mickeyobe
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Post by mickeyobe on Jul 30, 2012 16:04:32 GMT -5
My Weston Master IV Model 745, a beautiful hunk of a meter is as dead as possible.
Its little brother, the Weston Direct Reading (DR) is still as lively as the day it was born.
An old GE Type PR-1 (For film or plates) still manages to move its arthritic old pointer.
A Bertram Bewi Automat does something but I think it is going down for the third time.
A Gossen Sixon still springs to life.
Whereas a similar Gossen meter with missing nameplate and with Color Finder is kaput. Whoops! It just woke up.
All my Sekonic meters still work. The tiny Auto-Lumi 1, both of them. The indomitable Auto-Leader model 38. The Superb Sekonic Brockway Studio S Model 5, the love of my life.
And then there is the pocket watch like Watkins Bee of post WW 1 vintage. It works. It uses disks of sensitive paper which darken rapidly when exposed to daylight. I just tested one and it still darkens after several seconds exposure. There are 1/2 dozen more stored in its back. One can make about 20 or more exposures on each disk. Instructions state it may even be used for shutter cameras.
Mickey
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Post by philbirch on Apr 23, 2014 20:08:42 GMT -5
...And then there is the pocket watch like Watkins Bee of post WW 1 vintage. It works. It uses disks of sensitive paper which darken rapidly when exposed to daylight. I just tested one and it still darkens after several seconds exposure. There are 1/2 dozen more stored in its back. One can make about 20 or more exposures on each disk. Instructions state it may even be used for shutter cameras. Mickey I had one of those. I tried to re calibrate it using printing paper but sunny 16 gave better results!! Bumpin this thread because I have a ship load of meters an none of them agree with my camera so... ...Sunny 16 all the way with my oldies! shutter speed = ISO/ASA sun: f16 cloudy bright: f11 no sun or shadow: f8 dull: f5.6 rainy: f4 almost dark f:kin go home simple and works for me. |
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Post by philbirch on Apr 23, 2014 20:11:35 GMT -5
I love this forum
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daveh
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Post by daveh on Apr 24, 2014 2:23:54 GMT -5
I have always found that whatever method is used most exposures will be reasonable.
In the good old days of the simple box camera there was nothing to do, other than learn how to load the film. There was one shutter speed, I for instantaneous (well two if you include B for brief) perhaps about 1/60, a fixed f-stop that was maybe somewhere around f8 or f11. Most frames gave a decent result. There was no need to even try to guess. Film speed was slow: even (what we now call) ISO 100 would have been considered a fast film.
I'm not sure anyone has mentioned incident light metering. It always seemed to me to be the best method of measuring light levels, as long as there wasn't too much of a rush and the light was constant.
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Post by Peltigera on Apr 24, 2014 4:46:29 GMT -5
I tend to use a combination method. I use my ancient Ikophot at the beginning of a session and then adjust exposure on the fly as seems appropriate.
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Stephen
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Post by Stephen on Apr 24, 2014 5:58:32 GMT -5
No mention of Sunny 16 and your feet, looking down to determine the presence and depth of shadows to check it is full sun.....If as you look down, the back of the neck feels damp....it's raining!
Stephen
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mickeyobe
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Post by mickeyobe on Apr 24, 2014 8:44:36 GMT -5
No mention of Sunny 16 and your feet, looking down to determine the presence and depth of shadows to check it is full sun.....If as you look down, the back of the neck feels damp....it's raining! Stephen[/quote If you look down and can see your feet your weight is reasonable. SMILE. Mickey |
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daveh
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Post by daveh on Apr 25, 2014 15:48:33 GMT -5
No mention of Sunny 16 and your feet, looking down to determine the presence and depth of shadows to check it is full sun.....If as you look down, the back of the neck feels damp....it's raining! Stephen[/quote If you look down and can see your feet your weight is reasonable. SMILE. Mickey However, if your feet are a sunny size 16 you might still be able to see them. |
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Post by philbirch on Apr 25, 2014 19:04:08 GMT -5
However, if your feet are a sunny size 16 you might still be able to see them. If you can, perhaps it should be called Coco the Clown 16. |
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Stephen
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Post by Stephen on Apr 26, 2014 4:55:03 GMT -5
It was truly amazing that most customers for D&P could not identify whether it was sunny or not.
The evidence was in the shot, no shadows or very vague shadows. Obviously the problem was the fixed point and shoot, or simple two step autos etc., and the perfidious British weather.
Kodak's negative colour film had latitude, but colour balance shifted, or washed out, mainly due to the averaging auto settings on the D&P printers.
Kodak's first sunshine standard was based on mid-day, mid-year light with a cloudless sky, looking north in Washington, near the Lincoln Monument, later resolved to the Lab standards of course! They later used the same site to determine Kodachrome standards, both the exposure and colour balance.
Of course this may be totally different from a bright April day, with haze and 20%+ cloud on Brighton sea front!
The missing factor was the eternal optimism of holiday makers, who force themselves to believe the sun is shining throughout the holiday.
Stephen
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Post by julio1fer on Apr 26, 2014 19:10:18 GMT -5
Very patriotic of Kodak to determine Sunny 16 that way.
I once shot a couple rolls in a trip to India, in the Taj Mahal. Early afternoon in a sunny day, no clouds, shoes in hand to save time, and not much time either. Meter exposure indicated 1/500 in f/16 for ASA 100. I thought the meter had gone crazy - but it was right. I used Sunny 16 and got two extra stops of exposure, for the lab more or less to work out.
Sunny 16 - ok if in familiar situations where you know your light. Elsewhere, as a friend used to say, too much confidence kills men and gets women pregnant.
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Stephen
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Post by Stephen on Apr 27, 2014 4:53:38 GMT -5
Very patriotic of Kodak to determine Sunny 16 that way. I once shot a couple rolls in a trip to India, in the Taj Mahal. Early afternoon in a sunny day, no clouds, shoes in hand to save time, and not much time either. Meter exposure indicated 1/500 in f/16 for ASA 100. I thought the meter had gone crazy - but it was right. I used Sunny 16 and got two extra stops of exposure, for the lab more or less to work out. Sunny 16 - ok if in familiar situations where you know your light. Elsewhere, as a friend used to say, too much confidence kills men and gets women pregnant. I guess they needed a repeatable sun position and a standard view that was hardly likely to alter, the later Kodachrome tests included a girl and a colour chart. The shots were printed in the collectors column of Modern photographer in the 1970's, and were published by Kodak. |
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Post by philbirch on Apr 27, 2014 13:30:18 GMT -5
I have a chart in an old British Journal of Photography Almanack of 1957 which tells you about the sunny 16 latitude and time of day variations. an example:
South of England Latitude 50:
March and September between hours of 9am and 3pm sunny 16 rule x 1.5, between 8-9 am and 4-5pm x3, 7am and 5pm x6, after than there is no further information.
Same months but at latitude 15: between hours of 9am and 3pm sunny 16 rule x 0.75, between 8-9 am and 4-5pm x 1.5, 7am and 5pm x3, after that there is no further information.
Sunny 16 can be as complicated as you make it.
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mickeyobe
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Post by mickeyobe on Aug 20, 2014 17:41:11 GMT -5
I just found this thread on the More Topics on this Board section.
It was so good hearing from that exceptional man again.
His knowledge and humour give me great pleasure every time he reappears.
Mickey
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