Another vote for the Spotmeter F -- bought mine on that auction site for $175 and it's great. Doubles as a flashmeter too.
Dan
Another vote for the Spotmeter F -- bought mine on that auction site for $175 and it's great. Doubles as a flashmeter too.
Dan
I agree 100% about not needing a zone VI modified meter. The trick is to know the meter you use, Zone VI or not.
From what I've read, the big modifications of the Zone VI are the internal baffling to prevent flair and filtering to get rid of infrared sensitivity. And calibration? I thought the factory did that? ;-)
My Gossens are very sensitive to infrared and I use them with an 87 filter to measure it purposfully. Great feature. And I know the meters will read a bit high when there's a full sun situation where a lot of infrared will be bouncing around. And even when I forget, I get correct exposure...
My Sekonic meters are totally insensitive to infrared and I know they'll measure a bit low under certain circumstances. Again, I get perfect exposures even when I forget...
My Minolta Spot meters (M and F) are mildly sensitive to infrared and seem to give perfect exposures no matter what I do with them. And in testing with a light bulb and Sun coming through a window, I could see no flair problems with either model.
So after using the two Minolta meters, I certainly have no inclination to spend the money on a zone VI modified meter. Just don't see the reason for it unless you're one of the techno-junkies that just have to have the best and spend all that time doing calculations and such. Not for me... I'm also from the old school where you measure the scene (or not) and then decide you want to bring up a little shadow detail or bring down a highlight, and adjust the exposure from there. No calculations, no fancy equipment...
And, don't pass up a good Minolta Spotmeter M either. It may use the 6 volt battery (easily found) and not have an on/off switch, but it's super accurate and easy to use, and cheaper than the F. To be honest, I would recommend the F though and plan on swapping my M for an F one of these days ;-)
I started out with an analog Pentax spotmeter modified by Zone VI. I bought it for $225 or so. (First real camera after two point-n-shoots: Pentax 6x7)
Anyways: The biggest difference is a sticker on the spotmeter. The sticker has these markings: I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII. The 'V' is big, and is placed over the arrow on the bottom scale. Besides calibraring it and whatever else they do, you can easily make your own sticker.
After putting your own sticker on the meter, go use it! Or you can try something immensly cheaper, such as the sunny-16 rule.
"It's the way to educate your eyes. Stare. Pry, listen, eavesdrop. Die knowing something. You are not here long." - Walker Evans
With black and white film, it's pretty hard to go wrong with sunny 16 plus one stop, plus two if you know the scene has shadow detail you want.
Zone system is great and having a basic understanding of it is nice, but you know, life's to short :-)!
One mans opinion.
I have a Pentax digital spot meter that I never use, because I prefer my Gossen Luna Pro F as an incident meter. I would gladly trade my spot meter for a Graflex SLR or possibly another interesting trade. I shoot everything from 35mm up through 10x12.
For Rich and Brian, one main difference in a modified meter is that the metering CELL is replaced. THAT is why calibration is required.
Brian, the sticker you mentioned is available for several meters. It has NOTHING to do with a modified meter. Only those meters which have the "Modified by Zone VI Studios" are genuinely modified in this manner.
BTW, the Pentax Digital meters have not been available new in some time. Calumet indicates they have no modified ones either. There was a story that the "factory was behind in production" so something similar, but the bottom line is they simply are not available new at this time.
Alec
Alec, they are available new. Not everywhere but they are there. Badger has them. I checked with Jeff a few days ago.
don't forget used meters at places like KEH.com, whichever you choose
The Minolta Spot meter F or the Sekonic L-558 DualMaster is the way to go. (the latter now replaces the former in my camera bag. Write to me if you are interested in my Spot Meter F.) The Zone VI modified meter is well, a bunch of hype at ths point.
Calamity,
Can you believe the number of responses? I have been wondering about exposure and metering for many years, wondering what equipment or knowledge would make me a consistent photographer. It can be very confusing and expensive.
To the point: until you are ready, willing and able to inform yourself fully about your materials (I'm talking some comprehensive exposure, develop and print coordination with discrete testing of each step in the process) use only one reliable meter and don't switch. (I recommend a small, light, accurate, reliable and versatile meter like the Gossen digisix - about $100, new).
If you do all outdoor work an incident meter is fine. You can pick up a decent used one for as little as $20.00
If you are going to do expensive and extensive studio/indoor work too then you'll need to drop large money on a meter that has more flexibility: spot and flash metering etc.
The Zone VI is a Very good meter, maybe the most accurate if not the most versatile, but is only worth it if you need it. You only need it if you have (or are going to) done the study to know how to put such an accurate device to work for you and make use of the subtleties available to one who understands densitometry.
What you need to do as someone starting out is to simplify and stabilize your process and shoot a lot of film. Record what you do start to finish and you'll have good data as to what direction to go in next for improvement. The real money expenditure for a newbe is film.
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