Deleted member 88956
That quote is spot on. FP sold a lot of good stuff even if many items were overhyped from several angles. But I think me was not alone to find his preaching helpful and no doubt he was right on many sibjects that made a photograph techincally better. Kind of too bad he was so so a photographer, which undercut value of some of his preaching.
When he put out a product he made sure some weight was behind it to drive sales, and when a Harvard professor puts his name in, it sure makes things harder to argue validity of claims. I used Zone VI darkroom timer for several years and found it great to use, sort of unsofisticated sofistication like many of his products.
Back to light meter though, there are long discussions on modifications done by Zone VI. One important point made was ... if the claim says it makes meter see like B&W film, WHICH film were they referring to?
No matter how extensive a testing they had done, surely compromises had to be part of the game, if the meter was to really make a universal difference regardless of film in use. When we add how meter is actually used, and all other variables from shooting to processing ... those Penatx guys must have had hard time doing anything right, if indeed a small shop in Vermont had to fix it for them.