At 17:41 09/01/99 +0000, Simon wrote:
>There were some constructive mails and some good old-fashioned flames about
>Frank's post. Can't someone express their dissatisfaction with an Olympus
>product around here?
Much of his post was based on misunderstandings, if not actually
inaccurate. The tone of it was also less than constructive.
>I'd like someone to argue in favour of using the highlight and shadow
>buttons.
I don't actually use them that much, but they can assist you in getting a
high or low key result. If you're taking a picture of, say, a waterfall,
it's quick and easy to take a single spot reading from the white water and
press the highlight button. The water's then right, and everything else
takes care of itself. Handy if the white water's falling over black rock -
not too many midtones to meter! Handheld spot meters such as the Minolta
Spotmeter F also have these buttons. Once a reading's been taken, the
meter indicates the *difference* between the current light value and the
stored one(s). So you can read the scene contrast. One thing I like about
the Minolta meter over the OM-4 is that it tells you the difference between
the current and stored light level directly in stops, whereas with the OM-4
you have to work it out from the bargraph, but it's a minor point.
>
>While I'm at it, I'd also like to know why multi-spot metering is so good,
>especially in auto mode.
You can meter from several important tones and calculate an average
exposure to suit, and forget about unimportant areas which might block up
or burn out, but which would adversely affect an averageing meter. You can
weight the metering on important midtones by pressing the button more than
once. Choosing a single spot in auto and pressing "Spot" is also much
quicker than setting the exposure manually such as with the 2SP. The
little diamonds which indicate the light level of each spot reading are
also very useful in checking scene contrast, and getting an idea of where
the important tones in the scene will fall. If you actually try an OM-4,
you will appreciate its virtues very quickly I think. Not coincidentally,
our b/w printing exposure meters use a similar system in which the bargraph
is alongside a grey scale, and it allows the tonal range of a print to be
evaluated without using test strips. The designer got the idea from an
OM-4. Oddly, it had never been done before on an enlarging meter and he
was able to patent it!
>sometimes I spot meter from different parts of the
>scene and set my exposure to retain detail in the areas which are important;
>e.g. I meter off sunlit snow and set a reading where the snow is ca. +2.5
>stops overexposed. Most of the time I find a midtone and use that.
>
>Can anyone enlighten me?
Mostly, it boils down to convenience. Evrything you can do with the OM-4's
metering can be done with a single spot meter and some mental gymnastics;
the OM-4 simply does the work for you, simply and efficiently.
Cheers
Richard
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