Zone Dials for Exposure Meters

[sanking]

I am trying to assemble some information on how people use different exposure meters with the Zone system. Years ago there were sources for Zone Dials available for a number of popular meters. Is there a common source for this type of equipment today, especially something that can be used with digital meters such as the Sekonic L-508/608 and other similar type of meters?

Thanks in advance for any references to equipment and literature relative to the above questions?

[JohnnyV]

Go to Calumetphoto.com and search for "dial"

Here's the link if it works:

http://www.calumetphoto.com/ctl?ac.ui.pn=cat.CatTreeSearch&PAGE=Controller&keywords=dial&x=17&y=9

[Matt Miller]

I use a Minolta Spotmeter F and Ralph Lambrecht's Zone Dial.

[Michael E. Gordon]

For us cheap and non-techie suckers that own the Pentax Digital Spotmeter, there's none other than an article on this site: http://www.largeformatphotography.info/articles/ZoneDial.pdf

I cut out the zone dial illustration on p.1 and using a glue stick, adhered it to my meter. Cost me about three cents for the sheet of paper and maybe 20 cents in ink from my desktop printer. Oh, and maybe 1.2 cents worth of glue stick.

[Peter Collins]

I dunno, Mike (Michael Gordon, previous poster)...it shore looked like the way to go until I got to the fractional cent. You use sheet metal cutters on a penny, right? Or, how's a guy gonna pay up??

[Ralph Barker]

Aside from manually transferring values to a separate dial, like Lambrecht's, I haven't seen (or been able to think of) a nifty way of easily using the L-508 series of digital meters with the Zone System. I just meter, and mentally ascribe Zone values to the metered value shown on the display. But, I'd love to hear about it someone has come up with a solution.

The (unfortunately discontinued) Sekonic L-778, in contrast, had a three-point zone display that could be set as desired, and moved independently from the metered values on the digital display.

[Henry Ambrose]

I may not understand the question exactly but I use the memory feature of my 508 to show the various values - meter, click the memory button, meter again, click the memory button and so on. The measurements are contained in the display at the bottom of the screen. I then have the range of exposures I think are important in the scene. Counting the "ticks" in that display tells me how broad the range is. After that its "place" the important measurement or the whole range is placed so that it will fit the film's range (often its color neg film for me). But I'm not doing precise zone work. In B&W I only use Normal, Plus or Minus which I can get to with the method above.

For precise work, I think you'd have to transfer the 508/608 readings to a zone dial which seems like more trouble than its worth, I'd buy a different meter. Or maybe you could use some little chart that you slide around under the values on the meter's display.

[Jean-Louis Llech]

I have another question about spotmeters :
Don't you consider that using a Zone Dial with spotmeters like the Sekonic L-508 and other like it, is not so easy than with a spotmeter like the Pentax Digital or the Capital ?

On spotmeters like the Pentax, you can glue the zone dial directly on the spotmeter, as a visual reference, and read immediately where the respective zones are placed.

On a Sekonic L-508, L-608 or similar ones, I cannot glue the zone dial directly on the spotmeter, and I have to hold and use it separately.
This is less convenient than the direct visual reference, where any light reading can be immediately and easily placed on the zone dial, in front of the exposure values.

Am I right or did someone find another system ?

[Matt Miller]

What's so difficult?

I simply hold the meter in one hand and the zone dial in the other. I read the scene with the meter and then use the dial to determine exposure & development based on zone placement. That's it. Does it get easier? Sure I might save 1/2 a second using a Pentax with the dial on the meter and my other hand might be free to scratch myself, but that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make. Plus that little dial fits right in the case with my meter. I like it this way.

[Tim Curry]

Sandy, View Camera had an article with the zone dial for a pentax spot meter in one of its issues a couple of years ago. This is the one I glued to my meter. Works well and is easy to use. I prefer "seeing the zones" on the meter itself, just easier for me to see the range of values that way and make exposure & development decisions on the fly that way.