Any manual cameras with spot metering?

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The Matt

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I am considering getting a decent film camera. I really like working with my Zenit B and handheld lightmeter- manually doing everthing. I'm not so keen on having no way to accurately measure light in a narrow area. Can anyone recommend reasonably priced manual cameras with spot metering, if such a thing exists? I've no idea what kind of models to be looking out for.
 
Most of my lenses are crop sensor design anyway so I'm really not tied to a brand. I've a couple of m42 lenses but they're not worth much so I wouldn't hesitate to go for another mount. I shall look in to those, thanks.
 
The T90 is FD breech mount so will have cheaper lenses too, but the camera looks far more like a modern camera (big plastic lump) than the classically styled very small OM4
 
One could always pop for a more modern film slr like an eos5 maybe and just turn off all the bells and whistles?
 
Be aware of "sticky shutter" problems if you try a T90.
 
Ah, "The Tank" - sort of a missing link between a A-1 and a gripped EOS EOS... makes the FD lenses look tiny! I stumbled into a page on it, when looking up the A-1 on MiR.
 
Ambermile said:
One could always pop for a more modern film slr like an eos5 maybe and just turn off all the bells and whistles?
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That's what I do with the EOS-3 most of the time, to be honest. I'm very happy to have proper modern metering when i'm shooting tranny, but most of the other features don't really matter when I'm shooting landscape-ey stuff!
 
pepper said:
The T90 is FD breech mount so will have cheaper lenses too, but the camera looks far more like a modern camera (big plastic lump) than the classically styled very small OM4
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They were asleep on the bay last week as a T90 went for £57 and that included the 50mm lens which usually sells for £15-£20 separately.
 
T90 spot metering is awesome. You can add more than one spot meter reading by multiple presses of the button and the camera will give you a reading biased towards the levels you have measured.

For example you click once on a shadow and twice on a highlight in your image, the camera will give twice as much weight in it's calculation to the highlight as to the shadow.

It also has a highlight and shadow buttin to allow you to add or subtract exposure at the touch of a button.

For the money they go for you can't go wrong, just make sure the shutter is OK and it's exercised regularly.

HTH

David
 
Willid1 said:
T90 spot metering is awesome. You can add more than one spot meter reading by multiple presses of the button and the camera will give you a reading biased towards the levels you have measured.

For example you click once on a shadow and twice on a highlight in your image, the camera will give twice as much weight in it's calculation to the highlight as to the shadow.

It also has a highlight and shadow buttin to allow you to add or subtract exposure at the touch of a button.

For the money they go for you can't go wrong, just make sure the shutter is OK and it's exercised regularly.

HTH


.
David
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..even better with matched 300TL flashgun
 
Willid1 said:
T90 spot metering is awesome. You can add more than one spot meter reading by multiple presses of the button and the camera will give you a reading biased towards the levels you have measured.

For example you click once on a shadow and twice on a highlight in your image, the camera will give twice as much weight in it's calculation to the highlight as to the shadow.

It also has a highlight and shadow buttin to allow you to add or subtract exposure at the touch of a button.

For the money they go for you can't go wrong, just make sure the shutter is OK and it's exercised regularly.

HTH

David
Click to expand...

That multiple spot metering trick was carried over to the EOS-3 as well, lets you select up to 8 spot readings, and it'll come up with a setting that works :thumbs:
 
Dont forget the Pentax Spotmatic II. Ive got one and I liked it a lot.
 
zeugma said:
Be aware of "sticky shutter" problems if you try a T90.
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Beware of the T90. A rubbish camera that Canon will not supply parts for. Why does the name Canon match up with the descriptive word CRAP ? NIKON for ever.
 
well considering it hasnt been in production for over twenty years its not surprising they dont supply spare parts for it ,,
 
classcams said:
Beware of the T90. A rubbish camera that Canon will not supply parts for. Why does the name Canon match up with the descriptive word CRAP ? NIKON for ever.
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LOL.......a troll on the forum.
 
pepper said:
Yeah we don't see them over here in the film section very often, we don't normally get all het up about which manufactturer is the best over in this sleepy section.
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...and classcams hasn't worked out that it's the person and the lens that's most important...the body just connects the two.
 
Manual cameras with spot metering:

Ok don't know why pepper warned you off the OM 4Ti as that was the version with the revamped electronics in it. It is the earlier OM4 which had an issue with batteries that was easily solved by sticking it on the red 1/60 when not in use, then no battery drain (I know I have one).

Anyway

OM4 like the T90 is battery dependent machines, both have multiple spot meter capabilities both are great. The T90 does have an issue with a "shutter squeak" like most of the A and T series can. Way to get round it is to load up some batteries and fire the shutter off and run it an most of the speeds. Yes I have a T90 and do that, in fact going to do it now.

The rarer OM3 is a manual version of the OM4 so if the batteries fail then the camera will still work.

Pentax Spotmatic form a earlier age and I think would take your M42 mount as well (not 100% sure on that)

On the AF front you could go for
EOS 3 not sure about the 5
Nikon F4 or 5
Minoltas Dynax would deffo go for a 7, thinking about getting one of those myself.
 
I had a Spotmatic and although it had centre-weighted metering, did not have spot-metering, despite the name. You are correct in that it did have an M-42 mount however.
For a camera with a decent spot-meter, I'd still go for the Nikon F5 or Canon A1 (or was it the AE-1 which had that? - I'm a bit fuzzy on Canon models), but they're all battery-dependent.
 
