How to meter the RB67?

marylandphoto · Mar 5, 2010

Hi. I recently purchased a used Mamiya RB67 Pro S. For those of you who have used the camera, how did you meter? Did you use a metered prism or handheld meter or perhaps another method? I'd appreciate any input you can give me; I've never used a camera like this before. Thank you for your time.

timk · Mar 5, 2010

Whichever way works best with you. There is a metered prism but most people I know use a handheld meter, I also know someone who takes a 35mm SLR with them and uses it's built in meter.

Curt · Mar 5, 2010

I use a spot meter with mine.

marylandphoto · Mar 5, 2010

Okay, thanks. One of the reasons I started this thread about a particular camera is I was wondering about the bellows...does the extension cause any loss of light not present in a camera that does not use them?

Neil Grant · Mar 5, 2010

I mostly use b/w neg film - for metering I usually use nothing more complicated than the 'end of the film box' complete with weather symbols (+1 stop) which I have taped to the back of the wlf. I find it's all to easy to get tied up with the complexities of metering. Ideally, when you enter a darkroom you should have a choice of differently exposed negs to print - especially if you're inexperienced. I also bracket a fair bit.

david_mizen · Mar 5, 2010

marylandphoto
my understanding of the rb67 is that there should be a graph on the righthand side of the camera which is an exposure compensation graph for use with the bellows extension there are different coloured lines for different lenses, the lines shows the amount of correction to be applied for the installed lens and amount of extension used. you will have to apply exposure correction on any camera when the lens is moved away from the film plane to achieve a larger image at the film plane

Jeff Kubach · Mar 5, 2010

I use a hand held meter for my RB67.

Jeff

rosscova · Mar 5, 2010

As David says, use the scale on the right hand side of the bellows to give you an idea of when to adjust for bellows extension. There are different scales for different lenses, but I've never bothered with that... Just focus and check the scale: if you can see grey bars, you'll need to add 1/2 stop to the meter reading. If you can see dark grey bars (almost full extension), add one full stop.

Keep in mind though, a prism meter should automatically compensate for this as soon as you focus, because it is metering through the lens. You only need to adjust for bellows extension when you're using a handheld meter, or a meter that isn't looking through the lens.

thisismyname09 · Mar 5, 2010

I've used the newer metered PD prism, the metered magnifying hood, as well as a handheld meter with the RB. All three are excellent if you know how to use them. The prism is a bit awkward to use if you're hand holding, not because of the weight, but because you can't hold the camera against your body as you can with a waistlevel. Using a metered viewfinder is nice because they will automatically compensate for the bellows extension and/or any filters you use.

marylandphoto · Mar 5, 2010

Thanks for the help, everyone. I have a 127mm lens for the camera...does the focusing distance selector at the front of the lens have any impact on focus, or is it just for depth of field calculation? The reason I ask this is that the exposure compensation chart on the side seems to be influenced somewhat by the focusing distance...

removed-user-1 · Mar 5, 2010

On the 127mm lens, the focus selector at the front of the barrel is just a depth-of-field scale. On the 50mm and 65mm lenses, it also adjusts a floating element for optical correction based on distance, but that doesn't actually change the focus as that's done entirely with the bellows. I haven't used any other RB lenses so can't tell you about them.

There is a thread here on APUG about (there was a url link here which no longer exists).

By the way, congrats on your purchase! The RB is a wonderful camera.

MattKing · Mar 5, 2010

In case it isn't clear, you only need to worry about correcting exposure for bellows extension when you are focussing close. A good rule of thumb is that if you are at least 8 times the lens' focal length away from the subject, the necessary correction is too small to worry about.

This means that for the 127mm lens, if you are one meter or more from your subject (or even one yard or more from your subject) than the necessary correction for bellows extension is so small as to be not worth worrying about.

In my case, I use a handheld meter with my RB - usually in incident mode.

Matt

Xmas · Mar 5, 2010

rthomas said:
On the 127mm lens, the focus selector at the front of the barrel is just a depth-of-field scale. On the 50mm and 65mm lenses, it also adjusts a floating element for optical correction based on distance, but that doesn't actually change the focus as that's done entirely with the bellows. I haven't used any other RB lenses so can't tell you about them.

There is a thread here on APUG about (there was a url link here which no longer exists).

By the way, congrats on your purchase! The RB is a wonderful camera.

That is correct the only floating RB lenses are the 50 and 65mm lenses, and you can leave the floating lens at the compromise setting if you are shooting in a hurry and can tolerate a compromise in lens performance.

Except the 140m (close up lens) which has a floating element that you set for the extension tube or tube combination you are using, and can tweak it for tube and bellows extension and read intermediate points for compensation on the scale.

The TTL prism avoids troubling with the extension scale compensation game except if you are using flash as primary source, fill in flash even more interesting. Normally you need flash for close up...

If you have the 140mm but and early RB then it is nice to have the focusing scale that came with the 140mm, to replace the earlier scale that does not have the 140mm lens exposure multipliers.

I'm doing this from memory, as this is a web book...

Noel

Chazzy · Mar 5, 2010

As I understand it, the metering prisms for the RB67 are incapable of controlling the shutter speed and aperture. Does that mean that one must read the exposure settings off of a scale and transfer them manually? That sounds a lot less convenient than the auto-exposure prisms for the RZ, although I would probably be using flash and a flash meter anyway (I'm still looking for reasons to choose between the RB and the RZ).

djhopscotch · Mar 5, 2010

Chazzy said:
As I understand it, the metering prisms for the RB67 are incapable of controlling the shutter speed and aperture. Does that mean that one must read the exposure settings off of a scale and transfer them manually? That sounds a lot less convenient than the auto-exposure prisms for the RZ, although I would probably be using flash and a flash meter anyway (I'm still looking for reasons to choose between the RB and the RZ).

On the RB's metered prisms you match the meter reading dial with a knob on the side of the prism. Then you transfer the shutter/f-stop from that dial to the camera.

2F/2F · Mar 5, 2010

In order of preference:

1. Hand held incident meter for exposure, and spot meter to read luminance range and tonal falls at the base exposure
2. Hand held incident meter alone
3. In-camera reflected meter and grey card, opening up 1/2 stop from suggested exposure
4. Spot meter and grey card, opening up 1/2 stop from suggested exposure
5. Spot meter alone
6. Educated guess
7. In-camera reflected meter, changing composition to meter what I want to meter, like a broad-view spot meter
8. In-camera reflected meter read directly off of the composition, with adjustments for how I think the meter is getting "fooled"
9. In-camera reflected meter read directly off of the composition with no adjustments (I never, ever use this method, so I wasn't sure if I should list it at all.)

Sjixxxy · Mar 5, 2010

2 methods.

1) Spot meter if I'm taking my time.
2) Best guess and an auto thyristor flash to pick up the slack if I'm not.

Xmas · Mar 7, 2010

Hi

If you are using both extension tubes and have the bellows racked out, then you need to dial in the correction from the focus scale into the thyristor speed/aperture setting.

Noel

Ric Trexell · Mar 7, 2010

Do you know about filter factors?

I take it you are not familiar with metering a camera like this. I just want to add that if you are using filters, you will need to know a little about filter factors. For example, a polarized used in the darkest area will cut out about 2 stops of exposure. So if your meter says to set the aperature at 16, set it to probably 8. Neutral density and colored filters also will have to be adjusted for. This information usually comes with the filter, but if you don't have it you can find it in books. Just thought I'd throw that in here in case you don't know about it. Ric.

How to meter the RB67?

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