Sunny 16 Rulez! (I've done it now :)

[shadowfox]

Hi all,

Please allow me the indulgence of sharing my first experience being decoupled from any kind of light meter 🙂

I consider this to be a big step for a former digital-weenie (I love film now, but I never paid attention to photography until digital came along).

6 months ago I didn't even know that you can take a good picture without a light meter and autofocus.

The pictures below were taken using an OM-1 (sorry, not an RF, but close 🙂 ) that has been sitting in a box since it came from the bay (not because I don't like it, but because I am not confident using it without a battery).

Up to that morning, I didn't intend to use the Sunny 16 rule until I stand in front of the battery section on the local Walgreen and realized that they *don't* have hearing aid battery in the 625 format :bang:

Now what?

So I decided what the heck, I might as well use this as an opportunity to step further back in time 😎

So I proceeded to load an expired Konica VX100 (cheap) film into the OM-1 and off I went to the Open Market section of Dallas downtown.

All I can say is ... sunny 16 rules works like a charm, and yes, this will not be the last time I'll use it 😀

this one I think looks better in b/w:

the rest of them are in this flickr set

 

[VinceC]

Good work!

Nearly all my cameras are meterless. Last weekend I accidentally ran my Sekonic handheld incident meter through the laundry ... washed and dried ... because it's so light I forgot to take it out of a pocket. I can shoot pictures just fine without it, though sometimes I need to slow down and think hard in unusual lighting conditions.

With 400 speed film, there are really only 15 possible exposure settings, starting with really dark interiors 1/8 @ f/1.4 up to beach/snow scenes of 1/1000 @ f/16.

Negative film has wide enough exposure lattitude that, with practice, you're almost certain to correctly estimate/guess within two or three stops of the correct setting.

 

[dexdog]

I had my first sunny 16 experience last week, having travelled out of town w/o a light meter. It worked quite well with 200 and 400 film, erring as needed toward underexposure. It even worked well photographing bright white sand at a Florida beach.

Unforunately, I don't have any pics as good as shadowfox to show for it, although I got some decent ones of shrimp boats at the dock

 

[steve garza]

It's such a freeing experience isn't it....

 

[steve garza]

It's such a freeing experience isn't it....

 

[shadowfox]

Good work!

Nearly all my cameras are meterless. Last weekend I accidentally ran my Sekonic handheld incident meter through the laundry ... washed and dried ... because it's so light I forgot to take it out of a pocket. I can shoot pictures just fine without it, though sometimes I need to slow down and think hard in unusual lighting conditions.

With 400 speed film, there are really only 15 possible exposure settings, starting with really dark interiors 1/8 @ f/1.4 up to beach/snow scenes of 1/1000 @ f/16.

Negative film has wide enough exposure lattitude that, with practice, you're almost certain to correctly estimate/guess within two or three stops of the correct setting.

Thanks, Vince.

I chose the 100 ASA film because I knew that it would be a sunny day and my lens is light enough to be handheld at 1/125. And for an expired (2005) film, the Konica captures details in dark shadows very well. On one of these, I tried to pull the Curve up in Paint Shop Pro and I was surprised at how much detail is in the shadows.

I like your Nikon S3 shots of your daughters, it must be cool to use such a classic camera.

 

[Xmas]

shadow...

there are four ways to fix the OM1 so it works as new:

- make or buy the battery adopter for AgO batteries, (buy is simple), this is an old battery case with a Schocky diode
- remove base plate and solder a diode into wire to battery chamber, not impossible but needs care
- alter the meters internal resistor chain so the camera works with the AgO voltage, more difficult probably needs instrumentation
- use one of the 'air' batteries which have reduced life time

lots of other people have had the same problem as OM1s were popular. A separate meater is useful sometimes e.g. with chroms file an incident meter is easier.
Noel

 

[shadowfox]

Xmas, thanks for the info,

but... I already have my main camera which is an OM-2n (no battery problems), I'd use my OM-1 as a true battery-less camera from now on 😉

 

[shadowfox]

I had my first sunny 16 experience last week, having travelled out of town w/o a light meter. It worked quite well with 200 and 400 film, erring as needed toward underexposure. It even worked well photographing bright white sand at a Florida beach.

Unforunately, I don't have any pics as good as shadowfox to show for it, although I got some decent ones of shrimp boats at the dock

at least shrimp boats are more interesting than a cart of flowers 😉

 

[MCTuomey]

Well done - you can trust the meter between your ears for one very good reason. It works!

The last camera that I'd sell if I had to get rid of all gear is the oldest - meterless, battery-less, and my favorite by far.

Sunny 16 is the photographic equivalent of skinny-dipping.

 

[1015]

Funny, I am going to practice on this one, sounds like a lovely idea.
---
Beautifull pictures, nowhere near as good as wheather here these days.

 

[shadowfox]

It's such a freeing experience isn't it....

Steve's right, I feel that now I start to get the picture (ehm..) about mentally calculating the exposures, it's so cool to experience what must have been like to take pictures in the days of old, when there's no computer trying to be smart between your eyes and your targets 🙂

Btw, here's a picture of my OM-1 that I took the meterless pictures with, the reason I post it is to highlight the lens. That little Tamron is weird-looking but is designed to hilt for street-shooting, it's 28mm/2.5 and the aperture can go down to 32. And I pay next to nothing as it was a part of a second-hand outfit that I got long time ago.

Didn't think it's good for anything until I start to practice with it.

 

[sirius]

Hey Vince, does your Seconic still work after going through the laundry? I had a friend who ran-over his Seconic with a car and the damn thing kept working, minus a battery door cover.

 

[VinceC]

The three pieces went back together again. It needs a new battery before I can definitively say it doesn't work.

 

[ully]

light meter

light meter

I have a Minolta meter that I was using the other day, and it looked like it was low according sunny16, checked it against a couple of digital cameras and sure enough it was .7EV low.

Pays to know sunny 16.

Cheers