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Thread: DSLR as lightmeter??

  1. #31

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    Re: DSLR as lightmeter??

    Quote Originally Posted by mfratt View Post
    Well I'm guessing here, but it seems to make sense that a longer lens would be a narrower window for the spot meter to look through, hence more accurate. All metering in those cameras is done TTL (through the lens),
    If you are going to use an SLR as a spot meter, then you might as well just use a spot meter; it's a lot less hassle to carry.

    I would think that you would use a SLR in order to take advantage of its matrix metering capability - for those situations, where the lighting in the scene is either very complex, or changing too fast for accurate spot metering.

  2. #32

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    Re: DSLR as lightmeter??

    Quote Originally Posted by roteague View Post
    If you are going to use an SLR as a spot meter, then you might as well just use a spot meter; it's a lot less hassle to carry.

    I would think that you would use a SLR in order to take advantage of its matrix metering capability - for those situations, where the lighting in the scene is either very complex, or changing too fast for accurate spot metering.
    I'm not sure that I'd trust matrix metering to either accurately translate onto film exposure, or to necessarily come close to my own visualization, but I could see it coming in handy when you don't have time to sit and figure it all out.

  3. #33

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    Re: DSLR as lightmeter??

    Quote Originally Posted by mfratt View Post
    I'm not sure that I'd trust matrix metering to either accurately translate onto film exposure, or to necessarily come close to my own visualization, but I could see it coming in handy when you don't have time to sit and figure it all out.
    Why not? They give good results when shooting 35mm. The matrix metering is going to take into account far more points than you will as the photographer. The meter on my F6 is stunningly accurate. I've never blown out a transparency yet with it. However, I rarely use it when shooting LF, unless, as I point out, the scene is too complex, or the light changing too fast. Otherwise, I just use a handheld light meter.

  4. #34

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    Re: DSLR as lightmeter??

    Quote Originally Posted by roteague View Post
    Why not? They give good results when shooting 35mm. The matrix metering is going to take into account far more points than you will as the photographer. The meter on my F6 is stunningly accurate. I've never blown out a transparency yet with it. However, I rarely use it when shooting LF, unless, as I point out, the scene is too complex, or the light changing too fast. Otherwise, I just use a handheld light meter.
    What if my scene has a small bit of highlight or shadow which I want to preserve detail in? Or what if I want to sacrifice highlights or shadows in order to expose another portion of the picture to how I want it? What if the meter sees a whole bunch of white and wants to make it middle grey?

    Maybe it could be used as a starting point from which you could adjust based on what you're looking at (given a relatively simple scene), but even then you can't quite be sure what the meter is taking into account and what algorithms its passing its information through, making it very difficult to anticipate what will actually be exposed onto your film.

    Also, more specifically to digital than to 35mm, theres no way of telling for sure (unless you actually want to test it) whether your cameras ISO values conform to your film's.

    I mean, sure, matrix metering will give you an acceptable exposure in most cases, but unless more careful metering is simply not an option, for whatever reason, I'd much rather be conscious of how my scene is being exposed. Even in a rush, due to moving subjects or lighting or whatever, I can take a quick incident or spot reading of my deepest shadow and by brightest highlight and come up with an exposure estimate based on that. Heck, thats probably as quick as or quicker than taking a matrix reading with an SLR than translating it to the large format.

  5. #35

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    Re: DSLR as lightmeter??

    Quote Originally Posted by mfratt View Post
    What if my scene has a small bit of highlight or shadow which I want to preserve detail in? Or what if I want to sacrifice highlights or shadows in order to expose another portion of the picture to how I want it? What if the meter sees a whole bunch of white and wants to make it middle grey?
    That's what 35mm photographers have been learning for years. However, the metering on most modern cameras is so good, it overcomes a lot of the limitations. I'm sure it won't work on snow, but obviously, I have no way to test that.

    Quote Originally Posted by mfratt View Post
    Also, more specifically to digital than to 35mm, theres no way of telling for sure (unless you actually want to test it) whether your cameras ISO values conform to your film's.

