Should i use a spot meter?

[Diapositivo]

As far as I know, with most, most lenses you can safely turn the diaphragm ring half-way between clicks and it will not just not break, but also actually give you the exact aperture you wanted. That's even "more true" for lenses for rangefinder cameras (like yours), or for screw-mount lenses in general, as there is no leverage involved and no diaphragm "automatism", the diaphragm will actually close while you operate the ring, so that you are able to see the effect, it's a continuous movement, you could have a 1/100th of a stop if needed . So when I say to turn "just a little" I mean "to obtain 1/3 EV if this is what you want to obtain".

As far as the shutter mechanism is concerned, if there are click-stops I would not dare using an intermediate position between two clicks, lest I damage the mechanism. If there are no clicks one must presume that the shutter speeds are continuously selectable - that you can choose any position - unless the instruction manual tells you otherwise.

I mean, the factory would never make a camera without "clicks" if there were any danger for the shutter mechanism, so if there are no clicks, I expect any position to be safe.

Fabrizio

 

[mingaun]

Thanks Fabrizio. Check with the manual and it says there are intermediate settings between the shutter speed values, which i presume choosing values between clicks but if there is a chance of damaging the mechanism i think i will stick to your method of changing the aperture instead. Thank you. This is something new to me.

Mark

 

[jerry lebens]

Leica rangefinder shutter speeds should be set on the click stop, not in between. It's a clockwork mechanism and intermediate settings simply don't exist. Make minor adjustments through the aperture ring, which can be set incrementally.

Regards
Jerry

 

[markbarendt]

In fact i have one very important question to ask but was afraid to. The new film i am getting is rated at iso 20, how do i expose it at iso 20?? If i calculate from my point and shoot at 100 and half its value twice, it equates to 25. So how do i actually compensate to iso 20 from 25?? Am i missing something here?

Mark

Yes, you are missing something.

Theoretically, yes, you might loose a tiny bit of shadow detail at 25, vs 20, but metering with your digisnapper won't be accurate enough for you to be able to tell the difference in the real world.

This is because a normal straight print from a negative does not use all the "info" available in a normal negative. You are probably only going to be printing maybe 2/3's of what's there, somewhere off the middle of the film's curve.

The choices made by whoever prints your negs are a bigger issue by far.

 

[markbarendt]

Leica rangefinder shutter speeds should be set on the click stop, not in between. It's a clockwork mechanism and intermediate settings simply don't exist. Make minor adjustments through the aperture ring, which can be set incrementally.

Regards
Jerry

Good advice.

 

[L Gebhardt]

Thank you all for your generous information and help. A lot of food for thought. But first of all i am impress with the amount of reply and help i am getting which makes me feel more comfortable coming to film. I am also happy that the majority of you did not just blast me for using a digital point and shoot camera as a light meter and in fact a lot of you actually ask me to stick with what i have. You lot are a very practical bunch of people.

At this moment i will stick with what i have first and see how things goes. So far my only problem with the S90 is that the aperture value goes down to only f2 and the iso goes to about 100. This becomes a problem when i will be shooting at iso 20 or using a f1.4 aperture. I need to do a lot of mental calculations and i am pretty slow, yikes!

In fact i have one very important question to ask but was afraid to. The new film i am getting is rated at iso 20, how do i expose it at iso 20?? If i calculate from my point and shoot at 100 and half its value twice, it equates to 25. So how do i actually compensate to iso 20 from 25?? Am i missing something here?

Mark

There is a paper zone dial you can make in here: http://www.waybeyondmonochrome.com/WBM2/Library_files/TemplatesEd2.pdf. This may help you with the calculations. Just place the camera's exposure combo on the dial and you can read off other equivalent combos. You will still need to adjust for the film speed, but it will be a simple adjustment based on moving a set number of stops up or down to match the S90.

 

[mingaun]

Thanks Jerry, Mark for those very good advice.

Gebhardt thats a very good link. Thanks.

Mark

 

[Dikaiosune01]

I went down the same road you have mingaun. I recently bought a spot meter 2 days ago; however in my defense, I am a 4x5 shooter and only an occassional RF shooter.

Before you think about buying a spot meter, use your S90. You can take it off matrix metering and put it on a spot meter.
Next, think about taking copius notes. Consider how your S90 meter responds in comparison to your negatives. (I used my DSLR with a 24mm lens). I just copied the exposure reading on the camera.
Example of my notes:
Sky +1 1/3
Tree -1
Water +1/2
etc.

After some tries I began to realize the differences between the dynamic range of film and digital. Over time, I also realized that the DSLR is not always consistent because of the wide lens I'm using and the large spot metering camera. (Note: I am shooting 4x5 film that allows me to be a little more anal).

