Pentax Digital Spotmeter ... lifetime ?

[Bob Gentile]

"... only Calumet can modify them..."

Interesting. And, apparently, they're no longer doing so. Catch-22.

Oh, well. Fortunately pour moi, I still get by with my ol' analog meter.

[Arne Croell]

I own the Zone Vi modified Pentax digital since 16 years and it is still going strong.
I recently bought a 2nd Pentax digital as backup, and since the modified one was no longer avialable I got a regular model. When I checked them against each other, the main difference (apart from a general shift of 1/3 EV) was a difference of 1/3 to 2/3 EV when measuring foliage in the sun or measuring through a dark red filter (the regular Pentax showed the higher values). I could get the regular Pentax to behave the same as the modified one by adding a Heliopan "Digital" filter (no. 8025, http://www.heliopan.de/produkte/digital-video.shtml) which is a combined UV/IR blocking filter made for Digicams. I assume the similar B+W filter (486, http://www.schneiderkreuznach.com/ti...perrfilter.htm) works the same.

[Sal Santamaura]

...When I checked them against each other, the main difference (apart from a general shift of 1/3 EV) was a difference of 1/3 to 2/3 EV when measuring foliage in the sun or measuring through a dark red filter (the regular Pentax showed the higher values). I could get the regular Pentax to behave the same as the modified one by adding a Heliopan "Digital" filter...

Very interesting Arne. Was the 1/3 EV general shift with the unmodified or modified meter reading higher? If the former, did you Heliopan's slight attenuation within its passband compensate for that too?

[Arne Croell]

Very interesting Arne. Was the 1/3 EV general shift with the unmodified or modified meter reading higher? If the former, did you Heliopan's slight attenuation within its passband compensate for that too?

Hi Sal, the unmodified newer one was lower by 1/3rd EV, so unfortunately there was no compensation but an addition by the filter of about 1/6th EV.