    I mean, sure, matrix metering will give you an acceptable exposure in most cases, but unless more careful metering is simply not an option, for whatever reason, I'd much rather be conscious of how my scene is being exposed. Even in a rush, due to moving subjects or lighting or whatever, I can take a quick incident or spot reading of my deepest shadow and by brightest highlight and come up with an exposure estimate based on that. Heck, thats probably as quick as or quicker than taking a matrix reading with an SLR than translating it to the large format.
    I don't disagree, I'm just poining out that using a 35mm camera is a good acceptable compromise.

    I can't tell you how accurate a DSLR is, I don't use one for such purposes. When I use a small camera in this circumstance, it's always my Nikon F6 loaded with the same film stock or film of the same speed as what I'm shooting in the LF camera.

  6. #36
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    Re: DSLR as lightmeter??

    I agree...the Nikon 35mm cameras I've used, including the F801s and the F4, were able to bang out perfectly exposed slides pretty much all of the time. I don't see why the results would be any different if you used their metering on a LF camera. I guess the 35mm lenses could have different transmission properties than LF lenses but do you take lens transmission into account when you use a hand-held meter anyway?
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  7. #37

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    Re: DSLR as lightmeter??

    Quote Originally Posted by mfratt View Post
    What if my scene has a small bit of highlight or shadow which I want to preserve detail in? Or what if I want to sacrifice highlights or shadows in order to expose another portion of the picture to how I want it? What if the meter sees a whole bunch of white and wants to make it middle grey?

    Maybe it could be used as a starting point from which you could adjust based on what you're looking at (given a relatively simple scene), but even then you can't quite be sure what the meter is taking into account and what algorithms its passing its information through, making it very difficult to anticipate what will actually be exposed onto your film.

    Also, more specifically to digital than to 35mm, theres no way of telling for sure (unless you actually want to test it) whether your cameras ISO values conform to your film's.

    I mean, sure, matrix metering will give you an acceptable exposure in most cases, but unless more careful metering is simply not an option, for whatever reason, I'd much rather be conscious of how my scene is being exposed. Even in a rush, due to moving subjects or lighting or whatever, I can take a quick incident or spot reading of my deepest shadow and by brightest highlight and come up with an exposure estimate based on that. Heck, thats probably as quick as or quicker than taking a matrix reading with an SLR than translating it to the large format.
    Most DSLR's provide a histogram of values and even blinky areas to indicate over exposure. At a glance you can see if you have small areas that you have over-exposed and also see if your camera totally blew the metering of the white cat on the white sofa.

    Even in a rush, due to moving subjects or lighting or whatever, I can take a quick DSLR reading of the entire scene and come up with an exposure estimate based on that.

    I think most people who are against this, haven't really tried it. The biggest issue is that you are carrying two cameras - that is why I carry a small light lightmeter instead.

  8. #38

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    Re: DSLR as lightmeter??

    Quote Originally Posted by Jack Dahlgren View Post
    Most DSLR's provide a histogram of values and even blinky areas to indicate over exposure. At a glance you can see if you have small areas that you have over-exposed and also see if your camera totally blew the metering of the white cat on the white sofa.
    How does the histogram on the DSLR match the exposure range of film? The DSLR may flag something as being overexposed, where you might still have detail in the film. That's why I stick with 35mm film. I see very little value in a histogram with any of the film stocks I use.

  9. #39

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    Re: DSLR as lightmeter??

    Quote Originally Posted by roteague View Post
    How does the histogram on the DSLR match the exposure range of film? The DSLR may flag something as being overexposed, where you might still have detail in the film. That's why I stick with 35mm film. I see very little value in a histogram with any of the film stocks I use.
    So take them as a warning, and if they are present, focus on the highlight and go to spot meter mode.

    I personally think metering is overrated. In daylight conditions you can guess the exposure (especially given latitude of films like TMY) most of the time without a meter.

  10. #40
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    Re: DSLR as lightmeter??

    I agree completely. In fact I almost never have a meter with me when I need it, so I'm gradually just forgetting about the darn things.

    Sunny? Use sunny 16, or a stop more.

    Shade? 3-4 stops more if it's deep shade.

    Bright overcast? S16+ 2 stops

    Office lighting? S16+ 8-10 stops.

    Heck, going handheld, a lot of the time it just boils down to exposing as much as I can given subject/camera motion and DOF constraints.
    Science is what we understand well enough to explain to a computer. Art is everything else we do.
    --A=B by Petkovšek et. al.

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