----- Original Message -----
From: "Rob Brigham" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: June 4, 2001 3:13 AM
Subject: Spotmeters (Was: Learning To make a Photograph)
> Is it necessary to buy a spotmeter with a sighting scope?
These are
> extremely expensive, but without one I do not see how you can
accurately
> point it at a spot you want to meter. Without being able to
accurately
> line up, you could only do general or incident readings
surely? This is
> why I think you may be better off using the TTL spotmeter
which you can
> aim accurately rather than a handheld which you hope you
pointed in the
> right direction.
I have seen hand held light meters with "spot" attchments. These
give about 5� angle of acceptance, hardly a spot meter at all.
Dont discount incident light readings. Metering the light
falling on the subject, rather than the light reflecting fron
the subject is far more accurate.
>
> I ask this because my MZ30 does not have spotmeter and I would
go and
> buy a cheap lightmeter if it could be aimed accurately.
Otherwise I
> have to think long and har whether to spend the extra dosh on
one with a
> scope - it would be cheaper to take a second body to use as a
lightmeter
> (although obviously I would lose the incident metering)!!
Would a cheap light meter be more accurate? Perhaps a better
choice would be to buy a longish lens, so that you could turn
your present in camera meter into a spot meter of sorts.
>
> I am currently waiting to see whether to buy MZ-S (favourite
at the
> moment), Z1P or MZ5N but in the meantime would like a
spotmeter - just
> not sure which one and whether its worth the money. I dont
want to
> spend hundreds, but I dont really want one which is not as
good as that
> which I will get in my upgraded camera when that happens.
Cheap light meters are not a good investment, IMO. The have a
tendency to not be accurate, not have good linearity and not be
colour blind (a fatal flaw in most light meters).
As an aside, spot meters are not the easiest things to learn how
to use. It is not enough to just point the thing at a spot on
the subject and transfer the reading to the camera. You have to
be able to estimate accurately where on the tonal range of the
film the area you are metering will fall, you have to know if
your meter shows colour bias towards what you are measuring, and
if so, how much so that it can be accounted for.
William Robb
Remember, the LX Gallery is coming up.
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for more information.
William Robb
Remember, the LX Gallery is coming up.
Please see:
http://pug.komkon.org/LX_Gallery/LX_Submit.html
for more information.
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