Would an M8 or other digital camera work for this?

[ymc226]

Using a digital camera instead of a Polaroid to check exposure and lighting effects.

I shoot B&W film only and recently started with monolights for portraits of my children.

Now that I have 3 monolights with various light modifiers (softboxes, beauty dishes, umbrellas), it is hard to pre-visualize lighting effects.

I use Hasselblads so 6x6 is my size but have alot of Leica M lenses available.

The only "digital" camera I have is on my Blackberry. Using mainly Fuji Acros exposed at 50, can I set up a camera such as a Leica M8 (need to get if this is the way to go), using a similar ISO setting on the camera along with B&W if there is a setting for that as well to get an inkling of what the scene would appear on film. Can I hook up the M8 to a Apple laptop to get an output instantly for bigger viewing?

Is there any other way to accomplish this? I have a plethora of Nikon and Leica glass available. Maybe a cheap Nikon AF DSLR would be good if someone can recommend one.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Well, I tried it with a D70, ideally with a lens with its own tripod socket (fire the flash via slaves). Yes it works, probably as well as Polaroid, for colour, but remember that the exposure criteria for B+W and colour are different, with the former depending on the minimum exposure necessary for shadow detail and the latter depending on the maximum exposure possible before you blow the highlights.

Cheers,

R.

 

[ZirconiumZephyr]

Dirt cheap DSLR would work just as well as an M8, unless you wanted this for other reasons as well.

 

[nickw]

Why not just use a light meter, and then use your hassy to trigger?

 

[ymc226]

Why not just use a light meter, and then use your hassy to trigger?

I do use a flash meter but the digital camera issue is so I can see what I get as pre-visualization for me is hard.

However, given Roger's comments regarding the differences between B&W and color exposure, I may have to reconsider.