Very old thread I know but I am wondering if the PM45 will meter properly when using a10 stop ND filter.
All meters have a specified operating range which you can look up in the manual. For the PME45, it is:
- Spot metering: +1 to +21 EV (ISO 100)
- Integral: -1 to +19
- Incident: -3 to +17
(As a side note, I wonder why it goes as high as +21 EV, as the brightest value achieved by natural lighting is 16 EV!)
Now imagine that ambient lighting conditions are, say, 8 EV. Measuring through a 10-stop ND filter would reduce the apparent lighting value, seen by the camera, to -2 EV. This is outside the range of the meter, in other words it will not provide an accurate measurement.
Through the lens metering is good for the following reasons:
- it is more convenient than using an external meter (this is somewhat debatable with non-coupled meters such as the PME45 and subject to personal preference)
- no need for complex exposure calculations when using macro tubes or bellows
- with polarizers or color filters, which have a "reasonable" filter factor (less than 10 stop!), it takes the filter factor into account - BUT BEWARE that some meters are sensitive to the spectrum or polarization of the incoming light: the result might be wrong in that case.
Hope this helps
I personally use my PME45 almost 100% of the time nowadays. Only exception is when I want to reduce the bulk of the camera on specific occasions. With age however, my eyes not being what they were a few years ago, I realize that the waist level finder is getting more and more difficult to use... sad reality of life (I speak like an old fart again, better stop
)
Etienne