Over exposing film. Change the ISO or use the Exposure Compensation?

Cholentpot · Aug 3, 2017

I shoot mainly expired film and as a rule I over expose by a stop or two. My question is, does it make a difference changing the ASA/ISO setting or using the exposure compensation dial if the camera has one?

For instance, I can load some expired Gold 200 into my F3 and set the ISO at 100 or set the exposure compensation at +1. Would it make any difference or is it doing the same thing?

This comes into play when using a DX only camera such as my Olympus IS-300. Either I can hack the DX on the can or just use the exposure comp dial on the camera.

Thanks.

Chan Tran · Aug 3, 2017

On camera without manual ISO settings you can simply dial in the EC and it works the same way. You can indeed hack the DX code. Painting or srapping of the paint on the cassette or buy some DX labels. Looking at this link
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DX_encoding
If you use ISO 200 film and want to change it to 100 you can put a piece of tape over one of the unpainted square.

wiltw · Aug 3, 2017

Same thing. On many older cameras (ISO is manually set), the EC adjustment knob is concentric with the ISO setting knob...the use of EC is merely causing a displacement of the numbers displayed, but electrically the end result is identical.

On cameras that set ISO electronically via codes on cassette exterior, the EC control does have electrical effect.

Cholentpot · Aug 3, 2017

Chan Tran said:
On camera without manual ISO settings you can simply dial in the EC and it works the same way. You can indeed hack the DX code. Painting or srapping of the paint on the cassette or buy some DX labels. Looking at this link
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DX_encoding
If you use ISO 200 film and want to change it to 100 you can put a piece of tape over one of the unpainted square.

I've done this. It works well.

Mainecoonmaniac · Aug 3, 2017

It's called 6 of 1 or half dozen of the other. The results are the same. You could set the ASA to be 50 or use the +1 compensation.

Cholentpot · Aug 3, 2017

wiltw said:
Same thing. On many older cameras (ISO is manually set), the EC adjustment knob is concentric with the ISO setting knob...the use of EC is merely causing a displacement of the numbers displayed, but electrically the end result is identical.

On cameras that set ISO electronically via codes on cassette exterior, the EC control does have electrical effect.

Great. For a while I wasn't using a few of my cameras because I couldn't change the ISO easy. This makes sense.

Cholentpot · Aug 3, 2017

Mainecoonmaniac said:
It's called 6 of 1 or half dozen of the other. The results are the same. You could set the ASA to be 50 or use the +1 compensation.

Thanks.

rrusso · Aug 4, 2017

I don't use EC in the "traditional" way, or the way it's "meant" to be used, if there is such a thing.

Maybe I'm weird and/or doing it wrong, but I'll typically keep the EC at -2 (sometimes -3) and then spot meter a shadowed area of the scene. Camera is usually in aperture priority. That way, I'm more certain to get just the barest hint of shadow detail where it's intended with less work in the darkroom.

If the scene is tricky, or if I think it'll be too tough or impossible to get the highlights where I would like them, then I'll just leave everything as normal and bracket...but I dislike doing that because I think bracketing is a waste of film.

I find perfectly exposed shots to be boring...most of the time.

I lean toward making darker, moody images, so the shadows and their quality is top priority. Could just be that I'm a weirdo, I dunno...

Cholentpot · Aug 4, 2017

rrusso said:
I don't use EC in the "traditional" way, or the way it's "meant" to be used, if there is such a thing.

Maybe I'm weird and/or doing it wrong, but I'll typically keep the EC at -2 (sometimes -3) and then spot meter a shadowed area of the scene. Camera is usually in aperture priority. That way, I'm more certain to get just the barest hint of shadow detail where it's intended with less work in the darkroom.

If the scene is tricky, or if I think it'll be too tough or impossible to get the highlights where I would like them, then I'll just leave everything as normal and bracket...but I dislike doing that because I think bracketing is a waste of film.

