Haunted FE2 Light Meter....

[fotoobscura]

It was a dark and stormy night..

And I was trying to shoot off the last few frames. Looking at the TV (a crt) I decided to shoot the last few frames of Ali fighting Frasier. As I squared off and focused the image I noticed the meter going absolutely nuts. Now I've shot TV's before without this effect but for some reason this TV was either broken or bombarding my camera with so much RF that it was freaking the meter out. At first I had theorized (and still do, I suppose) that the camera is picking up the scan lines and metering the scene so well that it was vacillating between odd/even fields.

I could be full of it so I encourage others to consider why my meter freaks out in front of a boxing match.

We'll see how the film turns out...you know, with orbs and what not.

Yeah.

 

[Markok765]

Magnetics?

 

[Sirius Glass]

Batteries going?

Steve

 

[fotoobscura]

Batteries are okay...Now, after developing the foto:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9093035@N06/3660426572/

It appears I may have been right- that it's capturing inbetween fields. Interesting..

Batteries going?

Steve

 

[archphoto]

The pic you show: shutterspeed too high, should be around 1/15 second.

The behavour of your lightmeter: if it uses a photo-transistor or diode it's normal: photo transistors and diodes are very fast, if you aim one to tube-light, you can actualy pick-up the sinus wave of the power outlet.
That is why you need a DC operated light for a shutterspeed tester.

TL flickers constantly and has a green component, that is why I don't like them: the brain is constantly correcting these things and it tires you.

Peter

 

[fotoobscura]

Seems to me that the shutter speed is at almost exactly 1/60th of a second showing half a frame @ 30fps. Also seems that 1/30th of a sec. (e.g. ~30fps) would show the entire frame providing I time it right...Which would be impossible.. Seems @ 1/15th the image would blur two frames together.

Either way, interesting.

Thanks.

The pic you show: shutterspeed too high, should be around 1/15 second.

The behavour of your lightmeter: if it uses a photo-transistor or diode it's normal: photo transistors and diodes are very fast, if you aim one to tube-light, you can actualy pick-up the sinus wave of the power outlet.
That is why you need a DC operated light for a shutterspeed tester.

TL flickers constantly and has a green component, that is why I don't like them: the brain is constantly correcting these things and it tires you.

Peter

 

[fotoobscura]

Actually based on what you're saying this becomes very interesting. The image appears to have been shot at 1/60 which would agree with what you said regarding picking up the sine frequency of the ac power (60hz)...So the 60hz wave from the a/c is controlling the shutter speed..

Cool.

 

[domaz]

Most CRTs update at 60HZ. Computer monitors can go much higher.

 

[John_Nikon_F]

My F3P was going bonkers earlier today when I was comparing it to my FE2. Granted, the refresh rate on my monitor is 120Hz, so the needle of the FE2 was too well damped to notice the change. A couple years ago, I had an FE that kept going bonkers whenever I pointed it @ the monitor, but I think I was using an older Sony monitor that I think I had set to 85Hz. Current monitor is a Viewsonic P95f 19 incher.

-J