New Guy with R3a Help

[adam9er7]

Hello All. I am new to the rf world and rff. I purchased a R3a with the 40 nokton. Honestly it feels great to all my autofocus SLR stuff. On my first trek out with my new bessa I had it set to AP. Basicly adjusted the aperature till the meter read that the my shutter speed would be at 125. To be honest my of my pics were either out of fucus or the exposure was off. Any tips?

 

[ClaremontPhoto]

Try autoexposure (or sunny f 16) next time and get the hang of the focus before you get to learn the exposure.

This type of camera takes some learning after auto SLR stuff.

 

[Peter]

I agree with Jon's advice. When I started to use my R2 the same thing happens. May be you should try still life to get the hang of manual exposure and focusing? 🙂

 

[adam9er7]

Actually never had this issue even with a manual focus SLR. What is Sunny 16?

 

[tetrisattack]

Sunny 16: At f/16, on an ordinarily sunny day, your shutter speed is about the same as your film ISO.

But you shouldn't have to worry about that with an R3A when it's in aperture priority mode, because the meter is generally pretty good. So, the obvious problems might be that you've mis-set the film ISO, or that you're accidentally using exposure compensation (the "A" on the R3A's shutter dial should be lined up with the white dot), or that you're either accidentally or incorrectly using the exposure lock button, the one on the back of the camera that you're supposed to press with your thumb.

 

[ClaremontPhoto]

Bright and sunny, sharp shadows use f16
When the shadows are softish go down to f11
If the shadows are almost invisible use f8
And for no shadows use f5.6

As said above use the same shutter speed as the film ISO, or as near as you can. So ISO 100 film perhaps and 1/125 on the shutter speed is fine.

Because we are looking at the light, not the subject, there is no + and - for light or dark subjects. So long as the light stays the same the aperture stays the same.

It is very simple and it works.

 

[pvdhaar]

Hello All. I am new to the rf world and rff. I purchased a R3a with the 40 nokton. Honestly it feels great to all my autofocus SLR stuff. On my first trek out with my new bessa I had it set to AP. Basicly adjusted the aperature till the meter read that the my shutter speed would be at 125. To be honest my of my pics were either out of fucus or the exposure was off. Any tips?

There are a couple of things to check in addition to earlier tips..

1. Spend some time trying to focus on various objects. After a while you'll see that how you center your eye behind the viewfinder influences the appearance of the double image RF. To get best results, good centering of the eye is necessary.

2. Did you take note of the apertures you got? Depending on where you live, the sunny 16 may or may not work. Where I live I get a consistent 1/125 at f8 for 400ISO during winter time. With 100 ISO I'd get the same shutter speed at f4. If you're making pictures close by (i.e. less than 3m/10ft), focus errors and shallow DOF will show at f4.

3. Be aware that the lightmeter in the Bessa R3a is weighed toward the lower left of the frame. This is intended to avoid metering the sky in both horizontal and vertical orientation, but it may throw you off if you're not aware of it.

 

[ClaremontPhoto]

Be aware that the lightmeter in the Bessa R3a is weighed toward the lower left of the frame

Thank you.

 

[Huck Finn]

I wonder if your ISO was correctly set. Just hought I'd ask.

 

[adam9er7]

yup. ISO set to 400. 🙁