Reveni spot meter

[Alan Klein]

As far as I could discern it is an adapted zone system where you can set the contrast range of the film in the meter. So you could for example set your meter to five stops of contrast for transparency film. Then it looks like you take a reading and set a value to it. However those values are described as something like 'white with texture' or 'somewhat dark' rather than as numbered zones and you can see the descriptions in meter. So from that point of view it is more logical because you can match what you are metering to the description below it in the meter by scrolling through the options. There s no option to calculate expansion or contraction or anything like that. Looks like it would work well with colour film but it isn't exactly an earth shattering breakthrough, it's just swapping numbered zones for described zones.

Thanks for the summation. I think I'll watch it. There may be something in there I could use and adapt to my metering.

[roscoetuff-Skip Mersereau]

I think the toughest part of this is knowing how your eye will respond to the overlay.. and will it work for you, for me or whoever. I'd assume the rest of the process and mechanics are sound. It's just the question of a spot meter where you don't know exactly what you've focused on. Guess if I were a fighter pilot, I'd be used to that sort of overlay and have confidence in it. As it stands, I think I'd have to try it to see.

Separately, I've read about many different "systems" for exposure, and I've seldom seen any other than the Zone System get widespread traction. Whether Nick Carver's method is "new" or just a program for teaching the application of THE Zone system or something like it (the Videc system on the LFP home page here?), doesn't matter all that much to me. I try to be a student and ALWAYS stay curious 'cause you never know where you'll pick up good ideas to make life better.

[Daniel Casper Lohenstein]

As far as I could discern it is an adapted zone system where you can set the contrast range of the film in the meter. So you could for example set your meter to five stops of contrast for transparency film. Then it looks like you take a reading and set a value to it. However those values are described as something like 'white with texture' or 'somewhat dark' rather than as numbered zones and you can see the descriptions in meter. So from that point of view it is more logical because you can match what you are metering to the description below it in the meter by scrolling through the options. There s no option to calculate expansion or contraction or anything like that. Looks like it would work well with colour film but it isn't exactly an earth shattering breakthrough, it's just swapping numbered zones for described zones.

I don't mean to tease, but that's how far I've come. But if the light meter asks for "somewhat dark" or "white with texture'", and if that is supposed to simplify the exposure of color film, then I wonder where "yellow with violet stripes" is, or "olive green" and "dark red". Because PMM would then mean that you have to understand the color image as a black and white image before you expose it. This is rather unintuitive for me. I would rather use an incident light measurement with the dome pointing upwards. -- Anyway, I'm looking forward to trying out this device. I'm also looking forward to the ISO scale being adjusted.

[Tobias Key]

I don't mean to tease, but that's how far I've come. But if the light meter asks for "somewhat dark" or "white with texture'", and if that is supposed to simplify the exposure of color film, then I wonder where "yellow with violet stripes" is, or "olive green" and "dark red". Because PMM would then mean that you have to understand the color image as a black and white image before you expose it. This is rather unintuitive for me. I would rather use an incident light measurement with the dome pointing upwards. -- Anyway, I'm looking forward to trying out this device. I'm also looking forward to the ISO scale being adjusted.

Not my system and not one I'd use. Colour negative is good enough and flexible enough that metering doesn't have to be so complicated. I suspect as well you're going to run into complications trying to meter through grads or other filters with the Reveni - the hand you hold the filter with will at least partially obscure the vision in your free eye.

[Jim Noel]

"The more complicated your metering process gets, the fewer images you will make."
This from one of the great teachers of the 20th Century, Al Weber.

[nbagno]

I don't mean to tease, but that's how far I've come. But if the light meter asks for "somewhat dark" or "white with texture'", and if that is supposed to simplify the exposure of color film, then I wonder where "yellow with violet stripes" is, or "olive green" and "dark red". Because PMM would then mean that you have to understand the color image as a black and white image before you expose it. This is rather unintuitive for me. I would rather use an incident light measurement with the dome pointing upwards. -- Anyway, I'm looking forward to trying out this device. I'm also looking forward to the ISO scale being adjusted.

