Settings for Rolleiflex and Kodak Portra 160 - help please!

Carl170 · Feb 28, 2014

Hi. I have a rolleiflex old standard, as mentioned in a previous post. Freshly CLA'd by Brian Mickleboro!

I have bought some Portra 160 colour negative film.

I am somewhat confused how to shoot with the rollei as it doesn't quite fit any rules.

I am in the UK, and roughly follow the sunny16 rule.

However, the rollei has the following settings:

F Stops: 3.5,4,5.6,8,11,22
Shutter Speeds 1,2,5,10,25,59,100,300,500

How on earth do I calculate the settings? I am not using ISO 100 film 1/125 speed or F16!

Can someone give me any rough pointers?

Thanks in advance for any help or calculations you can offer!

Regards

Carl

jp498 · Feb 28, 2014

Either use a light meter or estimate a half stop adjustment from the chart. It's not critical; it's got a very nice latitude.

John Koehrer · Feb 28, 2014

It's pretty simple. The hardest part is converting the old speeds to current values. If you were to use a 100 speed film a direct value would be 100 @ 16.

Make your ISO a fraction and read it like this.......1/160th your f stop is still 16 for bright sun.
ISO 25 would be 1/25th @ 16.
This works for any speed film. You just need to use a speed that's close. On your camera that's 1/100 @ f22 or 1/300 @ f11.
That's ball park or calibrated eyeball(sunny 16)

Redundancy not intentional.

Mr Bill · Feb 28, 2014

Your f-stop scale probably has a small dot between 11 and 22; that dot represents f/16.

Nick Merritt · Feb 28, 2014

Since the camera doesn't use the "modern" shutter speeds, use sunny f16 (or whatever is appropriate for the north of England for this time of year and err on the side of more exposure rather than less. So if proper exposure on a modern camera might be 1/125 at f8, make it 1/100 at f8. With negative film, always err on the side of overexposure -- it actually does better that way. So maybe just rate the film at 100 speed and go from there.

pentaxuser · Feb 28, 2014

At your latitude, Carl and at this time of year and probably for the next few months I'd be inclined to use the sunny F11 rule and also err on the side of overexposure, as Nick has suggested.

So if it were me I'd use 1/100th at f11 and even then I'd be inclined to use f8 or the next shutter speed down unless it was a very clear, sunny day

pentaxuser

markbarendt · Feb 28, 2014

I'd just shoot it at 100

Carl170 · Feb 28, 2014

Mr Bill said:
Your f-stop scale probably has a small dot between 11 and 22; that dot represents f/16.

Thanks Mr Bill, just had a look and indeed it does!

Thanks everyone who has replied so far.

Just shows how out of touch I am with my Maths!

Regards

Carl

pbromaghin · Feb 28, 2014

Your stops and shutter speed dials are infinitely variable analog, not hard digital clicks. Just put them partway between.

MattKing · Feb 28, 2014

pbromaghin said:
Your stops and shutter speed dials are infinitely variable analog, not hard digital clicks. Just put them partway between.

I'm not sure that is the case for the shutter speeds - some cameras yes, but does it apply for this Rollieflex's shutter?

And to the OP: less than one stop over-exposure would most likely work very well with Portra 160 and most other negative films. If you decide to shoot slide film, get back in touch!

omaha · Feb 28, 2014

I've been shooting a lot of Portra 160 lately. It does seem to have a nearly limitless (ok, not literally, but you know what I mean) ability to receive light and still retain detail. If you err, err on the side of more exposure rather than less.

That was one of the biggest humps on my learning curve when I went back to film from digital. With digital, you can always pull up the shadows but blown highlights are unrecoverable. With Porta, I don't worry so much about highlights getting over-exposed. The film LOVES light.

benjiboy · Mar 1, 2014

I suggest you buy yourself a light meter.

Too old to care · Mar 1, 2014

Like most people have already said, error on the side of over exposure. I shoot Portra 160 at 100, it is what I set my light meter at. Lovely film by the way, and great camera too.

pbromaghin · Mar 1, 2014

MattKing said:
I'm not sure that is the case for the shutter speeds - some cameras yes, but does it apply for this Rollieflex's shutter?

Matt, you're right about the shutter speeds. Thanks for correcting me.

Xmas · Mar 1, 2014

benjiboy said:
I suggest you buy yourself a light meter.

Try PeterLoy he normally has a Weston.
Rare I get more light than 1/60 /5.6 for 160ISO, lots of umbrella shots.

Argenticien · Mar 4, 2014

I'm another one to err on the side of slight overexposure, so where you don't have a shutter speed that's exactly what sunny 16/England 11/etc. would dictate, use the next slower (longer) one, not shorter. But also on a camera with a 70-year-old mechanical shutter, even after a CLA, we're engaging in wild speculation here unless & until you know that the stated shutter speeds are spot-on. It could be that your 1/300th setting actually yields a 1/160th exposure, for example. Did Mr Mickleboro run it on a shutter tester and give you the results? If not, you might want to invest in one of the mobile phone-based testers, or build one of some kind, to get that sorted.

--Dave

Carl170 · Mar 4, 2014

Thanks everyone for your suggestions - I have downloaded a couple of lightmeter apps and will compare them to the two new meters I won on ebay (£1.04 and £0.95!). I have kept a record of the settings (and already managed a double exposure!). When I tested the meter apps against the white side of my house (it was sunny), it matched the sunny 16 settings!

Is there somewhere on APUG where I post the findings (and pics if any are worth showing!)?

One thing I did notice - when you want to get rid of film, there is nothing to shoot!

Regards

Carl

cliveh · Mar 4, 2014

For Portra 160 colour negative film, based on my experience with FP4 and in our present climate, I would suggest 1/125 at F8.

JPD · Mar 7, 2014

MattKing said:
I'm not sure that is the case for the shutter speeds - some cameras yes, but does it apply for this Rollieflex's shutter?

On the old Compurs, like in the Old Standard, you can set it to speeds between the marked values, like between 1/50 and 1/100 for 1/75 Except between 1/10 and 1/25 or between the next-to fastest speed and the fastest speed (1/100 and 1/300 or 1/250 and 1/500 depending on the shutter model). That's important to remember, because between 1/10 and 1/25 the shutter engages the "clockwork", and for the fastest speed a booster spring is used.

Intermediate speeds can be set between these marked speeds:

1 and 1/2 sec
1/2 and 1/5 sec
1/5 and 1/10 sec

1/25 and 1/50 sec
1/50 and 1/100 sec
1/100 and 1/250 sec (only on the cameras with 1/500 as fastest speed!)

IMPORTANT! Not between these speeds:

1/10 and 1/25 sec
1/100 and 1/300
1/250 and 1/500

JPD · Mar 7, 2014

omaha said:
With Porta, I don't worry so much about highlights getting over-exposed. The film LOVES light.

Yes, and with portrait films you lose contrast fast with under-exposure. The Rolleiflex Old Standard models have uncoated lenses which gives a bit lower contrast than later Rolleis with coated lenses, so it's a very good idea to expose a portrait 160 film at 100.

Settings for Rolleiflex and Kodak Portra 160 - help please!

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