Any reason to keep Pentax Digital Spotmeter (Zone VI modified) ?

[alexz]

I own Pentax Digital Spotmeter, the model that has been Zone VI modified. Used as as an indispesable tool for exposure and contrast evaluation for my LF field photography.
However, these days sold out all my LF gear and decided to narow my photo passion to RF with my Leicas, mostly street, travel, family, etc.. you know..
The only what left now from my LF days is the meter. I found it isn't easy to part with one, it served me so well, proved to be very precise and reliable meter for a serious LF intentions. But for my RF passion I have and use Polaris digital meter (capable of incident and reflected), can hardly imagine applying a rpecise spot meter (such as Pentax) for the stuff that usually gets shot on RF...
As much as I would hate to part with Pentax, I never pulled out of the closet since going RF and I notice it is quite costly piece of equipment..so I some traitorous thoughts get raised in my mind of selling one ....

What would you think ? Can you name a relevant fields of RF photography that would really benefit from precise (and obviously time consuming) spot metering exp. evaluation ? Would you keep that Pentax (that worth probably 350-400$ on the market) anyway ?

Thanks, Alex

 

[Dektol Dan]

Keep it

Keep it

Unless its toys for toys.

I have one like it and mine is Zone VI modified as well. And, although I still own all my LF gear I still use it for low light situations.

As far as Zone VI goes, the world needs some Brave Author to come forward and up date its usefulness to a digital world. Having been immersed in Zone photography I still think in zones. In Photoshop curves are great but in the end I still want to see those six zones staring back at me in the monitor. The Zone system is very scary to digital users where sensors wipe out white high lights and leave noise in the shade.

A little zone planning ahead can only be of benifit to all photography, not just black and white and not just darkroom oriented photography.

Keep your spot meter!

 

[rogue_designer]

I would sell it. I still use mine, but only when shooting LF or MF on a pod, taking my time.

It is not a tool suited to 95% of the work one uses an RF to capture. IMO.

If you don't see yourself going back to a more methodical working style, with big film (or big digital) I'd sell.

 

[alexz]

Thanks Dan, but I'mnot sure I got your point. I'm not that guru in LF (hasn't reached that stage and actually was very far from it), neither in wet darkroom (actually have zero experience in one), but the only application I'm into is RF for steet, family and all-around, B&W of course (as well as some negs and slides). I'm not digital shooter either. So I can hardly see how that kind of meter gets involved in my photography...
Perhaps I totally missed your point ?

 

[alexz]

It is not a tool suited to 95% of the work one uses an RF to capture. IMO.

If you don't see yourself going back to a more methodical working style, with big film (or big digital) I'd sell.

Yes, that's the conclusion I came to...
I like methodical working style, and theoretically LF really fascinates me, but just isn't as practical for me situation as I imagined.

 

[rogue_designer]

...theoretically LF really fascinates me, but just isn't as practical for me situation as I imagined.

I was with you... only shooting it for client work, when I could have a lab process.

But I've been shooting quite a bit of Polaroid Type 55 (that gives a neg, as well as a print).

Scanning those in for digital printing. Maybe not ideal..but a helluva lot of fun.

 

[eli griggs]

Try photographing performers under spotlights, both in b&w and color slide film. A spot meter is a wonderful tool for this sort of work and can be the difference between a shot that looks like it could have been taken by an amateur with a disposable camera and a professional who knows how to get the best out of his/her gear.

With the narrow margin of f-stops for color slide film and the need to expose b&w for shadow in basically any shot, why would you use any other meter type for existing light, except for quick grabs on the street, etc?

Eli

PS - I sold my Minolta spotmeter many years ago and have been sore at the world ever since... 😉

 

[alexz]

Try photographing performers under spotlights, both in b&w and color slide film. A spot meter is a wonderful tool for this sort of work and can be the difference between a shot that looks like it could have been taken by an amateur with a disposable camera and a professional who knows how to get the best out of his/her gear.

With the narrow margin of f-stops for color slide film and the need to expose b&w for shadow in basically any shot, why would you use any other meter type for existing light, except for quick grabs on the street, etc?

Eli

PS - I sold my Minolta spotmeter many years ago and have been sore at the world ever since... 😉

That is good reasoning, thanks. In fact, I did shot on-stage performance more then once (mostly rock concerts), however that was in my former "SLR days", I would certainly expect to get back into it with my Leicas. However, even though it is correct what you said, from my experience that kind of photography demands speed and fast reactions leaving no time for mindful exp./contrast evaluation. For that reason I always had my SLR on selecttive spot metering off performance flesh lit by a dominant source (which are crazy in rock venues) with an appropriate manual compensation. I just can't imagine approaching that kind of shooting with a slow and mindful passion that invloves precise spot-metering by Pentax, zone adjustemnts, etc....

 

[raid]

I have been using such a meter for over 15 years, and I would feel "naked" without it. I use the spotmeter in all my photography with RF cameras. It is a highly useful tool that for my photography needs cannot be replaced with something more useful. I scan a scene with the meter, and I am set for photography.

 

[Benjamin Marks]

Guess it depends on how you used it before. I find that even with the M8, that having a way to read ambient light can be crucial. I still use my Gossen . . . and I have one of those Zone VI modded meters too (Fred Picker knew how to pick 'em).

 

[Trius]

I would never, EVER sell a spot meter unless I were replacing it with an equally useful tool. As Eli states, there are tricky lighting situations where it is pretty much the only tool that can reliably get the job done. Under stage lighting, you generally only need to read once or twice during a performance. Get the baseline exposure down, and the lighting doesn't normally vary enough that you would have to resort to new readings very often.

Pegging shadow (Zones II - IV) readings in tricky daylight or dusk scenes can also be a challenge; a zone-modified and calibrated meter is the best way to deal with the situation.

Yes, the spot meter is NOT a tool for run-and-gun shooting, but for me there are lots of situations where it is the best tool. It is one of the reasons I love the Oly 35SP. With its spot meter, I am more assured of exposure than with an averaging or centre-weighted meter.

I have a Soligor 1deg spot meter that should receive a CLA. I'm thinking of sending it to Richard Ritter for a spa treatment. I recently used it making a moonrise panorama (4 sheets of 4x5) at Lake Superior. Even if I had been using 35/RF, that meter would have been preferable to any on-camera/TTL meter I can think of.

Earl

 

[alexz]

Reid, Benjamin, Earl, thank you gusy for your opinions, I can see what all you imply.
Certainly, for landscape I cannot imagine better exp. tool then that kind of Spot meter, and I do not intend to abandon my landscape passion even with RF (slides, of course), albeit naturally, in the near future steet/family stuff is much more available to me just because lack of free time necessary for landscapes.
perhaps these 350-380$ doesn't worth of sorrow feelings to the time to come if I would sell one...

Alex

 

[Simon Larbalestier]

I still use mine from years back when i purchased it from Zone VI. It is the best meter i have. Respect to Fred Picker.