Using Olympus OM-4 as a lightmeter??

[lambis]

Curious if anyone of you use the Olympus OM-4 as a lightmeter
I have a hasselblad 501/cm and have think that Olympus exelent light mettering could used for my hasselblad to.

Any one do it or what u think guys?

 

[nikon_sam]

I'll use a meter from one camera to set another...I like the results from either the Nikon F5 or the prism on the Mamiya m645...
I don't own an Olympus OM-4 but if you like the way it meters by all means use it...it works...

 

[Doug]

Hand-held light meters come a lot smaller than an OM-4 with lens. And IMO if you're carrying an OM-4 with lens you might as well be taking photos with it. 🙂

 

[lambis]

Off course i take photos with my om but offen i carry both the Hasse and the olympus as they work in different ways and i load different films.

 

[Chris101]

If you mean, "will the readings from the om apply to the hassleblad" then yes. Iso is iso, however you may need to make some minor adjustments to the readings to get the exposure exactly the way you want it.

 

[FTography]

If you mean, "will the readings from the om apply to the hassleblad" then yes. Iso is iso, however you may need to make some minor adjustments to the readings to get the exposure exactly the way you want it.

Agree.

lambis, basically you can use the OM-4 with its nifty metering system as a sophisticated reflected light meter.
Depending on what and how you shoot with your Hassi, you might wanna think about getting an ambient light meter too, as for this purpose the OM-4 isn't quite equipped.

 

[ZeissFan]

You can do this, and although I understand people do it to save money, I think at some point you have to open your wallet and purchase a meter.

Plus, it's less cumbersome than metering a scene with one camera, then putting it down and picking up a different camera to take your photo.

Photography has always been an expensive hobby, and whether it's digital or film, you're always in need of something. However, some purchases are worthwhile, while others aren't. A proper meter is in the former group.

 

[maclaine]

When I had an OM-4, I used to use it as a meter when shooting 4x5. If you're doing landscape stuff, it might not be so easy to run around with an incident meter to get the reading you want off of whatever you're looking to expose properly. The multi-spot metering along with a longish lens means you can really narrow in on exactly what you want to meter and get a reading that will work for you. I don't know if I'd buy a camera and lens oy for this purpose, but if you already have one, go for it.

 

[geotrupede]

I had this idea for a while...

The OM4 has a superb meter, but then it is also a superb camera, so I never used it only for metering. The major issue being the size of camera and lens together.

I terribly miss the precision of the spot / multispot selection which is unmatched by any other camera I had the chance to try (Nikon / Canon / Leica M).

In the end I got used to the average / centre spot of the Leica M, but it was like going back in time, like going from OM4 to the OM1...

G

 

[Frontman]

I also used my OM4 as a meter for large format photography, its actually not much larger than a full-size Pentax spot meter. The multiple-spot function is quite clever, just meter on different spots in your scene, and the meter averages them out, you can meter on up to 8 different places. No other SLR camera (including the latest DSLR models) has such wonderful and simple to use meter.