MG-1 Question

[Harlee]

On the MG-1 there's a little black cap next to the eyepiece on the top cover. Prying it out shows a small varible resistor; can anyone tell me what the resistor adjusts. I'm assuming it's an adjustment for the light meter but not sure just how one goes about adjusting it. What I mean is if the film speed is set to 400 and the F stop is turned to F16 should the arrow showing in the viewfinder or the camera top be red or orange, or shouldn't there be any arrows showing at all? My thinking is that if the red arrow is showing, the resistor can be adjusted so that no arrow shows, red or yellow. Does this make sense to anyone?

 

[stratcat]

That the over/under indicators light up at f/16 ASA 400 would also depend on the scene the camera is metering.

You could try comparing it to another MG-1 (or another camera) with a known good meter.

 

[ColSebastianMoran]

Harlee, did you ever confirm what the variable resistor does?

I assume you are familiar with the red and yellow lights for over exposure and slow shutter speed? I think all the Electros operate similarly in this regard.

 

[Harlee]

Yes I'm familiar with the whole Yashica series as I've been shooting them since around 1971 while living in Japan. What I think I'll do is to take my light meter set it to ASA 400 and F16 and compare it with my MG-1 set at 400 and F16. Then I'll move the reostate and see if it affects the over/under arrows.

 

[Harlee]

I did a little experiment on one of my MG-1s and I think I've figured out what the varible resistor does; but I may be wrong also. I stepped out on my side porch with a hand held sekonic meter, set the ASA to 400, pointed at the area which is part sun and part shade, centered the needle and the proper shutter speed should have been 1/60 sec. Well within the limits for a hand held shot. I then removed the little black cover on the back on my MG-1, set the film speed to 400, pointed it at the same scene and the yellow arrow came on, leading me to believe that the camera had selected a shutter speed of perhaps 1/30 sec. or less and required a larger F stop, perhaps F11. With a jewler's screwdriver I moved the varible resistor counter clockwise a bit and the yellow arrow went out. I tried it again using the same procedure and the yellow light didn't come on.

I took my other MG-1 out and at 400/F16 the yellow light came on that one too, but moving the varible resistor a bit counter clockwise turned that yellow arrow off as well. I'm therefore assuming, correctly I hope, that the shutter speed at F16 moved up a bit, at least over 1/30, perhaps 1/60, which the hand held Sekonic lightmeter indicated, therefore making it possible to hand hold the shot at F16 rather than F11 or F8.

I may be wrong and this may just be a coincidence, I don't know, but the proof will require shooting some 400 film in both cameras at F16 and see what happens. I may take one of my 35s, set it to 400 aim at the same scene and see what the shutter speed comes out to. Perhaps a bit more testing will either confirm or dispell this experiment.