Minolta SRT-101 Light Meter

[JeremyLangford]

I bought a Minolta SRT-101 and i went and took my first B&W roll of film with it last week.

I was using Aristu 400 speed film (my photography teacher sells it).

Everything was goin fine when I was taking pictures outside at about 5:00, but then I went inside at about 5:30, into some hallways and rooms at a local college campus and found that the light meter was telling me that I had to use 1/15 or slower to get the correct exposure. I figured I just didnt have fast enought film for indoor shots.

This was disapointing because I didnt want to use a tripod and I knew I couldnt hold it still enough hand-held. But, I just took the pictures with what the light meter told me was right and hoped I didnt shake the camera too much.

After developing the film, and making a contact sheet, I realized that the pictures that I took outside in full sunlight, were exposed perfectly, the pictures that were taken outside in shade were near perfect, but maybe a little overexposed, and the pictures inside the college campus were completely overexposed, most of them completely solid white.

Has anyone else had this type of problem? It seems like the light meter starts giving me too slow of shutter speeds, as soon as I step into a low-light area.
Ideas or Suggestions anyone?

 

[Kin Lau]

My SRT101's meter isn't that accurate indoors either, tho mine tends to underexpose instead of over.

 

[spyder2000]

See if you can find specs on the EV range the meter works in for the ASA you shot. The manual probably has this information and it is often presented in the form of a graph.

Many meters have EV ranges in which they function correctly with various film speeds. You may have been outside of that range when you went indoors, and while the meter "indicated" an exposure, it wasn't doing so accurately because it is outside of the functional range.

For instance the SRT 201 manual at butkus.org indicates the match needle exposure range is EV 3 to EV 17

 

[teo]

Yes, too bad the SRT is not a camera for night shots (unless you're with a good handheld meter...).
I use SRT for day and a X-700 when the sun goes down.


Also: I've found the SRT very good for day since it has a dual-cell meter: one meters in the middle of the frame, the other on the bottom half, a large oval area.
In this way it can account for darker objects (earth) when you have a bright area in the top-middle. Very nice for wide angles, where the meter if usually tricked by the large amount of sky in other cameras...
Remember that when you take portraits, this makes the meter a bit more sensible on one side of the frame...

 

[JeremyLangford]

See if you can find specs on the EV range the meter works in for the ASA you shot. The manual probably has this information and it is often presented in the form of a graph.

Many meters have EV ranges in which they function correctly with various film speeds. You may have been outside of that range when you went indoors, and while the meter "indicated" an exposure, it wasn't doing so accurately because it is outside of the functional range.

For instance the SRT 201 manual at butkus.org indicates the match needle exposure range is EV 3 to EV 17

Could you explain to me what EV "Exposure Value" is?

My SRT-101 has EV 3 to EV 17.

 

[cmedin]

EV 3 is very low light (candle light or less). Though I do not believe an SRT's meter is anywhere near accurate at that point.