400 iso film vs 100 iso

[Spanik]

My favorite approach, however, is to take an incident reading and never look at the built in meter.

+1 certainly when the metering is not though the lens. And even then.

While you sometimes can match the film speed to the subject/lighting conditions, if you are halfway through a film and everything changes and you do not have the luxury of a swapable film back then you have to adapt to whatever is in your camera. So or you change the diaphragm, speed or add an ND.

 

[______]

So you advice is to is to never leave the house without a neutral density filter in case everything changes? Most cameras have 1000th/sec and most lenses have f22. That will handle light 2 stops brighter than sunny 16 (whatever that is) before consideration of film latitude, so your advice seems pretty silly to me.

 

[Hatchetman]

If one insists on using 400 film in bright daylight, an NDF is the textbook solution.

 

[Cyriljay]

I was using my camera today M6/90mm Summicron/ Trix- 400. the lighting was so low I could not use the camera. I tried some shots in a Park with trees and it was very shady.

Normally if you try some shots in the open air on bright sunny days you never have a problem to do any shooting. But the best thing to do is avoid the light in the midday (90˚) light. 45-15˚is the best and if you use a cloudy day that is too is great for 400 ASA . shutter speed/ apertures are within good controlled levels.

Shooting with M6 is the more accurate meter I found. I choose a good lighting condition and an ISO film that goes with.
I avoid harsh light and very bright days. I never bracket my shots.
For me Summicron F.2 is a very versatile lens that can be useful in various lighting situations normally.

 

[Richard G]

I was using my camera today M6/90mm Summicron/ Trix- 400. the lighting was so low I could not use the camera. I tried some shots in a Park with trees and it was very shady.

Normally if you try some shots in the open air on bright sunny days you never have a problem to do any shooting. But the best thing to do is avoid the light in the midday (90˚) light. 45-15˚is the best and if you use a cloudy day that is too is great for 400 ASA . shutter speed/ apertures are within good controlled levels.

Shooting with M6 is the more accurate meter I found. I choose a good lighting condition and an ISO film that goes with.
I avoid harsh light and very bright days. I never bracket my shots.
For me Summicron F.2 is a very versatile lens that can be useful in various lighting situations normally.

Goodness. Couldn't you have used 1/60s and f2 in that park? That setting will work indoors often.

 

[coogee]

@OP. I would brush up on the Sunny 16 rule and maybe consider using a yellow or CPL filter.
Or have a look at the ultimate exposure calculator too.

For 35mm format use (and the reduced control over when the film is exposed given there are 24->40 odd exposures to get through), the appeal of 400 speed film (to me) is versatility.

I can use it full sun - 1/250, f/11 as a start point (1/1000 gives you f/5.6, stick an ND 0.9 (ie; 3 stop) filter on would give you f/2.8, 1/1000 which is pretty 'wide open' in full midday sun imo (and would look it.)

Full shade is going to be 4 stops down. Most times you'd be adjusting in the middle depending on what you're exposing for.

I can't avoid full sun as I'd hardly get a chance to take pictures!
But 400 speed film is far more convenient (to me) so I can just 'point & shoot' at f/8->f/16 but also handle when the light gets lower right down to indoor evening just pushing the shutter speed (and aperture) right out. It also means other B&W filters, such as orange, green and yellow-green are easy to throw on when the situation calls for it.

Right now I've got a roll of 100 speed Ektar 'stuck' in my camera which is going to be a hassle when I go out this evening, f/1.4 lens or not.

If 100 speed film is working for you, I'd stick with it. I'm not one for shooting 'wide open or wider (??!!)' in general and use ND or colour filters to manipulate aperture if I really need to.
Better still, buy more 35mm cameras, 100EI, 400EI, positive, colour negative etc.. can never have too many! 😀

 

[______]

Everyone knows how to rewind film halfway through a roll, and advance it to where you left off later, in case you need to change film midstream - right?

 

[coogee]

Rewind, take it out, write the number, put it away, put it back in, advance the number with lens cap on, 1 more for luck?
Sounds like some evil plan to avoid buying more cameras.

 

[Spanik]

You forgot winding the leader in the can for added fun.

 

[tunalegs]

Everyone knows how to rewind film halfway through a roll, and advance it to where you left off later, in case you need to change film midstream - right?

Enough to know doing so is worth avoiding.

 

[coogee]

You forgot winding the leader in the can for added fun.

Haha, I have a Film leader retriever available for purchase, Mint condition.

 

[______]

Rewind, take it out, write the number, put it away, put it back in, advance the number with lens cap on, 1 more for luck?
Sounds like some evil plan to avoid buying more cameras.

Tongue in cheek response to Spanik's ever more elaborate reasoning on preparedness. 🙂

 

[David Hughes]

Hi,

Here's a rule of thumb; 100 ASA or ISO for summer, 200 for spring and autumn and 400 for winter. Or 200 all the time and think more.

BTW, no comments on diffraction problems at f/16 ?

Regards, David