Using A mode, meter questions.

[lsucadien]

I'm fairly new to the CLE, I haven't gotten my first color roll developed yet but I'm leaving for a trip next week so I need to quickly understand the metering system.

From what I understand, it's a center weighted downward biased metering.

So my question is how do most of you use it? Do you generally just put it in "A" and fire away, or do you use the +-2 compensation when pointing at something predominantly brighter or darker than medium grey?

How do you use the CLE's meter for reliable exposures?

 

[krötenblender]

I find it quite reliable. Indoors without extreme light conditions I trust A without adjustment. In bright daylight I prefer to correct a little bit towards -1.

 

[Doug]

The CLE's meter is on the floor of the chamber behind the lens, pointing up and back to take its reading off the shutter. Remove the lens and look at the dot pattern on the shutter, and imagine a modestly center-weighted "view" of the meter cell.

I admit to never using the compensation; I'm more likely to note a useful meter reading on A and then turn it to the manual shutter speed indicated by the diodes, if I think a straight-out A shot would have the meter fooled. But that's not very often; the metering is pretty smart.

As usual, though, I set the film speed two clicks lower than box speed (ie, 250 for a 400-speed C41 film). Partly to give me a bit of a pad for error, and partly because I like a little more richness in the darker areas. This is for C-41 films, which have a lot of latitude in the over-exposure direction, but don't do so well when underexposed.

Have fun with the CLE, one of my all-time favorite cameras! 🙂