The Zone VI Pentax Spot Meter

[ederphoto]

I had one of each a modified and a unmodified .I tested them both in real situations. I did see a some difference in some cases and i decided for the modified one .Sold the unmodified .I still have the Zone VI to this day !

[Daniel Unkefer]

I have the modified Zone VI Pentax Digital Spotmeter and it has never let me down, since I purchased it new. It's my "go-to" meter, always right on, through twenty years of hard use.

[Doremus Scudder]

I, too, have both the unmodified and the modified Pentax spotmeter. I find a 1/3-stop difference between them (the unmodified meter reading faster) and compensate accordingly. Other than that, I find no particular advantage to the modified meter. The idea and concept are good, but in practice, especially for the type of work I do where I don't have to deal regularly with real saturated colors, the unmodified meter works just fine.

That said, if I had the opportunity to buy one or the other, and the price for the modified meter was not too much more, I'd go with the modified one.

BTW, an earlier post mentioned that Calumet was still producing Zone VI modified Pentax meters. I have searched the Calumet site and have not found one (I didn't even find the unmodified Pentax spotmeter!). If anyone has the links to these, I'd appreciate seeing them.

Best,

Doremus Scudder

[Jeffrey Sipress]

Wow, in the five years since I originally asked the question, I have used two Pentax digital meters, one Zone IV modded. I have also become an accomplished LF photographer and would now recommend this meter to anyone. What a blast from the past!

[neil poulsen]

. . . Since I put my data on the web, I've been contacted by one photographer, Peter MacCallum of Toronto, who has kindly shared his data comparing a Zone VI modified Pentax *analog* meter and an unmodified Pentax digital spotmeter.

Peter's data show more variation between the two meters than I found between the modified and unmodified Pentax digital meters. I haven't done a real statistical analysis but the difference Peter found seems to be about on the scale of what I found between the Pentax meters and the Sekonic L-508. Whether the difference in response Peter found is due to the Zone VI modifications or to the differences between the analog and digital meters, I don't know. . . .

Out of curiosity, what is your purpose in comparing a modified with an unmodified meter?

[Stephen Benskin]

EWhat you need to ascertain is if the Minolta F has a "K" factor built into it (Adams The Negative pg 66) that would affect the results the meter would give you.

All hand held reflection meters have a K factor. It's just a light loss constant that assumes a camera's optical system and compensates for the spectral sensitivity of the exposure meter's photo cell. Through the lens meters don't have K factors because they read the actual light transmitted through the lens.

[Brian Ellis]

Out of curiosity, what is your purpose in comparing a modified with an unmodified meter?

You're unlikely to receive an answer to this question here. Paul Butzi "went digital" a few years ago and AFAIK no longer uses LF cameras and hasn't participated here in some years. But if I can speak for him, he did the comparisons because he wanted to see if the modifications did what they were claimed to do.

[Robert Hughes]

What's all this expensive spot meter madness?

Sunny 16! (or murky 4)

[Bruce Barlow]

Own two. Both modified. No basis for comparison. Love the meter, would own it modified or not. Agree about low light, so I only make pictures when light's available...

[Wayne Crider]

I've only owned the Minolta F and the one thing that I liked about it, besides the flash metering which you could use to pop a strobe, was the ability to save the original reading and then spot meter other areas and get the difference between the two. I believe if I remember right that it can save three different readings. I'm not sure if the Pentax any of this and would like to know. Also the Minolta has viewfinder read outs. I never had a bad exposure due to the meter.