Richard G
Veteran
Mode problems cause errors in photography, often the same error repeatedly. One of the great things about film photography is that there many fewer mode problems. With a meterless mechanical camera e.g. Leica RF the mode issues are: 1. Is there film in the camera? 2. Is the lens cap off? and 3. Has the film been advanced the next frame? With a Hasselblad there is also number 4. Has the dark slide been removed?
Yes there are more too. With a slow speed equipped Barnack there is mode problem number 5: Has the slow speed dial been adjusted back to 1/25s? If not you can find yourself hand-holding 1s unexpectedly after selecting 1-25s on the main shutter speed dial.
What you don’t need to worry about is the battery being flat, the lens being coded wrong as with a digital M, the ISO setting being left on 3200 instead of base ISO and many other problems of full featured digitals.
There are so many options with many modern digitals that you can turn it on and have no LCD sign of life, Macro being the current setting etc etc. It is possible to turn on the camera (or is it already on and asleep?) and find it behaving in an unfamiliar fashion or in a familiar setting that takes time to set to what is currently wanted. A solution to that is to set up some function option which quickly returns the operations to your standard simple preference.
What about two different manual cameras loaded with two different ISO films and with the one hand-held meter in use? Following repeated errors thinking I could just compensate two stops when switching between Tri-X and Ektar, rather than change the ISO setting for one shot with the other camera, I now accept that I just have to change the ISO setting each time and not think that I will remember to make the mental compensation. Having accepted it, I now do it, and my errors have gone from 10-50% to 0%. Simple. I get so absorbed in other aspects of preparing the shot, the framing, especially with a tripod and manual focus with a magnifier, that I will often forget that I need to add two stops as the Hasselblad has Ektar and not Tri-X. On my Gossen DigiPro F it takes about ten quick button presses of two different buttons to go from ISO 400 to 100, starting from shutter speed priority and getting back there; and 12 button presses from aperture priority. Tedious, but doable. Whenever I think I can avoid doing it, I will be walking along and later realising that I just exposed Ektar with an ISO 400 meter reading.
Life is full of these sorts of things. Algorithms to avoid them can help. I have three meters, but one I much prefer. I do have manual camera bags with a separate meter in each for each system. But when I have two different systems out at the same time I am not going to carry or use two meters. The battery powered Sekonics I think allow two camera ISO settings to be programmed in, and probably the Gossen Digisky also. Maybe I will get the DigiSky as I quite like the layout of Gossen meters. Smarter photographers will assure me I should get a Sekonic.
Yes there are more too. With a slow speed equipped Barnack there is mode problem number 5: Has the slow speed dial been adjusted back to 1/25s? If not you can find yourself hand-holding 1s unexpectedly after selecting 1-25s on the main shutter speed dial.
What you don’t need to worry about is the battery being flat, the lens being coded wrong as with a digital M, the ISO setting being left on 3200 instead of base ISO and many other problems of full featured digitals.
There are so many options with many modern digitals that you can turn it on and have no LCD sign of life, Macro being the current setting etc etc. It is possible to turn on the camera (or is it already on and asleep?) and find it behaving in an unfamiliar fashion or in a familiar setting that takes time to set to what is currently wanted. A solution to that is to set up some function option which quickly returns the operations to your standard simple preference.
What about two different manual cameras loaded with two different ISO films and with the one hand-held meter in use? Following repeated errors thinking I could just compensate two stops when switching between Tri-X and Ektar, rather than change the ISO setting for one shot with the other camera, I now accept that I just have to change the ISO setting each time and not think that I will remember to make the mental compensation. Having accepted it, I now do it, and my errors have gone from 10-50% to 0%. Simple. I get so absorbed in other aspects of preparing the shot, the framing, especially with a tripod and manual focus with a magnifier, that I will often forget that I need to add two stops as the Hasselblad has Ektar and not Tri-X. On my Gossen DigiPro F it takes about ten quick button presses of two different buttons to go from ISO 400 to 100, starting from shutter speed priority and getting back there; and 12 button presses from aperture priority. Tedious, but doable. Whenever I think I can avoid doing it, I will be walking along and later realising that I just exposed Ektar with an ISO 400 meter reading.
Life is full of these sorts of things. Algorithms to avoid them can help. I have three meters, but one I much prefer. I do have manual camera bags with a separate meter in each for each system. But when I have two different systems out at the same time I am not going to carry or use two meters. The battery powered Sekonics I think allow two camera ISO settings to be programmed in, and probably the Gossen Digisky also. Maybe I will get the DigiSky as I quite like the layout of Gossen meters. Smarter photographers will assure me I should get a Sekonic.
