Using an external meter by choice

wiltw · Jan 23, 2022

[QUOTE="MattKing, post: 2510980, member: 6437"
Before (as seen in the finder):
After (as visualized at time of exposure):
View attachment 296388
The differences are subtle in this case, but if I didn't visualize them first, I probably wouldn't have taken the photo.[/QUOTE]

As metered, shot 1. As previsualized, shot 4...more indicative of the scene, which was taken at night and only illuminated by a single street light. Shot 1 fails to give the viewer an accurate portrayal of the actual scene, which is what I wanted to do.

faberryman · Jan 23, 2022

Sirius Glass said:
I found that the incident meter reading nailed it, but that no photograph of a house cat was worth the film.

A photograph of a cat is the equivalent of a street photograph of somebody looking at their phone.

Sirius Glass · Jan 23, 2022

faberryman said:
A photograph of a cat is the equivalent of a street photograph of somebody looking at their phone.

As they step into fast moving traffic.

faberryman · Jan 23, 2022

Sirius Glass said:
As they step into fast moving traffic.

Yes, it certainly would be a nice change of pace if we could see some photos of cats stepping into fast moving traffic. You would get extra credit if it were the tenth time the cat did so.

grat · Jan 23, 2022

markbau said:
First of all, I don't understand why people shoot film whose final destination is a digital print. The reason I shoot film is because I want to make a silver gelatin print.

People spend so much time on darkroom technique when what they should be concentrating on is taking a photo in exquisite light.

I think you answered your own question there.

Bill Burk · Jan 23, 2022

In high school AP English I read a piece by Eugene Ionesco (it might have been “Rhinoceros” but I can’t find the passage right now). He said something to the effect of “What if we replaced every word with one word, “cat”.

I turned in my report, just a page filled with sentences like “Cat cat cat cat cat, cat cat.”

Ms. Wells gave me an “A” on it but despite my cleverness, I couldn’t pass the AP exam and got lousy grades in English classes in college. I could never be bothered with the assignments.

cat cat

DREW WILEY · Jan 23, 2022

For those of you who wish to see road-kllled kittens, may you have a visit from one of their bigger cousins to remind you that humans aren't necessarily at the top of the food chain. Actually, last week someone in this area witnessed a cougar kill another cougar right in their suburban back yard. These beautiful animals have way more to fear from each other than we have to fear from them. It was probably a young male lion unfortunately finding itself crossing the territory of either a bigger more dominant male or a defensive female with cubs. They're taking up residence more and more in town these days, quite possibly due to the past several years of extreme drought and severe brush fires. They're just following the deer toward green lawns and gardens. Inevitable.

markjwyatt · Jan 23, 2022

faberryman said:
Yes, it certainly would be a nice change of pace if we could see some photos of cats stepping into fast moving traffic. You would get extra credit if it were the tenth time the cat did so.

Fall 2020 I was on a country highway (really a fast 2-lane road) in inland Southern California. I pulled over to take a picture of some oaks. Coming back to my car I saw a tarantula crossing the street (big sucker). I wanted to snap it, so looked and listened for cars coming. I heard one, so stepped back on the shoulder. He came in the lane the tarantula was at that point, probably 50-55 mph. The car went right over it , and caused it to rotate a little, but it stayed on its feet. I tried 4-5 times, and each time a car came and each time the poor tarantula got tossed around worse than the last. Finally a big pick-up came and basically finally crushed it with its tires. Up to that point it was mainly turbulence (vortices/eddies) that tossed it around, sometimes more violently than others. It was actually acting aggressively- raising its rear up and nervously trying to get to safety. I though it might charge me if I got down to take its picture, but I never got the chance.

Sirius Glass · Jan 23, 2022

markjwyatt said:
Fall 2020 I was on a country highway (really a fast 2-lane road) in inland Southern California. I pulled over to take a picture of some oaks. Coming back to my car I saw a tarantula crossing the street (big sucker). I wanted to snap it, so looked and listened for cars coming. I heard one, so stepped back on the shoulder. He came in the lane the tarantula was at that point, probably 50-55 mph. The car went right over it , and caused it to rotate a little, but it stayed on its feet. I tried 4-5 times, and each time a car came and each time the poor tarantula got tossed around worse than the last. Finally a big pick-up came and basically finally crushed it with its tires. Up to that point it was mainly turbulence (vortices/eddies) that tossed it around, sometimes more violently than others. It was actually acting aggressively- raising its rear up and nervously trying to get to safety. I though it might charge me if I got down to take its picture, but I never got the chance.

