Grey Cards

[Magnus]

... Any users of grey cards here ?

Since I'me using my Hassleblad I find myself using grey cards most of the time, even when shooting with my automatic contax, I find the grey card the most valuable accesory there is to be found, really cheap to (along with my tripod)

 

[RObert Budding]

Why not just take an incident reading with a handheld meter? You'll get the same result.

Robert

 

[Sonnar Brian]

I do not carry a greycard, I will probably drop one in the camera bag. I use a Weston Master 715 with the Leica's and a Weston Master II with the Nikons. The Selenium cell in my Canon 7 is still accurate, so i use it. I end up metering a stationary object up close, and use the back-of-my-hand for moving targets, ie my daughter. The latest shots of her sledding in the snow were done with the reading off of my hand with the Konica S2 set to manual mode. Its CDS cell appears quite accurate.

My Nikon F Photomic (original) has an incident light disk for the bulls-eye meter. I have used it at airshows with 300mm and 500mm lenses with good success. It is coupled to the F-Stop and Shutter-speed, and is convenient.

 

[Pherdinand]

I use my hand quite often as "one stop less gray card"

 

[scottgee1]

A properly calibrated grey card has an additional function IF you scan your images. When you get to the exposure you're going to use, include it in one of the frames. Then, you can use it for grey balance on the digital side.

hth/ScottGee1

 

[Krasnaya_Zvezda]

I use a grey card to set the custom white balance when I shoot with my Digilux 2.

 

[Doug]

Scott and KZ, I think including the grey card in a photo under light representative of a group of photos is the best use of the card. Using a camera meter to take a reading from the card is another good use, but I usually have my incident meter with me. The card is cheaper than a hand-held meter, certainly, but I think more awkward to carry around.

 

[JohnM]

I carry a small gray card in my camera bag. When I don't have it, I either use a Gossen incident meter or take an in-camera meter reading off of something that approximates middle gray.

When I have it with me, I frequently use the gray card. Force of habit.

 

[scottgee1]

Actually, if one doesn't need a full size card for metering, there are a few other options that might be interesting.

PhotoVision, Ed Pierce's company offers two 'Digital CalibrationTargets' that are eminently useful for film shooting as well. Same concept as reflectors with snap rings, (= portable) but calibrated. See:

http://www.photovisionvideo.com/target.html

There's another company that sells the equivalent of Ed's larger Black/Grey/White target printed on thick paper measuring ~2x6 inches, i.e., pocketable. The come on a 'pad' of 15 sheets and run ~US$10. Sorry I can't recall the name of the company right now. I'll edit this later.

Of course there's always the venerable ExpoDisc created over twenty years ago by George Wallace (NOT the politician!). He died a couple years ago and his daughter took over the company and turns out to be a better business person than her dad ever was. LOTS of info at the Web site describing uses for white balancing AND exposure:

http://www.expodisc.com/

hth/ScottGee1