"A" metering or manual

H

hlop

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Hi Everyone!

It's my first post here and I'm happy to participate this great community!

I used xpan with negative B&W and colour negative films plenty without bothering to take my bulky Sekonic 558 spot-meter along. But now I'd like to try slide films and just wondering - how accurate bilt-in center wighted meter of the camera? This question is for those using slide films - do you trust camera's meter or you prefer to do manual measurement and, accordingly, manual settings?
 
Hey, welcome !!! :)

On the equinox 'March 21st' shoot all day, in the afternoon at dusk, I shot a roll of Fujichrome Provia 400F, and I set my F3HP in to 'A' aperture priority and set the aperture to F2.8 and my F3HP nailed it! What you see is what you get!

hlop do go ahead and run some chrome through your XPan, and you will really see what your camera can produce! :D You might not want to go back to color print film. :D Go and shoot in "A" and in manual and then compare when you get your slides back. You will be in love with chrome :D

Cheers

MArk
Quito, EC
 
FrankS said:
How well/consistently exposed were your negative films?
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Hard to say - sometimes it nailed, sometimes (rarely) missed. But you know, nailed with negatives means plus-minus a stop but with slide just 0.5 of a stop could kill a photo if you've missed. That's why I'm asking

mw_uio,
I'm quite familiar with chrome - shooting them with large and medium format but in this case I'm using a spot-meter. Just wondering how automatic metering will behave :)
 
If you are competent using a spot meter, you clearly know how a reflected light meter can be fooled by dark and light areas. Just keep that in mind, as well as knowing what the metering pattern of your camera's built in light meter is.

Yes, welcome!

Don't mind Mark. He's an AE slr shooter! ;)
 
Most of the time I do not have the time to manual meter as I do like to be in one spot for very long. I am not ashamed that I use "A".
 
Mostly "A", but with the following trick:
during measurement not too much sky in the picture, lock (shutter half down) - recompose - fire.
Best results with chromes: light underexposure - this means playing with manual ISO, no DX

Wim
 
Jon Claremont said:
Usually for an average scene I go with 'A', and change to +/- 1 or 2 if it's not average.

Other days I sunny f16.
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OK. Sounds right for me. Could you tell, for example, how would you handle sunset or sunrise with 'A' when there is more sky in the frame and less of the ground? Exposure compensation to +2?
 
I've found that if you have any sky in the photo at all, it can throw the meter. Its probably predictable, but I've always metered seperately with slide film. Whenever I've left the xpan to do its own thing I've had a fair number of underexposed slides

I'd go with a seperate meter and be sure

Of course, the other thing is to do both and see how the xpan reading tallies with what you would set manually. If they're fairly consistently the same then fine - if not go with the meter

Glyn
 
wdenies said:
Best results with chromes: light underexposure - this means playing with manual ISO, no DX

Wim
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Wim, on the one hand, you're right but on the other hand, underexposure could be dangerous if light is more contrast than average - you can loose all the shadows and even a good drum scanner won't save such a slide
 
I remember this when I still took pictures of sunsets: if you want to showcase the rich colours of the sky, take a meter reading while pointing the camera at the sky with the sun just out of the frame.

(Just teasing you, Mark. When are you going to get a RF?)
 
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hlop said:
OK. Sounds right for me. Could you tell, for example, how would you handle sunset or sunrise with 'A' when there is more sky in the frame and less of the ground? Exposure compensation to +2?
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Yes, +2 and bracket.
 
My XPAN2 can give poor exposure in Auto for long times- anything over about 2 seconds is very underexposed- I've learned to go by another camera or the handheld meter for anything like that.
 
For mid morning through late afternoon try using incedent light meter and set the xpan to manual with this reading (you can also meter off of the back of your hand if the scene has alot of contrast in it . Early sun rise /sun set spot meter the horizon with the sun just out of the composition. Always bracket for critical work. When using a hand held meter don't forget to add in the filter EV value to your final exposure. I've had alot of luck with polarizers/warming filters & split ND's on the cokin "A" mount when the scene had too much contrast. The best thing I found is to just go out and shoot, trying different things with the Xpan. You will be amazed at what the results can be. You'll end up leaving the 1Ds and 600 f/4 in the closet most of the time!
 
If working with a tripod, I use a hand held meter, otherwise I almost always use the A setting as its really quite fast and simple once you become familiar with the xpan`s meter, having said that, if the light is constant and not changing much, setting it on manual and leaving it frees you up to concentrate on just framing the subject or scene and firing away! :)
 
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