This is a good way to get started with a spot meter. If this satisfies you, keep doing it. For 35mm film, it ought to be more than enough. For me, I realized I might get up to 1 stop of a difference in inconsistencies. The final advantage of using a spot meter (i'm using a sekonic 758D), is that I can plot all of my exposure points on the scale of the meter. It makes it really easy to read and adjust exposure.
I would not have been able to learn all these lesons, and appreciate the spot meter I have now without going through this process.

 

[Newt_on_Swings]

I just picked up a spot meter recently, but It only gives me a 5 degree spot. Ive been shooting street a lot and I think its slowing me down. =[

Should I even be using one? I usually guesstimate the exposure and Its been working ok, esp when sunny outside.

 

[Diapositivo]

Newt_on_Swings, spot metering is the good thing when you can study the scene, isolate key shadows and key highlights, take separate measures of those, make some reasoning regarding how to set the exposure, i.e. "placing" those points, and where they may fall on film, maybe take a measure of some other important part to see where it would fall given the calculated exposure, visualize the final picture, imagine how would you place the dynamic range of the negative on paper, figuring out if you want to compress tones, or expand contast etc. So it's the typical tool for tripod use in daylight work.

I suppose you don't want to go through all that reasoning for street photography. In that case I would suggest to strictly use the camera in manual mode and use an incident light meter and, if possible, B&W negative.

FIRST SCENARIO. You want to expose "right".

You measure the typical two scenarios (sunlight and shade) of the street. You see that it is, let's say, EV 14 for sunlight and EV 12 for shade. That's let's say 1/500@11 and 1/125@11 at 400 ISO.
You prefocus your camera using either hyperfocal distance or a closer interval. You walk. When the "likely subject" is in the sun, you use 1/500 and when you go in the shade or the likely subject is in the shade, you switch to 1/125, that's before the subject comes in front of you.
When you see a situation you want to take a picture of, you just frame and shoot. In street photography you don't want to focus, and you don't want to calculate exposure. You should be able to set time from 1/500 to 1/125 and vice versa without looking at the camera. It should become some sort of a habit.

I also suggest to never use autoexposure in street photography as you would typically not have the time to analyse whether exposure compensation should be applied.

SECOND SCENARIO: "READINESS IS ALL"

In the light situation shown above, you just use 1/125@11, hyperfocal distance, and just concentrate on photographic occasions that may arise. If it is in the shade, exposure will be right. If it is in the sun, exposure will be 2EV overexposed but a B&W negative will allow you that kind of overexposure without damage.

This operation will in any case more reliable than auto exposure, autofocus etc.

That's IMHO and anybody's mileage may vary

 

[2F/2F]

I think spot meters are best for when you want to highly manipulate a picture. If you just want a "plain-ol' good exposure," like most people, incident meters are more ideal, as they automatically place a middle tone as a middle tone.

However, even with an incident meter, spot meters are also good for simply measuring brightness range, so you know how much to alter your exposure and development to get the scene to fit onto the paper the way you want it to. If I have the time, I use both together.

 

[Newt_on_Swings]

@Diapositivo

Lately Ive been shooting with an Olympus OMPC that I scored off craigslist with a 50mm 1.4 for $50 bucks. Its off the film metering makes it's aperture priority mode pretty accurate, and I do use B&W film which is fairly forgiving with over exposure. Im actually exposing the film I use at +1/3 stop and it works better (shooting iso 250 @ 200).

I usually set my aperture when walking around outside depending on bright sun or shade at f11 or f8, and I do prefocus using the scale on lenses. But most of the time I have it set at infinity, as my snap focusing speed is pretty fast (you only have to focus in 1 direction).

I will be shooting with a completely manual rangefinder soon once I get it CLA'ed and will try your tips on just changing the shutter speed. Ill probably carry the light meter more then to check my exposures. thanks!

 

[kwall]

I would buy an inexpensive hand held meter or if you have an Iphone, there's a FREE exposure meter app. Not knowing how to read a spot reading can cause confusion. Here's the link to the exposure meter app. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pocket-light-meter/id381698089?mt=8

Hey, that's handy! Thanks!

 

[Poisson Du Jour]

A few quick tried and proven words for use with a spotmeter:
On the proviso that you know your subject and lighting (and very importantly, the dynamic range of your chosen film), measure highlight, shadow, mid-tone and average all. Generally about 4-5 readings taking in all of that. Sorted.
BUT, this is only true for spot meters that can accumulate several readings e.g. the Olympus OM4, or hand-held spot meters. What is the case with the S90 (which I think is Nikon's F90X in southern hemisphere markets?).

The above is all I do now with transparency film from Velvia to Provia, in pinhole, including accounting for reciprocity. Negs of course will allow you a lot of latitude; more precise metering along ZS foundations is best left for sheet film where further individual controls can be introduced.