With PMM you measure with reference to middle gray. So the question you would ask is not what color it is, but where does Yellow with stripes land as referenced to middle gray? Is it +1 ev? -1 ev? +3? If you can’t figure it out, meter something else in the scene. The next step is to place that measurement on the meter. With this new meter, putting it in the meter is done for you. It’s a very easy system to use.


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[Tin Can]

I am very glad I shot the same Pentax and standard lens with no meter for 40 years

Yes I do use a Sekonic L 758 now

[Daniel Casper Lohenstein]

With PMM you measure with reference to middle gray. So the question you would ask is not what color it is, but where does Yellow with stripes land as referenced to middle gray? Is it +1 ev? -1 ev? +3? If you can’t figure it out, meter something else in the scene. The next step is to place that measurement on the meter. With this new meter, putting it in the meter is done for you. It’s a very easy system to use.

Of course, and that is not in question. - The question for me was only why they verbalize -1 EV or -2 EV as "somewhat dark", nothing more. The way you present it reminds me of the Gossen Profisix / LunaPro with its light balance of -3 1/3 EV to +3 1/3 EV. A brilliant device, especially with the 1° spot attachment, light weight but bulky. The Sekonic L-758 also has this, but with the possibility to define the limits of the printable area yourself, e.g. for N-1, N and N+1. A very useful feature. Too bad that the new Sekonic L-858 is so complicated. You always have to call up a menu to measure the contrast or clear the memory.

[Heroique]

…Too bad that the new Sekonic L-858 is so complicated. You always have to call up a menu to measure the contrast or clear the memory.

A principal reason why Nick Carver advocates the Reveni (and the two main Pentax models) over all Sekonic spot meters.

Nick, tell us how you really feel (from the video link in post #4):

“Both the Pentax Digital and the Pentax Spot Meter V are far superior, in my opinion, to the Sekonic spot meters, whether it's an older model or one of the brand new ones with a big fancy screen. The Sekonic spot meters, as accurate as they are, are so freaking bloated with features and functions and menus and buttons and a bunch of stuff that just gets in the way of what is a very simple and clean and effective [P.M.M.] metering process, the one I cover in my course.”

He goes on to say that since the “fantastic” Pentax models are discontinued, getting older, growing more expensive on the used market, and becoming more likely to break down, photographers may think the Reveni is coming to the rescue on many levels.

[Daniel Casper Lohenstein]

A principal reason why Nick Carver advocates the Reveni (and the two main Pentax models) over all Sekonic spot meters.

Nick, tell us how you really feel (from the video link in post #4):

“Both the Pentax Digital and the Pentax Spot Meter V are far superior, in my opinion, to the Sekonic spot meters, whether it's an older model or one of the brand new ones with a big fancy screen. The Sekonic spot meters, as accurate as they are, are so freaking bloated with features and functions and menus and buttons and a bunch of stuff that just gets in the way of what is a very simple and clean and effective [P.M.M.] metering process, the one I cover in my course.”

He goes on to say that since the “fantastic” Pentax models are discontinued, getting older, growing more expensive on the used market, and becoming more likely to break down, photographers may think the Reveni is coming to the rescue on many levels.

Well, the other day I bought two second hand Pentax Honeywell Spot Meters, because I like to solder and rebuild old things - Sorry, but I have never come across anything more unergonomic. They run on two different batteries (mercury button cell and 9V block), have two different meters for light and dark, with a shock sensitive pointer instrument, a scale whose values like "11 1/3, 12 2/3 and 14" you have to cache in your brain to transfer them to a calculator disk that has no zone system scale ... You copy it from the manual and stick it over the cine scale ... With the Sekonic, whether L-408 or L-558, I measure the shadows, press the Memory button, then measure the highlights, count the EV steps on the graphical scale, and decide which average to take and how to develop. When I am lazy, I take the dedicated "Average" button. That's what I call intuitive. Even the question of what a medium gray should be is obsolete for me, because it's all about contrast, which belongs in the printable range of tonal values. Of course, you have to pick the right mode for it. It has a dedicated "Mode" button for that. If you do not change this, you always measure in the same way.