This is definitely a situation for the tarantula to pull out a gun and use the ~~Stand Your Ground"~~ "Stand By Me" laws.

abruzzi · Jan 24, 2022

Bill Burk said:
In high school AP English I read a piece by Eugene Ionesco (it might have been “Rhinoceros” but I can’t find the passage right now). He said something to the effect of “What if we replaced every word with one word, “cat”.

I turned in my report, just a page filled with sentences like “Cat cat cat cat cat, cat cat.”

You can actually construct a large meaningful sentence using only the word 'buffalo', specifically:

"Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo"

for an explanation of what that means:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo

snusmumriken · Jan 24, 2022

abruzzi said:
You can actually construct a large meaningful sentence using only the word 'buffalo', specifically:

"Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo"

for an explanation of what that means:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo

That it should come to this...

faberryman · Jan 24, 2022

drmoss_ca said:
Does anyone else find themselves using a handheld meter even when their camera has a functional internal meter? If I'm just a throwback, a dinosaur or an atavist, I'm pretty sure there are others here to keep me company.

I think you are a photographer who prefers to use an incident meter. Nothing wrong with that.

MattKing · Jan 24, 2022

Bill Burk said:
In high school AP English I read a piece by Eugene Ionesco (it might have been “Rhinoceros” but I can’t find the passage right now). He said something to the effect of “What if we replaced every word with one word, “cat”.

I turned in my report, just a page filled with sentences like “Cat cat cat cat cat, cat cat.”

Ms. Wells gave me an “A” on it but despite my cleverness, I couldn’t pass the AP exam and got lousy grades in English classes in college. I could never be bothered with the assignments.

View attachment 296398
cat cat

I'm starting to see the roots of your Dr. Demento experiences

Alan Edward Klein · Jan 24, 2022

Bill Burk said:
In high school AP English I read a piece by Eugene Ionesco (it might have been “Rhinoceros” but I can’t find the passage right now). He said something to the effect of “What if we replaced every word with one word, “cat”.

I turned in my report, just a page filled with sentences like “Cat cat cat cat cat, cat cat.”

Ms. Wells gave me an “A” on it but despite my cleverness, I couldn’t pass the AP exam and got lousy grades in English classes in college. I could never be bothered with the assignments.

View attachment 296398
cat cat

How many times can you do that? Reminds me when I was in grade school, and you had to write it in a sentence for ten new spelling words the teacher gave you. When I couldn't think of any for a particular word, my older sister gave me a standard sentence. So that word let's say "perceived" would be demonstrated as follows: Perceived is my new spelling word. You can only do that once per quiz.

Sirius Glass · Jan 24, 2022

Alan Edward Klein said:
How many times can you do that? Reminds me when I was in grade school, and you had to write it in a sentence for ten new spelling words the teacher gave you. When I couldn't think of any for a particular word, my older sister gave me a standard sentence. So that word let's say "perceived" would be demonstrated as follows: Perceived is my new spelling word. You can only do that once per quiz.

When I was growing up, my friend Dieter was in parochial school and was given a the spelling list of words starting with "de". The nun told the him to stand up and say a sentence using words from the list. Dieter said:

Deduct jumped over defense defeat before detail.

The nun punished him for that.

Richard Jepsen · Jan 24, 2022

Drmoss, I just bought this meter to use with sunny 16 and a new to me Leica M5. For 15 years I used a Minolta Flash IV with both metered cameras and a non metered TLR. The Minolta in average lighting conditions gave me consistent exposures which were easier to enlarge as each negative had a more or less similar density. I used all available info to judge more difficult lighting or tone placement.

I found the M5 spot meter slowed me down. So I will hand meter for a baseline and if need be check extremes with the M5 spot meter or if appropriate the handheld.

I shot one roll with the L-308X so still getting use to it. One gripe is its so small its not a great fit for my hands. It is very pocketable. I’m concerned the incident dome which is much smaller than the Minolta IV will be less accurate. Please chime in with any user feedback.

markjwyatt · Jan 24, 2022

snusmumriken said:
That it should come to this...

But, but, but, but, but...

