What is this number on my camera lens?

[walliswizard]

Bit confused. Nothing out of the ordinary for me.

I have an old Mamiya 35mm rangefinder camera. It's from the 60s, so metering is in EV, although frankly the needle meter on top, which reads from 0 to 11, is all over the place so I ignore it.

I do know that an EV measurement of 9 at ISO400 gives me one possible setting of 1/60s at f/5.6.

There is an extra number visible on the lens of my camera that seems to suggest it is showing me the EV value for the shutter/aperture combination but it doesn't tally. When I set the lens on this camera to those settings (the ISO setting is also done on the lens), it shows the value 3.

In order for it to show 9 I have to set the lens to 1/250s at f/22!

See the pic - the number I'm referring to is currently showing '9' (upside down), between the aperture and shutter section of the lens. What does that number mean????

 

[walliswizard]

Looking into it a bit further, I think it has to be the Light Value setting (something else to learn then!) which is different to EV.

 

[ronnies]

I think it just refers to the number the needle points to in the top window. It may just be an arbitrary scale rather than defined units of measurement. I have the same camera but I don't think I've ever found an online manual for it. My meter seemed to be giving reasonable exposures though.

Ronnie

 

[walliswizard]

If it's supposed to match the meter on top then I guess that is also an LV meter rather than EV. I guess people either really knew what they were doing with cameras back in those days, or the guessed and hoped for the best!

I'll stick to a light meter...!

Quite like this old camera. I've only put one roll through it (Ilford HP5+) and haven't shot anything of note, but it's a good fun little camera that only cost me £10. This is a (not that great) photo from it:

 

[pentaxuser]

For an old 35mm rangefinder the pic looks pretty good to me. You can almost count the bricks around each window. For £10 a brilliant find I'd say.

Have you had a look at the Butkus site? He has most cameras' manuals there which you can download for nothing but he very fairly asks for a small donation.

pentaxuser

 

[macfred]

The Rank Mamiya was a rebadged Mamiya 4B for the UK market.
The Sears 10B appears to be identical with the Mamiya 4B.

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Found this on Mr. Martin's Camera Museum Web Site http://www.mrmartinweb.com/35mmother.html (scroll down to the Sears 10B) :


… between the shutter ring and the aperture ring on the lens is an exposure value ring. To find the correct exposure you adjust shutter speed and/or aperture until the number on the exposure value ring equals the exposure value shown on the meter. ASA (ISO) is set by lining up the button on the bottom of ev ring with correct ASA on bottom of shutter ring ...

 

[walliswizard]

Ah well done, yes same camera. My guess is the number/meter would all make more sense if the meter was actually accurate!
Cheers all.