Andre Goforth wrote:
>
> I use it a lot. In fact most of the time. A year or so ago someone posted
> how they used the 4Ts multiple spot metering to approximate the "zone"
> system. Well, I adopted the approach because it is so straight forward.
Andre, it was me who posted that. Very glad you found it useful.
It's copied below in case anyone else might have use for it.
>
> The other bit of advice the post had was that the individual put a 200mm
> lens on a spare 4T and used that as a poor man's 1 degree spot meter.
I actually got this idea from someone else on the list. I had been using
my 65-200/4, which is too much extra weight. The 200/5 w/4T makes a
great lightweight spotmeter. Well, it is heavier than most spotmeters,
but it can also take pictures!
I might add that, given the price of a 4T and a lens compared to a
spotmeter, this could probably be called a rich man's spotmeter! :>)
George
***************************Copy of original post
************************
Before I bought a Pentax Digital Spotmeter, for a couple of years I used
my
Olympus OM-4T with a 65-200mm lens as my meter for my 4x5 camera. The
built-in spotmeter of the 4T worked quite well in this application and
actually helped me learn the zone system. In fact, it was more capable
than the PDS in this way. Here's how and why:
The 4Ts' spotmeter doesn't just take one reading. It can store (and
average) up to 8 readings. Each time you point the central spot at an
area and press the spot button, a reading is stored in memory AND a
little arrow appears in the viewfinder. The arrow represents the
correct
(Zone 5)
exposure for that spot reading. The meter display looks something like
this:
2000 1000 500 250 125 60 30 15 8 4 2 1
--------------------------------------
^
This camera is aperture-priority so the arrow obviously represents the
shutter speed for that aperture at that spot at the set ASA. (In the
real
display,
there are three 'dashes' per shutter speed, so the resolution is in 1/3
stop)
Now, the reason this helped me is that I visualised each arrow as
representing a 'zone' (this works cause a zone represents an Exposure
Value
(EV),
as does the arrow, and so then each third dash represents a difference
of
one EV or one zone.)
So, what I would do is point the spotmeter at the brightest area I
wanted detail in, take a spot reading, then point it at the darkest area
I
wanted shadow detail in and take another spot reading. The viewfinder
would
then look something like
this:
2000 1000 500 250 125 60 30 15 8 4 2 1
--------------------------------------
^ ^ ^
(bright average dark)
(NOTE: In case this doesn't translate right to your screen, there should
be
an arrow
under 1000, 125 and 15)
Right away, this tells me three things:
1) The contrast (dynamic) range of the scene in zones or EV
(here,6)
2) The 'averaged exposure' for the scene, represented by the middle
arrow, which the 4T auto-calculates and places in the viewfinder after
each spot reading.
and
3) Whether this scene will 'fit' on the dynamic range of the
film
I'm using ( for example, slide film has a dynamic range of only about 5
EVs, so in this scene, I know I'll need to sacrifice hilite or shadow
detail, or even change E-6 development!)
So, the middle arrow now actually represents zone 5. So I know that if
I
use the averaged exposure (1/125 at the set aperture), I'll be dealing
with
Zones 2 thru 8 in the negative. Now I can decide if I want to bias the
exposure up or down a
little and what development I will want to use. In a case like this,
I might give 1/2 stop more exposure (to raise the shadow detail to
zone 2.5) and give N-1 development (to then drop the highlight detail
back down to 7.5 from the 8.5 it would be at due to the 1/2 stop
additional exposure.)
Since I've had the Pentax Digital Spot for use with 4x5, I've learned
how to use it in a similar way, but the 4T was easier and quicker.
Biggest reasons to switch to PDS of course were weight and the increased
pointing accuracy of 1 degree meter, but I do miss that multi-spot
meter.
I hope this makes sense and helps.
--
I might add here that I'm seriously considering using the 4T with 200/5
as my spotmeter. After all, it can also take pictures. Since i don't
have a 4 x 5 equivalent of a 200 lens, this will certainly come in
handy. Especially if I also carry the (matched) Zuiko 2x.
george :>)
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