I find perfectly exposed shots to be boring...most of the time.

I lean toward making darker, moody images, so the shadows and their quality is top priority. Could just be that I'm a weirdo, I dunno...

I know I'll get it for this...

It's 2017 and we're shooting a obsolete, low fidelity, small format, photo medium that needs to be processed in potentiality dangerous chemicals. We are weirdos.

Chan Tran · Aug 4, 2017

Cholentpot said:
I know I'll get it for this...

It's 2017 and we're shooting a obsolete, low fidelity, small format, photo medium that needs to be processed in potentiality dangerous chemicals. We are weirdos.

Certainly you do. Not so much for your view but rather you post in the wrong forum because you're not an APUG.

Prest_400 · Aug 4, 2017

rrusso said:
I don't use EC in the "traditional" way, or the way it's "meant" to be used, if there is such a thing.

Maybe I'm weird and/or doing it wrong, but I'll typically keep the EC at -2 (sometimes -3) and then spot meter a shadowed area of the scene. Camera is usually in aperture priority. That way, I'm more certain to get just the barest hint of shadow detail where it's intended with less work in the darkroom.

Could just be that I'm a weirdo, I dunno...

Actually not, I think some cameras do have a "Shadow Spot" meter setting which does just that. Basically reading shadows and compensating the 18% midtone reading given so it corresponds to shadow.

My EVIL (pun intended) digicam has that setting, as well as a Spot High (similar but +2EV or so), although I barely used them.

removed account4 · Aug 4, 2017

Chan Tran said:
If you use ISO 200 film and want to change it to 100 you can put a piece of tape over one of the unpainted square.

thanks for that link and the words of advice !
i have never seen that until now and remember back in the day
scraping off some of the squares to make them "look like" the film
that was in a disposible camera, so we could reload it with film ..
now i know why we did it

Cholentpot · Aug 4, 2017

Chan Tran said:
Certainly you do. Not so much for your view but rather you post in the wrong forum because you're not an APUG.

35mm cameras etc...I figured this is the place to ask about 35mm cameras yes?

I'm sorta not following your sentence structure.

jnanian said:
thanks for that link and the words of advice !
i have never seen that until now and remember back in the day
scraping off some of the squares to make them "look like" the film
that was in a disposible camera, so we could reload it with film ..
now i know why we did it

I learned this trick a while back. It seems to work for me pretty well. I think it's really only one row that matters anyhow. Disposable camera film these days has no DX coding on it. Just a plain white generic looking can.

Chan Tran · Aug 5, 2017

jnanian said:
thanks for that link and the words of advice !
i have never seen that until now and remember back in the day
scraping off some of the squares to make them "look like" the film
that was in a disposible camera, so we could reload it with film ..
now i know why we did it

When you reload disposable camera you don't have to do anything with the DX code as the camera doesn't read the DX code any way. The camera has fixed exposure settings.

removed account4 · Aug 5, 2017

Chan Tran said:
When you reload disposable camera you don't have to do anything with the DX code as the camera doesn't read the DX code any way. The camera has fixed exposure settings.

i wish we knew that ! LOL
it was a hassle doing that stuff
now that i think about it, they were reloaded cassettes
( bulk loaded film ) so we might have used a sharpie and made our own patchwork grid.
whatever we did, it was around 1990, and it was a PITA..

Chan Tran · Aug 5, 2017

jnanian said:
i wish we knew that ! LOL
it was a hassle doing that stuff
now that i think about it, they were reloaded cassettes
( bulk loaded film ) so we might have used a sharpie and made our own patchwork grid.
whatever we did, it was around 1990, and it was a PITA..

I used to simulate the disposable camera by using a Nikon F2 with a non meter viewfinder. Use a 35mm lens. Set at f/11@1/60 and loaded with ISO 100 film. Taped the focusing ring at 10ft. Worked quite well.

Over exposing film. Change the ISO or use the Exposure Compensation?

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