Why meterless cameras are important to photography

kshapero

kshapero

South Florida Man
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I have an M-A, M3 and a Nikon F (no meter). Why I deem them so important? Because using them teaches how to setup your metering by feel (you will get better at this over time), It teaches you in the beginning to guess exposure but you will get better at this with time, too. I can look at the top of my camera before composing and set the aperture, Shutter speed and even the focus before I even compose. Then I bring the camera up to my eye to compose the shot. Mostly use a 35mm lens. A very pleasurable experience.

I do "cheat" sometimes if I really am clueless about an exposure, I will whip out my iPhone to use an app called light meter.

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All of what you say is true. By the same token, having become proficient at these skills over the years, I also feel comfortable with automation. A quick glance at the camera's choices will either confirm my intuition or flag the need for an override. But sometimes I'm lazy. Sometimes there really isn't time to think. And sometimes (most often, lately) I'm shooting color transparency film; a meter is a must with that unforgiving stuff, particularly with medium format, and with its cost per frame. I like the fully manual, meterless experience, but I've also learned not to be too dogmatic about it, and most other things in photography as well.
 
Retro-Grouch said:
All of what you say is true. By the same token, having become proficient at these skills over the years, I also feel comfortable with automation. A quick glance at the camera's choices will either confirm my intuition or flag the need for an override. But sometimes I'm lazy. Sometimes there really isn't time to think. And sometimes (most often, lately) I'm shooting color transparency film; a meter is a must with that unforgiving stuff, particularly with medium format, and with its cost per frame. I like the fully manual, meterless experience, but I've also learned not to be too dogmatic about it, and most other things in photography as well.
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Good points
 
I carried my Weston Master with me for a long time after getting the M8.
But after a while of agreeing with the Weston, learned to trust it.
On the cameras with meters- best to check calibration from time to time. If they agree with me and the Weston, probably good. The latter- found in a box that had been stored in a Lab since WW-II, some 20 years ago.
 
I submit that the original Pentax Spotmatic was one of the finest teaching aids. Yes it had a TTL meter, but it worked with the lens stopped down to the taking aperture, so not only did I get a sense of how shutter speed and aperture could be used to control exposure, but it was also impossible not to see the effect that aperture had on depth of field.
 
As mentioned in another thread, at age 12 I started with a very simple inexpensive 8mm ciné camera. It had no meter, I had no meter, and I was using Kodachrome II at ASA 25. I could set apertures from f/22 to f/2.7, but that’s all the control I had, as the shutter speed was fixed at 1/30. Even so, that was enough - that’s how I learned exposure under various conditions. I got good at it.

On my first 35mm SLR, a Pentax SP500, the meter switch broke within the first week. Although I had it fixed, I just decided not to use the meter. So, for 15 years and thousands of photos, I never used a meter. I rarely got a truly bad exposure.


These days the only time I use a meter is when the camera relies entirely on battery power for operation.
 
I have an old Canon FP which is basically a FT-series camera without the meter. One of my favorite cameras. With a clear viewfinder, no need to worrying about matching needles, or looking at blinking lights, I just concentrate on composition, and take the picture. I do take along my old light meter just to give me an idea what kind of light I'm dealing with, but once that is done, it's picture time.

Jim B.
 
One of my very early posts here on RFF was to share an exposure chart made to pocket size that was based on sunny sixteen. There is still one of those in my battered old Domke and at the time it was 'THE' most important part of my learning process. At some point in the near future I intend using it and a manual camera to remind myself how simple photography can be.
 
kshapero said:
I have an M-A, M3 and a Nikon F (no meter). Why I deem them so important? Because using them teaches how to setup your metering by feel (you will get better at this over time), It teaches you in the beginning to guess exposure but you will get better at this with time, too. I can look at the top of my camera before composing and set the aperture, Shutter speed and even the focus before I even compose. Then I bring the camera up to my eye to compose the shot. Mostly use a 35mm lens. A very pleasurable experience.

I do "cheat" sometimes if I really am clueless about an exposure, I will whip out my iPhone to use an app called light meter.

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You have a supportive fellow by the name of Ralph Gibson in your corner.
I was beyond surprised to discover RG frequently practiced setting aperture, SS and focus quickly with his M's while looking at a scene, not the camera. All by feel.
This was still true after decades of using pretty much nothing but Leica M cameras.
 
Keith said:
One of my very early posts here on RFF was to share an exposure chart made to pocket size that was based on sunny sixteen. There is still one of those in my battered old Domke and at the time it was 'THE' most important part of my learning process. At some point in the near future I intend using it and a manual camera to remind myself how simple photography can be.
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I remember that. I printed out a version and taped it to my Nikon F.
 
ptpdprinter said:
Touting that you shoot meterless seems like a perverse form of virtue signalling.
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It can seem that way, I agree. I think with many people though, they grew up using simple meterless cameras and acquired the skill of learning exposure settings for various conditions. It also helped having the latitude film offers regarding exposure. Therefore, they are far more comfortable and confident using a meterless camera or just not using the meter.

But I’ll happily use the meter in my electronic cameras; some of the meter displays are quite nice.

What may have prompted this thread (and I could be totally wrong and presumptuous), is that some newer photographers think they absolutely must meter everything every single time otherwise their photo will be hopeless.
 
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