Sirius Glass · Jan 24, 2022

Richard Jepsen said:
Drmoss, I just bought this meter to use with sunny 16 and a new to me Leica M5. For 15 years I used a Minolta Flash IV with both metered cameras and a non metered TLR. The Minolta in average lighting conditions gave me consistent exposures which were easier to enlarge as each negative had a more or less similar density. I used all available info to judge more difficult lighting or tone placement.

I found the M5 spot meter slowed me down. So I will hand meter for a baseline and if need be check extremes with the M5 spot meter or if appropriate the handheld.

I shot one roll with the L-308X so still getting use to it. One gripe is its so small its not a great fit for my hands. It is very pocketable. I’m concerned the incident dome which is much smaller than the Minolta IV will be less accurate. Please chime in with any user feedback.

I have had not accuracy problems with the Sekonic L-308S in five years I have had it.

drmoss_ca · Jan 24, 2022

I bought the Sekonic L-308XU just as a backup for the Polaris SPD100, and I think they are internally almost exactly the same. They certainly give the same readings whenever I compare the two, although the Polaris shows intermediate f-stops as bars on the LCD filling in an analog display (say 2.8 and 8 out of ten bars on the analog display, means it is pretty close to f4) and the Sekonic shows them as either decimals appended to the f-stop or peculiar intermediate f-values for larger values/smaller apertures (the equivalent to the example above being f2.88 or for smaller apertures it might show, say, f30 as an intermediate between f16 and f32). Once you are used to them, either way will work fine.

Sirius Glass · Jan 24, 2022

I like that the Sekonic L-308S because it gives me the option for EVs.

Richard Jepsen · Jan 28, 2022

I just finished developing a test roll of FP-4, EI 100, light yellow filter. I developed in Adox XT-3, 1:1, 10m, 20c. I was testing my new Sekonic L-308X for exposures. Light conditions nearly clear sky, open shadows, 2-3 PM, Central Oklahoma. The negatives are perfect. Cavet here…. this is one test roll.

I’m embarased as I have exposed and developed 5,000 negatives so I’m not a newbie. But these exposures are better, more consistent than I have been getting the last five years using a Leica MP meter. The previous years I made a higher number of imperfect exposures than I want to admit. So the proplem is me judging the exposure.

The take-a-way is the Sekonic L-308X, although not as well constructed as my lost Minolta Auto Meter IV F, is acurate and easy to use. Being palm size one hand operation is a bit awkward but off set by being pocketable.

Yes, I will use a hand held meter to establish base exposure setting. When light is challenging I will use all available tools.

abruzzi · Jan 28, 2022

Richard Jepsen said:
The take-a-way is the Sekonic L-308X, although not as well constructed as my lost Minolta Auto Meter IV F, is acurate and easy to use. Being palm size one hand operation is a bit awkward but off set by being pocketable.

The 308 is a great, compact meter. It doesn't feel as well built as my Sekonic 508, but its accurate and easy to use. I just wish I had a spot meter that small (I know there is a new one out from a small company I'm not familiar with, so I hope it gets good reviews.

Sirius Glass · Jan 28, 2022

abruzzi said:
The 308 is a great, compact meter. It doesn't feel as well built as my Sekonic 508, but its accurate and easy to use. I just wish I had a spot meter that small (I know there is a new one out from a small company I'm not familiar with, so I hope it gets good reviews.

It pairs nicely with my Pentax Digital Spot Meter.

abruzzi · Jan 28, 2022

Sirius Glass said:
It pairs nicely with my Pentax Digital Spot Meter.

yes but the Pentax is huge. I have a Minolta F which is also huge. Here is the new small spot meter:

https://www.reveni-labs.com/spotmeter

I’m waiting to see some more feedback before I drop a couple hundred on something that looks 3D printed.

Huss · Jan 28, 2022

abruzzi said:
You can actually construct a large meaningful sentence using only the word 'buffalo', specifically:

"Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo"

for an explanation of what that means:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo

Using an external meter by choice

wiltw

faberryman

Sirius Glass

faberryman

grat

Bill Burk

DREW WILEY

markjwyatt

Sirius Glass

abruzzi

snusmumriken

faberryman

MattKing

Moderator

Alan Edward Klein

Sirius Glass

Richard Jepsen

markjwyatt

Sirius Glass

drmoss_ca

Sirius Glass

Richard Jepsen

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Sirius Glass

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Huss

Using an external meter by choice

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