I don't have a Minolta Auto Meter V F. But if it's like my Minolta Auto Meter IV F, to measure reflective light, you need a "reflected-light attachment" which is a simple piece of black plastic, with a hole in the center. The reflected-light attachment is included with the meter.
I also have a 5-degree viewfinder, but it costs extra, and may be difficult to find.
You can download the manual from here.
Is their a manual in your life? Check the butkus site--probably one there.
Those buggers are hard to find; I lost mine and now just use it as incident. Gerry, one thing you probably already know is that the attachment is a 40 degree reflective meter, as I recall, which means you gotta be pretty careful what you point it at! That's a pretty wide range and if you have something very bright or very dark w/in that 40 degrees it'll throw the reading off.
Incident is king for me although there are times when I'd like to take a spot reading.
The disc with a hole in it is the piece I just bought. I wondered if the 5' finder was necessary to make the disc work properly.
The disc for reflected light has REF printed in white on the front. I have a couple of them. It gives a very wide angle of view, nearly useless in my opinion. Get the 5 degree or 10 degree (easier to find) viewfinder, it is put on instead of the REF disk and gives reflected readings in a narrow angle of view with a viewfinder you can use to aim it. Even though they're a lot wider than a true spotmeter, both are much more usable than the REF disk. The 10 degree goes for about $40-50 on ebay. I paid $75 for mine new back in the old days when Minolta still made meters, so the ebay price isn't bad today. The 5 degree goes for about $80 on ebay but I got lucky and snagged mine for $45!
Gerry, when you remove one of the incident light attachments (flat disk or hemisphere), and replace it with the reflected light disk (with the hole in it), the Autometer IVf had a metal pin in the head which detected which type of attachment which was in place. Defection of the pin would alter the sensitivity of the meter...if you removed the attachments and actuated the pin while taking a reading, you could see the result change on the displayed suggestion for exposure. The Autometer IVf might have issues, with the pin deflection not working properly at times, so if you actuated the pin by hand a few times, that would usually restore correct pin function. Sometimes such manual actuation was not sufficient, and the meter needed to be sent back to Minolta for service.
The Autometer Vf does not have this metal pin in the head, but instead has what looks like a plastic attachment rotational-stopping feature at about 5 o'clock position. If you actuate this (push it down, flush with the surrounding surface) it should change the reading about 5EV when working correctly.
The reflected light attachment as an angle of acceptance which is equivalent to using a normal lens with a camera...about 45 degrees.
I have the 10 degree spot meter attachment (purchased when I had an Autometer IVf) and it is quite accurate.
BINGO!!! That was the problem. There is no auto engagement on the disc to depress the pin. I can live with that. A big Thank You for your help. I'll still look for the spot attachment.
Gerry
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