When and how to rely on the Pentax 67 light meter

Hi friends,

I have a new Pentax 67 -- a roll was sent off to be developed but I've yet to see it. I did a test roll with multiple shots on a tripod using the same conditions, but with one shot using the internal meter and the other shot using the Minolta Spotmeter F. I am somewhat new to metering in general (I've usually had decent results, but am not an expert). The results were never the same -- the Pentax usually wanted me to let in several additional stops of light. I don't think any of the scenes were so high contrast that it would cause any issues there.

In general, I haven't used any cameras with built in meters, so I don't know what to expect. Is this something anyone can comment on? Thanks!

1) The TTL meter is an averaging meter taking in a much wider sample, while the Spotmeter F is reading a 1 degree spot, so you have to interpret the results differently.

2) How old is the camera? The meter might need recalibrating. Get a big piece of gray matboard which evenly fills the view of the 6X7 and then see if you get a matching reading or not.

You might want to just stick with your Spotmeter, since you're accustomed to that.

Try an incident light reading with the spot meter. Get an 18% gray card, or some people use the palm of their hand in a pinch. Make sure it is in the same light that you want to expose for in your photo when you take the reading.

If the metering system in the 67 is dirty or damaged, it will let in less light, and then report that it needs to expose extra.

I have always depended on the built-in meters of all the cameras I have owned. If I were you as long as films develop normally I would use it. If the photographs tend to drift off, then send it camera out to have the light meter adjusted.

Once I adopted spot meters, I never looked back. The Spotmeter F I had precisely matched my Pentax spot meters. The only time I ever use TTL metering is in quickie Nikon snapshot work, and even then, I prefer spotmeter readings.

-persimmon-tree- said:

Hi friends,

I have a new Pentax 67 -- a roll was sent off to be developed but I've yet to see it. I did a test roll with multiple shots on a tripod using the same conditions, but with one shot using the internal meter and the other shot using the Minolta Spotmeter F. I am somewhat new to metering in general (I've usually had decent results, but am not an expert). The results were never the same -- the Pentax usually wanted me to let in several additional stops of light. I don't think any of the scenes were so high contrast that it would cause any issues there.

In general, I haven't used any cameras with built in meters, so I don't know what to expect. Is this something anyone can comment on? Thanks!

Click to expand...

Wow, this is apparently such a simple question, but oh, it is so complicated. I 100% agree that incident readings are the way to go.

I’m going to give a very basic answer in the interest of brevity. Reflected readings are completely affected by the color of the area they are aimed at. Spot or regular, no difference.

The reason incident readings are so much easier is they read the light falling on the subject, so unless you are looking for a special effect, you can use that exact exposure.

Spot meters are great, but you need a very good understanding of light and exposure. I do not recommend them for someone who states “I am somewhat new to metering”, because it will take a lot of learning to use that spot meter well.

It's the difference between a sniper rifle and a shotgun approach. In this case, the poster already seems to be making some progress getting the more precise method, but wants to factor in how the TTL metering prism works by comparison. Why complicate it with yet another type of meter, requiring an additional purchase? Trying to juggle two eggs at the same time is enough of a learning curve, without adding a third egg!

And I disagree that it's difficult to learn to use a handheld spotmeter properly. Any kind of meter needs some practice to really understand. The whole point is to get so familiar with a specific method that it becomes second-nature, so that you hardly even need to think about it.

The main issue is knowing exactly where to "place" your readings in the overall exposure scale. For this reason spot meters are popular with Zone System devotees because the exact difference between shadow and highlight values can be so easily detected. In color photography, midtone values are more important; but those can be accommodated by a spot meter too.

Carrying around a gray card representing middle gray can be helpful to the learning curve. After awhile, asphalt pavement gray, or a granite boulder, or a maybe a green lawn, becomes a surrogate for a gray card.