Which spot meters did they use back then ?

A few weeks ago i started to learn the zone system. What i find was that i need a spotmeter. If i am right the whole zone system is few decades old, yes? So, ho w they metered the shadow area? :)

Martin, take a spot reading of the darkest area that you still want to show detail and place that on zone 3. I would do a film test to find the true iso and development time for whatever film you use.

I think what Martin is trying to say is How did photographers meter before the advent of spot meters? good question I read somewhere E.weston would point his meter at the sky then at the ground and say something like it says half a second i`ll give it 1 second.Brett Weston said he never used a light meter unless he was to hung over. Ansel adams got the exposer of his Moonrise picture by just knowing the luminancity value of the moon.-J

I think the first spot meters are from the late 30s (Adam's SEI Spot Meter?).

The SEI spotmeter was one of the first of its kind. Before and after it actually, people use general range reflected meters, like the Weston meters modeled II-V and figured out stuff or attached a zone sticker, similar to that sold by Zone VI and now by Calumet, to the meter. One still metered shadows and highlights to determine exposure range and placement and development. Where one could not get close to the subject you used subsitute readings a lot. Bob

Before the electronic meters there was a type called "extinction". From what I recall, it was mechanical, and you closed an aperature while you looked through a viewer and the image grey tone matched a built-in tone.

Supposedly they worked well.

Edward Weston did not use a meter. However, you must remember that the films he used had very low speed ratings. Therefore, if his average exposure was 1-15 seconds (or longer - in the case of the Pepper series some were in the 4 hour range), the margin for error was much greater.

I'm sorry Steve, you are mistaken. Edward Weston did use a meter starting in about the mid 30's when he was employed through one of the Federal programs during the depression, to document art works.

Now whether he used it in the conventional sense, or in the usual manner is open to debate, but he did own and use a Weston meter.