Hi Brendan ... You'll get no flak here, just kudos and a tip o' the hat.
Funny you should mention this, as I've been playing around with exposures a little. It's been a long time since I've used the camera's built-in meter, and a couple of days ago I tried using the ME Super on automatic, even adjusting a little for contrasty scenes or scenes that were not "average". The results were terrible. Changing lenses changed the exposure, moving the camera a bit changed the exposure, and, in general, shadow detail was compromised by highlights that affected the meter reading. Now, I understand how meters work, but I wanted to see the results that could be had with the camera essentially set on automatic. They were terrible. Long ago I started carrying a hand-held meter and a grey card, although I've rarely used the grey card, but I use a spot meter so it's easy enough to find a middle grey tone in just about any scene. Heck, a mid grey isn't even needed. You can measure off something a little brighter or darker and adjust the exposure from there. Once I've got the readings for a scene, or the area in which I'm shooting, the camera setting remains constant. The exposures are far better controlled, and the tones are placed where I want them to be rather than where they just happen to end up because some circuit or algorithm inside the camera thinks it knows better than me how to expose a scene. The other nice thing about what you're doing is that you'll soon have a better understanding of light (if you pay attention and remember the situations in which you've been shooting), and in time you'll discover that a meter isn't always necessary, except, perhaps, for tricky lighting situations. BTW, a couple of tips that might be useful: newish or very minimally faded blue jeans is about equivalent to mid grey. Metering the palm of your hand and open up one stop will give a good exposure. Grass also gives a good mid-tone reading. Also, bear in mind that grey cards vary somewhat. If you're not already using one, get yourself a Kodak grey card package. Very, very useful. HTH, Brendan wrote: > > I know I'll get some flak but after runing a roll of > B&W ( dark 2 stops under exposed ) and then deciding > to try a grey card test I realise the grey card and > minolta meter have to go where ever the camera goes. > Yes I have seen it with my own eyes that all light > meters see grey, by metering reflected off th grey > card the exposures were almost dead on. So never again > will I trust any meter, I'll trust the grey card. -- Shel Belinkoff mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://home.earthlink.net/~belinkoff/ - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
