Spotmatic SPII Meterting anomalies

Shangheye · Apr 28, 2009

The meter works great about 80% of the time. It seems that when there is alot of light and contrast it is very accurate, but in the shade it seems to be about one and half stops out (under exposes)...and not always! Is this similar to others experiences? Is it the way I am using it (it is centre weighted I assume)?

I also know that seeing the needle is sometimes difficult when I am fully stopped down....si maybe I am just getting it wrong.

I will be trying it out with a meter to see if it is affected by the change in light conditions, but am interested if any other Spotmatic users have experiences anything similar.

Rgds, Kal

Anscojohn · Apr 28, 2009

The needle disappearing in the darkness during full stop-down is a reason the designers went to LEDs. You are not doing anything wrong.

Check your meter against a grey card reading from a meter of known accuracy. Make sure the grey card is in the metering area and is out of focus. BTW, I do not know the Spoit II--but the original Spotmatic, despite the name, was not a spot-metering system. Check out the Spot II in a manual to be sure.

I could be that you have a non-linear response in the metering system. I had that once with a camera; don't remember if it was one of my Spotties or not.

Pumal · Apr 28, 2009

I have 3 Spotmatics. I don't think the Meters work right, I use a Hand Held Meter with all 3. I prefer to mesure incident light.

Hamster · Apr 28, 2009

Slightly off topic but have you noticed that on the Spotmatic the metering is off when the your VF image is out of focus. I always find this a little annoying.

Rol_Lei Nut · Apr 28, 2009

Several possibilities:

1) CdS meter cells have what is called the "memory effect": After measuring bright light, they take a while (a few seconds...) to be able to meter lower light levels accurately.
2) Despite its name, the Spotmatic uses averaging metering, not spot or center-weighted (Darn!)
3) The meter switch could be dirty.
4) The CdS cells themselves may have gone off.

The best scenarios are of course the first two... Give the meter time to stabilize when measuring and take the coverage into account.

Good luck!

Shangheye · Apr 28, 2009

Hmm...it could be the issue of memory, since I was in bright light then shade. I also tend to use hyperfocal distance and was stopped down all the way to f22. Since it seems to be right 80% of time this is definitely not an "accuracy issue"...I know it is averaging, but is it centre weighted..it could be that my readings are off the wrong location...I just thought that given the fact that it was exposing correctly in bright light, then in the shade it would be OK...but if it has a memory of what it just measured in bright sun, it would under expose in the shade. Will test it with a gery card, but it was quite consistent with the sunny 16 rule...Thanks all.

Hamster, I have not noticed it was off with the focusing, but I have been basically working off the hyperfocal distance most of the time. I do note that I used it for low light photography once with an f1.4, and it nailed the exposure evrytime. I am leaning towards the memory issue raised by Rol Lei Nut. K

Steve Roberts · Apr 29, 2009

Hamster said:
Slightly off topic but have you noticed that on the Spotmatic the metering is off when the your VF image is out of focus. I always find this a little annoying.

That fact is acknowledged by Pentax in the Spotmatic instruction manuals, where they stress that the meter measures the 'in-focus' image.
As for the LED/match needle issue, I was using an MX with its LED system at the weekend and was hard-pressed to see the LEDs in the bright sunshine!
You can't win.....
Steve

stark raving · Apr 29, 2009

Spotmatic meters can be affected by light coming in through the viewfinder. Even if you're in shade, make sure there's isn't light coming in over your shoulder - an eyecup can help.

Shangheye · Apr 30, 2009

Ah! I did buy an eye cup, but because I wear spectacles, I found it hard to view the whole frame (if I pushed to hard it moved my glasses. So I stopped using it. Interesting point though, since in the last roll, the sun light was behind me a few times...another one to try. Thanks! K

Hamster · May 1, 2009

Just to follow-up, I use Zinc-air cell on my Spotmatic and I notice that the cells foul the contact on the battery compartment over time. I gave the contact a wipe with spray-on contact cleaner and the metering action is snappy again.

Perhaps you can have a go with the contact cleaner and see if it improves things.

Spotmatic SPII Meterting anomalies

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