Pentax Digital Spotmeter ASA

Hubigpielover · Mar 18, 2020

I lucked out and found a working meter for 35 bucks and obviously had to get it. I'm ready to tackle the zone system and have been getting familiar with the meter but the ASA ticks are confusing me.

For example:

Between the 100 and 200 ASA there are two ticks. I am assuming that it is for 125 and 160? But how do you know?

Same with the in-between of 50 and 100. Is that 64 and 80? I couldn't find anything about it in the owners manual.

Thanks,

MattKing · Mar 18, 2020

Both are correct - each represents 1/3 of a stop of sensitivity.

Bill Burk · Mar 19, 2020

MattKing is right. All the ASA tics are the same. Unless the meter only has one tic between 100 and 200 like the Sekonic TwinMate. (Guess they figured close is good enough)

RalphLambrecht · Mar 19, 2020

Hubigpielover said:
I lucked out and found a working meter for 35 bucks and obviously had to get it. I'm ready to tackle the zone system and have been getting familiar with the meter but the ASA ticks are confusing me.

For example:

Between the 100 and 200 ASA there are two ticks. I am assuming that it is for 125 and 160? But how do you know?

Same with the in-between of 50 and 100. Is that 64 and 80? I couldn't find anything about it in the owners manual.

Thanks,

You were right the tix are in 1/3 stop increments.

Hubigpielover · Mar 22, 2020

Thanks for the replies! Sorry I am late to reply but Louisiana is hard hit with the Corvid 19 bad and I'm scrambling to keep my company open.

AgX · Mar 22, 2020

There are different ways to built up an ASA 1-stop range, depending on the value to start from. That makes that there may show up values inbetween (taken over from another range). However there are only those values plausible that were mentioned above.

wiltw · Mar 22, 2020

The series:

25, 32, 40
50, 64, 80
100, 125, 160
200, 250, 320
400, 500, 640
800, 1000, 1250
1600, 2000, 2500
3200, 4000, 5000
6400, 8000, 10000
12800, 16000, 20000

I have never known film with a rating in the gray part of the list.

Mal Paso · Mar 22, 2020

The meter is based on 1/3 stops. The 2 lights to the right of the number in the viewfinder indicate 1/3 and 2/3 stops above the number. There is a fellow on ebay with zone stickers for $10 shipped.

AgX · Mar 23, 2020

Thank you, wiltw.

(I was too lazy to write such up... However, hadn't you referred to grey figures, I would not have recognized the difference on my screen.)

RalphLambrecht · Mar 23, 2020

Mal Paso said:
The meter is based on 1/3 stops. The 2 lights to the right of the number in the viewfinder indicate 1/3 and 2/3 stops above the number. There is a fellow on ebay with zone stickers for $10 shipped.

All free from me:

Vaughn · Mar 23, 2020

First thing I did after getting my Zone VIed Pentax Digital Spot was to take off that sticker, lol!

Mal Paso · Mar 23, 2020

RalphLambrecht said:
All free from me:

Very Cool! Thanks!
I grew up on Spectra Meters and added a Quantum Flash Meter when I got strobes. This is my first Zone meter and I wanted the full experience since reading about it 50 years ago. I read Ansel and Picker's books and worked it in with what I was doing at the time but never had a "Zone Meter". Had I known about the offer I would have printed my own but I think $10 delivered wasn't bad.

Vaughn said:
First thing I did after getting my Zone VIed Pentax Digital Spot was to take off that sticker, lol!

Isn't the scale underneath an arcane motion picture scale? I mostly cheat and just place the values I care about. I have a D-word that places every value.

Vaughn · Mar 23, 2020

Mal Paso said:
...Isn't the scale underneath an arcane motion picture scale? I mostly cheat and just place the values I care about. I have a D-word that places every value.

I do not know what it is used for -- I have no need for any type of scale there...just the center mark and the numbers above. I am real good at adding or subtracting small numbers, so if I read a shadow I want detail in I can just add 2 (sometimes 3) to the meter reading of the shadows and set that number at the pointer. Then read the highlights, do the subtraction to know where they will fall...and often the brightest areas can be beyond the range of the sticker thing anyway.

The little gray squares of the sticker just seem to make no sense to me -- perhaps if they were graduated instead big blocks of the same shade. Nah...I like it better with nothing there.

PS -- had to edit this a few times...writing about it is tougher than doing it! LOL!

Sirius Glass · Mar 23, 2020

Vaughn said:
First thing I did after getting my Zone VIed Pentax Digital Spot was to take off that sticker, lol!

First thing I did after getting my Pentax Digital Spot was to put on that sticker. I use it every time I use the Spot Meter.

Chan Tran · Mar 23, 2020

I noticed that the 128000 value is a newly used number. Back in the old days nobody used that value. I guess because of the it's 128000 instead of 125000. The rounding of the numbers are very imprecise but they kept it so they have only these values. 1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 16, 32, 64 and 125 and now 128.

Vaughn · Mar 23, 2020

Sirius Glass said:
First thing I did after getting my Pentax Digital Spot was to put on that sticker. I use it every time I use the Spot Meter.

And for those who find it useful, I say, great! If I still had the sticker on my meter, I would use it every time, too, but just the point of the triangle. Actually, as I remember them, the original Zone VI stickers did not have a triangle pointing towards the numbers. Easy enough to set the number in the middle of the middle-gray box, but it irked me for some reason.

Hubigpielover · Mar 24, 2020

AgX said:
There are different ways to built up an ASA 1-stop range, depending on the value to start from. That makes that there may show up values inbetween (taken over from another range). However there are only those values plausible that were mentioned above.

Seemed that way to me also

wiltw said:
The series:

25, 32, 40

50, 64, 80

100, 125, 160

200, 250, 320

400, 500, 640

800, 1000, 1250

1600, 2000, 2500

3200, 4000, 5000

6400, 8000, 10000

12800, 16000, 20000

I have never known film with a rating in the gray part of the list.

This is awesome..thanks.

RalphLambrecht said:
All free from me:

Appreciate it!

Vaughn said:
First thing I did after getting my Zone VIed Pentax Digital Spot was to take off that sticker, lol!

I heard y'all got quite a bit of snow the other day. Hope you are staying warm.

Chan Tran · Mar 24, 2020

Actually all you need is the readout in the viewfinder. Can figure out the rest in your head.

Hubigpielover · Mar 24, 2020

Chan Tran said:
Actually all you need is the readout in the viewfinder. Can figure out the rest in your head.

Well it helps to know the iso settings so the numbers in the viewfinders are right.

Chan Tran · Mar 25, 2020

Hubigpielover said:
Well it helps to know the iso settings so the numbers in the viewfinders are right.

You can set the dial any way you want the reading in the viewfinder would still read the same.The readout is always EV number for ISO100 regardless of how you set the dial.

Lachlan Young · Mar 25, 2020

Mal Paso said:
Isn't the scale underneath an arcane motion picture scale?

The IRE scale is the smartest feature on the thing - if you know how to use it. At the simplest level: on neg film, place the deepest shadows where you want to retain detail on IRE 1; on transparency or motion picture work, place your highlights that you want to hold detail on IRE 10. That's about it. The other numbers may have some uses for skin tone compensation (I think it's supposed to be cheek tone placement on IRE 2-3 for non white skin, IRE 4-5 for caucasian).

Mal Paso · Mar 25, 2020

Cool! But basically another zone system.

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