Jim,
An amount of light is given an
"exposure value", EV for short. My
ol' OM1 metered down to something
like 1/125th at f4 at EI 800. The
exact specification is on the e-SIF
CD. (EV2) The OM1 used old
technology light cell called
"cadmium sulfide" (CdS). You're
right. If you put on a single
75watt light bulb in a living room,
the 1 has a lower limit and it's
hard to see the needle anyway.
Since there's no Auto mode, you
can't let the camera go where it
will either.
The later cameras (PC/40, 2S,
family of 3, and family of 4) had
newer cells (Silicon blue?) that
were much more capable. Take the
4. For a spotlit chick singer in
front of a black background, even
if I'm using EI 1600, I can still
dial in a full "-1" compensation,
set the meter to Auto and never
read the display! I can turn on
the feeble illuminator and
precisely see my exposure readout.
(I can get a glimpse of it before
it blinks off. The timer on the
illuminator turns off the light
even if I'm changing the controls!)
It measures down to -5EV. That's
NEGATIVE FIVE. As I understand it,
each EV is roughly equivalent to an
f-stop. That means you can meter 7
stops deeper into darkness. (The
e-SIF says Auto-by-Spot goes deeper
yet: to -7.)
So, to bring it around full circle,
I've been using EI 800 color
negative film for concerts. I
haven't shot black and white at
concerts since I tried Tri-X in
Accufine back in 1970-mumble. I
had some very very thin negatives,
I'll tell you. John posted some
great looking B&W using Kodak's
TMax P3200 (TMZ) a few weeks ago
and it just clicked for me this
week. He actually had some midtone
graduation happening which is
something I never had in the old
days.
I have a 80-200 f4 zoom but even
the biggest aperture (f4) is too
small to use in a dim room. It is
a "slow" lens. "Slow" is
photo-slang, meaning that the small
maximum aperture forces you into a
slow shutter speed. If I load up
with 1600 or even 3200 film, I can
use the zoom, providing there's
enough light to focus.
Too much detail? Confusion or
enlightenment?
All the best,
Lama
From: "Jim Brokaw"
<jbrokaw@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> How do you meter this stuff when
you get to 1600 or 3200...? Seems
like the
> meter is only going to work down
to a certain actual level of
darkness, no
> matter where you set the ISO.
Then if you're in a room that's
darker than
> that, all you get is a guess.
>
> While the OM-2 will do a
2-minute-plus exposure when
shooting with
> 'normal-speed' films, will it
still do a 2-minute exposure at a
level of
> darkness that would require 2
minutes for 3200? That would be 5
stops less
> light than a 100-speed film...
its going to be pretty dim. Where
does the
> meter cut off on the low side in
absolute light-level terms?
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