Spot Meter Advice

[leoking801]

Spot Meter - Shortly I will be receiving a Minolta F 1 degree spot meter,
> a gift from my son who is working in Tokyo Japan. Although 70 years old
> with many years of photographic enjoyment in areas of competition and for
> personal pleasure, I am not entirely sure of how to use the spot meter in
> the field to extract its maximum potential. I am mainly a B & W worker,
> use a Nikon 35mm & 120 roll film, take landscape, architecture, people,
> etc; Durst condenser enlarger. I have read several books on the zone
> system but lack the experience of its hands-on application and also
> realize there are limitations with roll film. I do use PMK Pyro developer, some believe the zone system is not necessary with a compensating developer.
> I would be grateful for any guidance and advice.
> Regards Leo
>leoking801@hotmail.com

 

[jovo]

i, for one, use the one degree meter to place zones III and VII. when i started out, i tried to remember what those zones looked like in a print and looked for the places in the scene that i most closely guessed were representative. from there i simply read where zone V fell on the EV scale and exposed accordingly. with experience, estimating zones III and VII has become rather automatic. i'm now at a loss, in fact, to know what to do with any other kind of meter. try it....you'll like it!!

 

[jovo]

oh, i should add that the zone system in it's fullest expression isn't really the only reason to use that meter. the point is to know precisely what you're actually metering and know that zone V will be where you intend it to be. development is a separate issue which, as you know, is the other dimension of the process.