An exposure chart for your pocket!

It is some thing nice but in practice Cameras with integrated meters and separate light measuring meters are very accurate. If you invest on a high end camera and hoping to get a once in a life time photo then you don't want to miss it by hitting it around with all these stuff. But it is good to know some basic and having a knowledge will come in useful sometimes!
 
Five years on from starting this thread and I have to say I've had a lot of pleasure from the hundreds (?) of PMs/emails I've received asking for the jpegs for this chart ... and I'm still getting them quite regularly! :)

I still have one in every camera bag and I still reference them a lot when I don't trust my memory (seems to be happening more! :p) or my meter seems a bit squirrely.

Currently I've gone back to a meterless camera (widelux) and am amazed at just how accurate sunny sixteen actually is. Fred Parker, the originator of these charts, was very right when he suggested that your own judgement is far better than any meter once you learn to read the light situation correctly.

:)
 
Nice. I'll try this. I've been trying to get better at meterless exposures with my M2, and I am getting better. More often than not, however, I do overexpose by about a stop.
 
Hi,

It's a bit older but how about this?

Leica%20Exposure%20Card%20%28Front%29-L.jpg


and inside, meaning pages 2 and 3

Leica%20Exposure%20Card%20%28Inside%29-L.jpg


Feel free to tidy up the scan...

Regards, David
 
philipus said:
iZoner is great because it has spot meter (with fully variable-size spot), hi-lo mode etc. It's also very accurate. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/izoner/id489828927 For the basics, Expositor (also Lite version) offers a really good chart of Sunny 16 (down to EV-6 I think) with helpful descriptions of the various EVs which is good when one tries to memorise Sunny 16 in greater detail. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/expositor/id315686714
Click to expand...

iZoner: excellent! It measures also low light: EV 1,5!!
 
NB23 said:
I prefer a light meter in my pocket then a chart.
Click to expand...

Sometimes a light meter meters light but gives you little insight as to what exposure ought to be set. I've been using the Kodak Pocket Photo Guide since 1968 ... It's saved many an exposure that my meters would have gotten very wrong.

Guides and charts are a perfectly sensible exposure guide if well done. :)

G
 
That detailed EV based exposure chart looks to be Fred Parker's Ultimate Exposure Calculator (his punchline being the calculator is YOU!) Any link to it now leads to a dead end. Good you printed it out.

When I was using film with M2 and then a Rolleiflex and some other unmetered cameras I got used to the certainties of incident light metering with a handy Gossen Digipro F which I still use. The M6 meter is reflected light of course. I would carry the hand held meter even using that camera once I was no longer chasing small children with the M6, the reason I upgraded to a built in meter and added a 35mm lens. But the M6 meter is scarily good and I soon relearned to just trust the two red diodes. After all the M7 is not a camera you hear people getting bad exposures with. That's got to be a great camera for those autumn days with scattered clouds where the shot might require two stops more or less with every passing cloud.

The digitals are also good but I am second guessing a lot with a test shot and then setting manual, or just starting with manual seeing if I'm right. I found that with a 28mm lens or anything wider I would get underexposure on account of so much sky in the frame. And blowing the highlights with digital adds to over-exposure concerns, not relevant with colour negative film in particular.

The most important thing about managing without a meter, or shooting manual with a meter, is that it increases engagement, and makes you think and try harder which is the way to get better shots.

As noted above, I would not be planning to take the battery out of my M6.
 
For many situations only something like Keith's extensive exposure guide will work, eg city monuments at night, or fireworks. The Apollo 8 crew had training with the Hasselblads and had the exposure charts in their heads. The earthrise in colour was 1/250s at f11.
 
Richard G said:
That detailed EV based exposure chart looks to be Fred Parker's Ultimate Exposure Calculator (his punchline being the calculator is YOU!) Any link to it now leads to a dead end. Good you printed it out.
Click to expand...
I rarely use it, but I still have printed out this calculator, maybe it is useful to share the link, since still online.
 
The greatest advance in camera technology since dry plates is adjustable auto-bracketing. I'm lazy, so I love it! But will my Retro-Grouch card be revoked for saying that?
 
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