I think that if many people made contact sheets instead of prints, they'd be surprised at the sometimes widely varying quality of their exposures. Recently I was trying out a new MX and checking the meter. I pointed the camera at a lamp in my bedroom, with the light source centered. The camera showed one reading. I then moved the camera slightly, so the lamp was still in the finder, but just a little off center. The camera's meter indicated a different exposure was required, yet ABSOLUTELY NOTHING had changed in the way of lighting, or in the subject matter of the scene.
By viewing the metering pattern of the camera (http://home.earthlink.net/~belinkoff/cameras/mx/mx-meter-pattern.gif) it becomes clear that the meter will give that point source of light a different weight as the light moves from the center of the metering zone, thereby changing the recommended exposure, even though nothing has changed in the scene. Unless one knows and understands how the meter is reading the light and determining the exposure, the actual exposure could be either under or over the ideal exposure for that scene. Now, the nice thing about the MX is that the camera operator has to manually change the exposure, forcing the photographer to think a moment before pressing the shutter release. But, if one were using an automatic exposure system, every time the camera moved slightly, the exposure would change to some degree. The result is exactly what you, as a lab tech, see - widely varying exposures. Now - getting back to alternative methods of exposure - if one were using a spot meter here, the bright light source would be metered, and the resulting exposure would be made by opening up two or three stops from that reading, depending on the result the photographer was trying to obtain, and that setting would be used for all subsequent exposures of the scene, even if the camera position was moved. William Robb wrote: > I compare this to what I see coming from the few fancy SLR > cameras that come through my lab, and I cringe. I am also glad I > don't have to make contact sheets from them. > William Robb -- Shel Belinkoff mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://home.earthlink.net/~belinkoff/ - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
