Sekonic L758 Light Meter Question

[IanBarber]

Is there any way to turn off the 1/10th display.

I sometimes get confused, for example.

The meter in incident mode is telling me 1/4 second at f/16.7 which I presume is f/16 and 7/10th

I never really know wether to set the camera to f/16 of f/22

[BrianShaw]

I don't believe so. See page 44, specifically the footnote associated with configuration item #3.

http://www.sekonic.com/downloads/l-758_english.pdf

[Sweep]

Hi Ian,
Being new to all this LF thing, and just having bought a L-508, I have been trying to figure out the same. If you have a Copal shutter, which doesn't have detents on the aperture ring, don't you just rotate it by "rack of eye", as we say in Yorkshire, to wherever you want either on or in-between f-stops.
I know my L-508 always gives the exposure in tenths even when I set it to aperture priority. I presumed this was because you could always set anywhere between apertures but the shutter times (speeds) are always click stop exact numbers.

...Sweep

[IanBarber]

Hello Sweep

Yea, I do have a Copal shutter and I have been nudging it either way depending on what the meter says. I just wondered if the meter could be set to round up the information rather than showing the 1/10th at the end but it appears not having read the manual BrianShaw posted a link to

[Sweep]

It took me a while to get used to it as it feels unnatural to have the next step up from, say, f11.9 to be f16. It feels decidedly "un-decimal"

[IanBarber]

It took me a while to get used to it as it feels unnatural to have the next step up from, say, f11.9 to be f16. It feels decidedly "un-decimal"


At which point would you take it to f/16 would it be f/11.5 and above

[Sweep]

Never, it would be f11.9 as the aperture on Copal shutters is infinitely variable just move it to where you want. The scale is already divided into thirds.
165933

[R.K]

Is there any way to turn off the 1/10th display.

I sometimes get confused, for example.

The meter in incident mode is telling me 1/4 second at f/16.7 which I presume is f/16 and 7/10th

I never really know wether to set the camera to f/16 of f/22

So, what the problem. F16 7/10 almost the same as F16 2/3. Many shutters having 1/3 scale.

[consummate_fritterer]

We all have our strengths and weaknesses. For many folks it's certain types of math. So what? :)

If you're worried about it, just make a small cheat card to tell you where to set the aperture. If you're shooting negatives then .0-.3 could be '0' adjustment... .4-.6 could be '+1/2 stop'... .7-.9 could be '+1 stop'. That's easy enough and certainly well within negative film latitude.

[BrianShaw]

Hello Sweep

Yea, I do have a Copal shutter and I have been nudging it either way depending on what the meter says. I just wondered if the meter could be set to round up the information rather than showing the 1/10th at the end but it appears not having read the manual BrianShaw posted a link to

BTW, I don't personally find the tenths too confusing but it was incredibly shortsighted of Sekonic not to have an option to turn it off and let the meter round per the selection of whole, half or third stop readings.

I use conventional rounding rules to round up or down. Much more than that is unnecessary accuracy given the latitudes of film processes.

[IanBarber]

My 15mm doesn't have any marking in between the f stops but im sure I can now make something up.

Thanks for all the replies

[Bill Burk]

I just use T mode all the time and look at the scale at the bottom, I completely ignore the big f/stop number.

[R.K]

In the aperture priority mode the EV scale displayed on the bottom, and it divided in 1/2 and 1/3 of the stop. It is just necessary to get used to it. I always measure highlights first, and save it in the memory. After if i want, i measure something important in between the highlights and the shadows and save it in the memory again. This step actually can be avoided if you not interested where some particular medium tone will fall. And the last measurement I do on the shadows and saving it in the memory to. Those 3 measurements if saved to memory, will be displayed on the EV scale at the bottom of the meter screen and will give you all information about the light reflected from the subject, and you can judge what development needed. Measuring shadows last helping to avoid use "Memory recall" function and saving some time. The last measurement will be displayed on the meters screen and you just need to make you judgments where to place it. Usually we placing shadows on the zone 3, so setup the ISO2 button the way it show you the exposure parameters for zone 3 placement. Now look on the EV scale at the bottom of the screen. Let say you shadows value feel somewhere between EV numbers -3 and -4. If it located more close to number -3, than you have 1/3 of a stop. If it is in the middle between -3 and -4, then 1/2 of a stop and if the mark located close to the number -4, then you have a 2/3 of a stop. So basically the meter doing all roundups for you automatically and you even don't need to pay any attention to those decimal numbers at all. I hope this help.