On Jun 26, 2006, at 5:02 PM, Adam Maas wrote: >> Sorry, but I also occasionally do work which requires very long >> exposure times. Metering in such circumstances is a nearly total >> waste of time. Experience and bracketing are more useful. > > Except with OTF metering. Then metering for such work actually does > what > it's supposed to do. Not perfect, but far more reliable, especially > when > you combine the LX and Acros 100, which has no reciprocity failure > until > 120 seconds. Of course OTF ambient metering is unique to the LX and a > couple of OM models (2 and 4 IIRC). I'm going to be doing some of this > with Acros as soon as I get the chance.
I disagree. OTF metering does absolutely nothing to mitigate the issues of photographing under such extreme lighting, which are the influence of specular highlights against deep shadow details. Experience and bracketing count for much more. My favorite "meter" for such conditions is a Kodak Pocket Photo Guide and its Available Light calculator table. That produces estimates that are much closer to right on than metering. > Can't do that in the field for static subjects (Which is where I shoot > all of mine). High Mag finders are useless for moving subjects, but > quite useful for static shubjects in the field. Use a laptop instead of a 23" monitor, transferring your storage card to the computer to read it. Do it combined with focus bracketing. Listen: I do appreciate the use of a high rez finder head for precision work on film. I had one for my Nikon F2 and F3 bodies, it was a joy. On film, you cannot tell what you have until long after the moment of exposure ... even with Polaroid 35mm instant process film. Getting the focus right on the money with your precious film captures is essential. It's almost completely unnecessary for digital capture work, however, because you can check what you got immediately and re-do as required. You can focus bracket then delete all the exposures that didn't do what you wanted ... with a DS and a 2G card, I have room to play with almost 200 RAW captures. Surely I can focus well enough that bracketing by a tiny bit should get the results I want in 4-5 shots at most. I do this with tabletop product work all the time .. makes it much easier to get what I wanted when all I want is the shot done in the minimum time. This is not art, this is photographic recording ... exploit the advantages of digital to get more done in less time. A 2x finder magnification gives enough focusing accuracy that you should be able to get what you want in one shot anyway. Different technology, different ways of working. What is a huge advantage for one is not necessarily of much value for the other. Godfrey -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
