the film should be exposed exactly the same in both cameras, correct?
 

Diapositivo

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You don't need to put your camera on the back of your 4x5 as asked in the OP. If the "correct" exposure for the scene you want to photograph is 1/125@f/11, however determined, and you use 1/125@f/11, you'll have the right exposure, bellows factor apart (see below).

If in order to determine your exposure you use a FSLR, or a DSLR, it's enough that you point the FSLR/DSLR to measure the same scene. You don't need the camera to be inside or behind the LF camera. Just have it frame the same scene from roughly the same point of view.

If your goal is to have an "internal" light meter that will take into account the bellows factor of your 4x5, then the answer to your question in #26 I suppose is no (it's 3 am so I'm not sure of anything :smile: ).

Suppose you have a bellows factor of 1 stop. Your DSLR at the focal plane, supposing you manage to have it not measure any stray light, tells you 1/125@f/11. As your bellows factor is 1 stop, that means that your LF lens must be set at 1/125@f/8 to give the "correct" exposure that you have determined being 1/125@f/11.

This means that you have to calculate and know in any case the bellows factor, and "factor it" in the exposure calculation, which probably defeats the entire exercise.

If you know the bellows factor, you can take a measure with your DSLR of the scene, use this as your base exposure, compensate it for the bellows factor, and set the compensated exposure on your LF lens.

Fabrizio
 

E. von Hoegh

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Let me rephrase that last question so it makes more sense to me, if f/11 and 1/125th of a second is the correct exposure for a 35mm piece of film, if i were to put that piece of film into a 4x5 camera(i know it will only be part of the frame) and set the 4x5 to f/11 and 1/125th of a second, removing all other variables, the film should be exposed exactly the same in both cameras, correct?

Correct. The "f" numbers are a ratio, as a means of setting exposure they are independant of format size and focal length.
But, using a DSLR as a meter is a kludge at best. Treat yourself to a decent handheld meter, it need not cost more than $50. You won't regret it, I promise you.
 

David A. Goldfarb

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If you know what you're doing, you can get accurate exposures by a variety of methods--spot metering, incident metering, or by using the internal meter of another camera. You just need to be aware of what the differences are, and what the strengths and weaknesses of each system are. If what you have now is a LF camera and a DSLR, then you can learn to use it to get consistent exposures for now. In general, I'd prefer to use a handheld meter or even rules of thumb and experience, but if you're the sort of photographer who always has both cameras anyway, then it could be more convenient to use the second camera as a meter.

To the person who said they tried it in the studio and were off, I'd guess it was forgetting bellows factor, because at studio subject distances, bellows factor is an issue with 4x5" and larger, but not with 35mm and smaller outside of macro work. If the exposures were with continuous or available light, there was probably also reciprocity, which doesn't seem to be an issue with digital (or daguerreotypes, interestingly enough).

So if you're using a DSLR (directly, not with an adapter on the view camera back--vignetting from the adapter and mirror box will make this a very limited option) or any meter, you calculate the base exposure, then add filter factor, bellows factor, and reciprocity in that order (as a shortcut, if I'm using the same filtration for many shots, I compensate in the ISO setting on the meter). Remember that with color film, reciprocity may also include small adjustments in filtration.

With a DSLR or other camera, you also need to be aware of some differences that can only be determined by testing, like inaccurate shutter speeds and difference in transmissive light loss between the LF lens and the SLR lens.

Another issue is that a DSLR sensor responds like color slide film, and you've got a lot more range with B&W neg film, so if you are shooting B&W, you'll want to use the spot metering setting on your SLR, if you have that option, to determine the brightness range of the scene, to see if you should adjust your development time to get a neg that prints well. If you don't have spot metering, then make some tests and look at the histogram, and learn how to correlate the histogram of the sensor to the histogram of the film, if you were to take readings with a densitometer and plot it. Don't have a densitometer? Then you make judgments like "if I'm just clipping the highlights and shadows in the histogram on the dslr, maybe I should develop -1" or "if the whole curve fits into 1/3 of the histogram space, I should try +2." You can shoot multiple negs, develop to different times, and test this.

If you're using a DSLR as an exposure meter and shooting color, you can fix the white balance on the DSLR to match the film and also use it as a color meter. Handy, eh?

If you want to use the DSLR as a visualizing tool for B&W filtration, and your camera has a B&W setting, shoot T-Max 100 in your LF camera--the spectral sensitivity is a lot like digital.
 

Chan Tran

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Correct. The "f" numbers are a ratio, as a means of setting exposure they are independant of format size and focal length.
But, using a DSLR as a meter is a kludge at best. Treat yourself to a decent handheld meter, it need not cost more than $50. You won't regret it, I promise you.

I doubt that a decent spot meter can be had for $50 not even $100. With many meters I actually rather guess at the exposure.
 

daleeman

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Lets beat this dead horse some more :whistling:
 

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daleeman

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One of my favorite movies is Office Space. Lost it when I saw this image and instantly thought of this thread.
 

Ken N

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Using a DSLR for metering, especially considering the ability to chimp images in the field, is fine. You will need to calibrate your system so you know what to expect from the film. Do a few calibration test shots under controlled conditions to learn what ISO offset to apply to the DSLR.

I have found that most DSLRs are slightly off when comparing midtones (the 18% gray). One of my cameras is off by 2/3. Now the ratings by DXO aren't even based on midtone, but on threshold. HUH?

In the old Kodak Professional Photoguide, it illustrates how you use various handheld meters and the offset you need to apply to the exposure when you hold it different ways.
 
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