Meter Madness

**Bill_1856** · 20-Sep-2015, 10:54

My Pentax Digital came from the factory one stop off. Never got around to sending it back for proper calibration, I just compensated. That was fine when I used it a lot, now I use a meter once or twice a year, and can never remember if it's one-stop high or one-stop low. Totally useless!
Why didn't they teach the 1/ASA@16 rule while I was growing up?

**Heroique** · 20-Sep-2015, 13:57

My Pentax digital spot overexposes 1/3 stop.

My Sekonic L-308 underexposes 1/3 stop.

Meter madness = remembering this backwards, correcting in the wrong direction, and being off by 2/3 a stop when it matters!

Mostly, I ignore the "1/3 problem," but it bugs me too.

**John Layton** · 23-Sep-2015, 06:21

My main meter is a Z-6 modified Pentax digital spot - recently adjusted by Richard Ritter. Lots of other (mostly older) meters lying around (Weston V's, Sekonics, Gossens) some of which work.

My goal now is to somehow get my recently acquired (flea market bargain at 25.00) SEI photometer working. The prospect of being able to accurately assess something like a very thin (way less than one degree), brightly lit tree branch against a black background is too promising to ignore...and as far as I know, the SEI is the only meter that can do this.

Question: with Huw Finney no longer overhauling (and nicely updating) SEI's...is there anybody else out there who can do this?

**Photobackpacker** · 23-Sep-2015, 07:09

As a black and white enthusiast, as long as a meter is consistent from one use to the next, my resulting densities set the standard. As long as I am able to put the expected densities on my negative it makes little difference to me whether my meter is calibrated to a national testing standard. That is why I use a detailed exposure record card. I note specific elements in the shot and where I want their densities to fall. I compare the results with a densitometer. That way, every sheet exposed is an ongoing film test that alerts me to any changes in the process (meter, shutter, film, developer, temp or time). This has revealed lens to lens shutter differences that are critical to me.