The 5° Spot & How It's Used?

[AndyH]

Sadly for Zone System work only a 1 degree spotmeter makes any sense. 5 degrees are just not fine enough.I dabbled with a 5-degree attachment for my Gossen for a while but it was more trouble than what it was worth. There is however no difference in handling a 5 or 1-degree spotmeter, so, it can be used for practice.

I find the Gossen attachment a useful tool to have in my bag. Although it's limited in many situations, it's easily carried when I'm going light, and helps me with zone placement if I'm shooting anything complex, where I can move in close enough for the 5 degrees to be usable. The Pentax 1 degree is an incredible instrument, but it is bulky. Personally, I greatly prefer the analog style meters - the actual sight of a needle on a scale gives me a visualization of the brightness range quickly, and without any math. I don't need digital precision, and the visual indicator is so much more useful.

Andy

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

I've had a 5 degree minolta IV forever...as well as a 1 degree Minolta, which I prefer. I only use the 5 degree as back up. When it was my main metre, I used it just like the 1 degree, but obviously taking readings from a slightly larger surface, and adjust to whatever tone I wanted. If that wasn't doable, I'd take a reading off my hand and adjust accordingly.