Travel photography: exposure metering with Dynax/Maxxum 7

[lgrabun]

Hi there,

I've been wondering - having read a lot about Minolt Dynax/Maxxum 7 and it's capability of catching the right exposure most of the times - how would you meter the light, being on vacation in Portugal and having little (i.e. wife being not quite happy with you mounting a camera on a tripod, calculation exposure with the spotmetering, moving a tripod a bit to the left) time to calculate a proper exposure with a spotmeter? Would you use a decent - as they say - Minolta honeycomb metering pattern and hope for the best or use it's spotmetering function and compensate?

I am going to take a dozen or so rolls of Fuji Provia. I have some experience with this film, shooting mostly on MF; I always measure for the light, setting 160 ASA and compensate up to 2EV. The slides are always dense, properly exposed, featuring no clipped highlights. I've been questioning myself how to achieve the same effect with Dynax 7.

 

[David Brown]

I'm not sure if I can answer your specific question, but here are some resources:

http://photo.net/equipment/minolta/maxxum7

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/columns/sm-03-04-06.shtml

 

[lgrabun]

Thanks for the input, David.

However, I've had googled and read most - if not all - resources available on the Web before asking the question Having found no, say, field report, from the lack of the better term, I've tried to ask people who actually used the camera and thus would be a good source of useful tips and hints

 

[jeroldharter]

If you are in a hurry, use the matrix metering and bracket.

 

[kennethcooke]

Hi there,

I've been wondering - having read a lot about Minolt Dynax/Maxxum 7 and it's capability of catching the right exposure most of the times - how would you meter the light, being on vacation in Portugal and having little (i.e. wife being not quite happy with you mounting a camera on a tripod, calculation exposure with the spotmetering, moving a tripod a bit to the left) time to calculate a proper exposure with a spotmeter? Would you use a decent - as they say - Minolta honeycomb metering pattern and hope for the best or use it's spotmetering function and compensate?

I am going to take a dozen or so rolls of Fuji Provia. I have some experience with this film, shooting mostly on MF; I always measure for the light, setting 160 ASA and compensate up to 2EV. The slides are always dense, properly exposed, featuring no clipped highlights. I've been questioning myself how to achieve the same effect with Dynax 7.

I use a Weston Master V as a secondary/ incident light meter with my M6. The M6 has a great spot metering capability but there are times when I want a second opinion in difficult lighting conditions. You could also consider a Gossen Lunasix both available on the used market but watch out for duff cells

 

[aparat]

The Maxxum 7 has a really good honeycomb metering. You can even get a break-down of how individual cells read exposure (via the LCD at the back of the camera). I would not hesitate using it for most quickly framed photographs. Just be conscious of the usual suspects, such as shooting in very contrasty light, back lighting, etc. Portugal is probably going to be very sunny at this time of year. If you're planning to shoot during the day (as opposed to early morning and evening), even with "correct" meter reading, be prepared for a lot of shadow and highlight clipping with slide film.