Incident or reflected

[colyn]

This has been an interesting thread. It's not much help to the OP, but I will say that after only using a reflected light meter, getting a Sekonic L-28C has taught me a whole heck of a lot about light and metering. It's selenium, so I don't play with it in available darkness, but having worked with it a bunch I actually have a clue of what is going on when I'm using my T-90's spot meter in seriously low light.

William

I was given a GE DW-68 selenium meter today (it's actually accurate). It's been years since I last used selenium and had forgotten abouts its limitations in low light. But it did a fine job this afternoon though.

 

[wlewisiii]

I actually prefer, in most circumstances, a selenium meter. They can be... interesting... 🙂 but the lack of chance due to a battery fading is not a small thing sometimes. Once you know a given meter's quirks, they don't change.

The GE PR-1 is even nicer, I think, than the DW-68 😀 If you ever get a chance, try one out - especially if the incident attachment is available.

William

 

[colyn]

I actually prefer, in most circumstances, a selenium meter. They can be... interesting... 🙂 but the lack of chance due to a battery fading is not a small thing sometimes. Once you know a given meter's quirks, they don't change.

The GE PR-1 is even nicer, I think, than the DW-68 😀 If you ever get a chance, try one out - especially if the incident attachment is available.

William

The PR-1 was the last selenium meter I used years ago. A fine meter in my opinin. I still have the incident dome but the meter is long gone to who knows where..
I saw one at the flea market a few weeks ago but it was dead and the seller wanted $30 for it..

 

[wlewisiii]

I currently have 3 PR-1's. One is dead, totally and compleatly dead. I do _not_ know how my then 20 month old son bent the pointer needle inside of it without opening it but he did. (edit: before that it was as accurate as my Sekonic... :bang: ) I have another that is very usably close, but not in good condition otherwise and one that is in LN- condition (including box, manual, incident attachment, etc.) that's a fair bit off. One of these day's I'm going to send all of them out to QLM with the instruction to build me the best single one out of the bodies... 🙂

William

 

[colyn]

Leave it to a little one to tear up things. When my daughter was little she could destroy things and I could never figure out how she did it.

QLM rebuilt my Ranger 9 and Minolta Auto Pro meters awhile back and did a good job. I have a Pentax Spotmeter I need to send in for repair.

 

[Pherdinand]

I prefer incident, because i rarely shoot distant things like landscapes or such, with a meterless RF.

 

[terrafirmanada]

I have been thinking about this thread since it started, and changing the way I meter too. I was using incident metering at least 95% of the time, I have now started to use reflected almost half of the time, and I find that I am relaxing more (since it is easier) and as a result getting photos I might have missed (an example being my recent shot: local library visit. So, this has been a good learning experience for me.
Now, I have an observation about my lenses; I am specifically refering to my very contrasty 35mm Pll (Skopar). I have noticed that I loose alot of highlight detail in my b/w prints with this lense. So I am wondering if anyone's metering technique varies depending on what lense they have on? I think most people will say no, and that I have to print on grade 3 or 4 ( I am using 2 mostly now).
I have also noticed that this is not an issue with my less contrasty 40mm Cron. And most of my other lenses for that matter.

 

[Dougg]

Now, I have an observation about my lenses; I am specifically refering to my very contrasty 35mm Pll (Skopar). I have noticed that I loose alot of highlight detail in my b/w prints with this lense. So I am wondering if anyone's metering technique varies depending on what lense they have on? I think most people will say no, and that I have to print on grade 3 or 4 ( I am using 2 mostly now).
I have also noticed that this is not an issue with my less contrasty 40mm Cron. And most of my other lenses for that matter.

Going to a harder grade of paper would increase contrast further. Sounds like you want to lower it a bit to bring in hightlight detail. Might try a grade 1, but... My thought here would be to back off a bit on the film developing, a bit less time in the soup to avoid building such high densities in highlight areas. Giving less exposure in the field would reduce densities too, if you kept the processing & printing the same, but you'd have a more noticeable decrease in shadow detail as a result too.