Actual real question about FE2 and Focus screens !

Mr Bump

Mr Bump

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Ok an actual real technical question from me which is unusual as its usually gibberish.

I have a Nikon FE2 as my standard 35mm shooter, I have some nice lenses for it including a 50mm F1.4 and my current fave a 35mm F2.5.

I seem to have noticed on the last 10 rolls or so the odd frame being a bit over exposed in the highlights and it got me to thinking mabe the metre was losing its edge a bit and hence my shutter speeds are a bit slower thus slight over exposure.

but also I remembered last year I invested in a brand spanking new and I mean new focus screen for it which was one designed for the FM3a as per the amazon link below. Now when doing the research for this I seem to remember people saying the screen was a tad brighter and if installed in the FE2 (which it does fit) a small amount of adjustment is required 1/3rd of a stop rings a bell.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nikon-B3-Sc...10757&sr=8-1-fkmr1&keywords=fm3a+focus+screen
 
Just doing the Google it appears that YES the new screen can change the meter reading.

Reason

The meter reading is in the prism so it will read the light hitting it after it has gone through the focusing screen, so if you change the screen from a different model and it is brighter (lets more light through it), then yes I think you will have to make some adjustments.
 
Yes I am sure I remember advising a 1/3rd stop exp comp.
 
This happens with all of the FM/FE series of cameras. I had an FE2 screen in an FE, which brightened the (already excellent) viewfinder.

That said, how over exposed are the highlights? 1/3rd of a stop isn't a huge amount, so even with that exposure compensation dialled in, it may be more than just that. What were the scenes like? Could just have been a tricky scene to meter accurately. Any chance the ISO/ASA selected was (Mr) bump'd slightly off?
 
I think there is always a Bump factor in there :-)

To be honest mainly very bright scenes like beach of scene type shots I felt were just a touch over.

To be honest it realy is very slight, I will be doing more scanning over the next month and have a set from Turkey to go back to Peak aka @RumpFace this week.
 
If the screen is brighter, the meter will tend to under expose so you would need to add some compensation, not subtract it.

Without compensation, the meter will think there is more light than there actually is and will under expose


Steve.
 
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so do I add (+) some?

Maybe try 1/3rd of a stop on my next fillum?
 
Mr Bump said:
so do I add (+) some?

Maybe try 1/3rd of a stop on my next fillum?
Click to expand...

As @Steve Smith has said, a brighter screen would lead to underexposure, not overexposure. A third of a stop isn't much overexposure either. In fact, most of my cameras don't even have the capability of adjusting exposure by such a small degree.

How do you know that this is not a scanning issue?
 
And a third of a stop over exposure for a negative film is to be encouraged!


Steve.
 
Maybe I shall just leave it as is and call it a feature:-)
 
Something else to consider....I remember reading somewhere that the Nikon "mid-range" cameras like the FM2 and FE2 were set up to over expose a little, for some reason.

To back that up, a couple of years ago, before I sold most of my Nikon bodies, I did a meter comparison and found that my F2AS, F3 and F4 were almost 100% consistent with each other (and consistent with my Gossen handheld meter too) but that the FE, FE2 and one or two others tended to read a little over by comparison (generally around 1/2 a stop I seem to remember).

But if anything that would counteract the effect of the brighter screen....:confused:

I suspect something else is at play here. Have you compared the meter to another one (eg in your Pentax 645 or a handheld)?
 
hummm yes you are right if more light was getting through then it would under expose.
maybe the FE2 is just plain wandering out a bit
 
How are you judging it to be over exposing? Is it just some of the negative images being more dense than others?


Steve.
 
freecom2 said:
I agree. The things we've spoken about change the meter by 1/3rd of a stop, 1/2 a stop at the most - with negative film, this is hardly enough to clearly blow the highlights.
Click to expand...

Agreed; I often can't see the difference post-scan even if I've bracketed by a stop!
 
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