Digital light meter.

[ignatiusjk]

I recently went to Zion and Bryce Canyon and tried using my digital 35mm camera as my light meter for my 4x5 and the negs came back a little thin. Someone told me that you can do that that's why I tried it but my negs proved otherwise.So I'll have to go back to my Luna Pro.What meters do you use????

[urs0polar]

a used Minolta flashmeter IV is awesome (you can get a spot attachment for it); I also have a sekonic 558 which is also great.

[Professional]

What do you mean by thin?
I used my 35mm DSLR to meter for my 4x5 negs for my first time in my life to shoot LF, it worked fine, just i give that LF say about 1-2 stops more due to DR and large area of the film size so it will take light almost more than 35mm DSLR, maybe some will say that both formats will see same amount of the light under same settings, but i just took a risk and exposed less about 1-2 comparing to DSLR metering.

[ic-racer]

It should work if you set the iso on the digital camera so the lowest area on the histogram gives 0.1 above film base & fog when that low area of the scene is exposed by the [negative] film camera at the same f-stop and shutter speed.

[Andrew O'Neill]

It'll work for you but you will first have to find which ISO setting works best...just like when we calibrate our regular metres to our own process. I prefer to use my Minolta digital spot metre. It's way more accurate.

[David de Gruyl]

Pentax digital spot. Works fine when I don't screw up (just like any other meter).

I suspect that if you are shooting E-6, and you get the right ISO setting, the digital camera would be the best lightmeter available. For B&W negatives, it probably would not work for me unless I was using it in spot mode.

[jeroldharter]

It does not matter what meter you use, but you must calibrate any meter to your processing and film.

If you have a known meter that works well, you can compare the readings from the known meter with the DSLR's meter and make any adjustments needed to equilibrate them. Otherwise, you have to test your meter to your film processing to arrive at an effective film speed.

[Leigh]

I also have a sekonic 558 which is also great.

I love my Sekonic 558. Use it all the time.

For those unfamiliar with the product, it's an ambient meter AND a 1° spot meter in one package. Looks kinda odd, but works great.

It also has a Pocketwizard transmitter built in so I can trigger my strobes with it.

- Leigh

[Frank Petronio]

It could be as easy as lowering the ISO of the "digital 35mm?" camera.

It could be as hard as reading a book, running tests and measurements.

But switching meters won't fix your immediate problem, unless your LunaPro measures a couple of stops worth of added exposure more than your digital 35mm camera in the same situation. Have you ever compared the two side-by-side to see if they match or not?

[Jeff Bannow]

A couple of well-known photographer friends use a digital camera for their light meter. They are "morally opposed" to using a real meter.

The result - all of their negs are consistently underexposed. Thin shadows, ugh. It's really too bad. My opinion - use a real meter.