I've just aquired (as in swapped for a couple of framed prints) a mint Canon A-1, and while the metering is very centre-weighted, it's not really spot metering. Certainly not in comparison to say the specific spot metering modes of EOS-3, or modern digital cameras.

Had a AE-1 probably 30+ years ago and I think that was much the same. Then again, i'd just bought it to replace a Praktica MTL5 that fell off a Bivi Ledge on the Aig.Du Midi so it felt like heaven in comparison :lol:
 
I didn't mean to warn him off the ti version I was thinking of a budget and know how expensive they are compared to the normal ones, all for the sake of a bit of titanium.
 
***The T90 does have an issue with a "shutter squeak"***

erm I don't think it's squeak..IIRC it's the magnets for the shutter that can "stick" if not used for a long time. Some people have bought non working T90s, pressed the shutter button and at the same time smartly brought the camera body down on your hand, and got the camera working again.
 
pepper said:
I didn't mean to warn him off the ti version I was thinking of a budget and know how expensive they are compared to the normal ones, all for the sake of a bit of titanium.
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Arh! I see, my bad :)

The OM4Ti had a bit more in it, Olympus had picked up on the battery issue so revamped the electronics in the camera, one of the plus things was that with the F280 flash gun it would sync at any shutter speed from 1 sec to 1/2000th.

Where as the earlier OM4 would only sync to 1/125 I think.

But yes your right I suppose it does depend on budget as well.

Thanks for the correction on the Spot Matic Rob :thumbs:
 
excalibur2 said:
***The T90 does have an issue with a "shutter squeak"***

erm I don't think it's squeak..IIRC it's the magnets for the shutter that can "stick" if not used for a long time. Some people have bought non working T90s, pressed the shutter button and at the same time smartly brought the camera body down on your hand, and got the camera working again.
Click to expand...

Thanks I forgot, some Canon cameras squeak other stuck as did the T90 I have did. :)
 
Arkady said:
I had a Spotmatic and although it had centre-weighted metering, did not have spot-metering, despite the name. You are correct in that it did have an M-42 mount however.
For a camera with a decent spot-meter, I'd still go for the Nikon F5 or Canon A1 (or was it the AE-1 which had that? - I'm a bit fuzzy on Canon models), but they're all battery-dependent.
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Surprisingly, considerng how advanced the A1 was for it's time, it doesn't have spot metering. I dunno about the AE1.
 
I rate all the OM cameras. Their weakness was the base plate could get distorted if you screwed a tripod in too tight - hence the dismissal of some heavy handed pros. Also, a guy I used to know who was a buyer for one of the big camera chains and knew his onions reckoned the 50mm 1.4 was a much inferior lens to the standard 1.8. 'A right dog' was his judgement but the rest of the Zuiko range was good.

OT but the OM1 like the Pentax Spotmatic and a few other cameras was completely instinctive to use, a factor which has been all but abandoned in favour of cod ergonomics with new cameras
 
Thanks everyone. A few for me to be looking at.
Can anyone tell me what kind of metering is like in these:
fujica st 605
praktica mtl5
praktica ltl

I know they're ttl stop down metering but nothing seems to say if they're center-weighted or what...
 
I think the best word for the metering in my MTL5 was "tenuous" :lol: I pretty much had to bracket every shot +-1 stop and hope for the best. Worst thing being, it wasn't consistently up or down, it varied with the wind direction, time of day, level of sunspot activity, my pulse rate... I never did get to the bottom of why, it was just pants. If I hadn't lost the film that was in it, I'd have smiled as it sailed the 700-800m down into the valley when I dropped it.

Of course some people will have had one, that worked perfectly, and they loved. I didn't.
 
Tell you what Matt, I got a spare EOS Elan IIe body you can borrow if you like, does everything up to and including eye control focus - uses your current lenses - and you can turn off as many of the whistley-bells as you like. Let me know.

Arthur

PS - what's wrong with old fashioned spot metering? OK you had to maybe walk forwards a bit but hey - it kept you fit :D
 
The T90 is an awesome camer with probably the best spot metering system out there...I have never come across one with a squeaky shutter....which is more than I can say for the A series which suffer from the mirror bearings drying up and sticking (cheap repair )
 
I agree that the T90 is an awesome camera, I have had mine for 3 years now and it has been superb.

I don't think anybody has mentioned that it runs on 4 AA batteries, mine has been on the same set for 2 years and still working well.


John :)
 
The Matt said:
Thanks everyone. A few for me to be looking at.
Can anyone tell me what kind of metering is like in these:
fujica st 605
praktica mtl5
praktica ltl

I know they're ttl stop down metering but nothing seems to say if they're center-weighted or what...
Click to expand...

I have a similar MTL3, and the meter is quite accurate in bright conditions, not much to say really other than you have to watch out for the usual things that confuse a meter.

MTL3, Fuji 800asa, Tak 35mm.
http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn172/chakrata/tak35mm19.jpg
 
Ambermile said:
Tell you what Matt, I got a spare EOS Elan IIe body you can borrow if you like, does everything up to and including eye control focus - uses your current lenses - and you can turn off as many of the whistley-bells as you like. Let me know.

Arthur
Click to expand...

Thanks very much for the offer but I'll decline. I've a minolta dynax of reasonable quality + lenses that I can borrow long term from the parents if I decide I'd like a more modern thing. I'm just trying to weigh up the possibilities more vintage route here. That's very generous of you though. Appreciated :)

PS - what's wrong with old fashioned spot metering? OK you had to maybe walk forwards a bit but hey - it kept you fit :D
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I've tried but areas of the sky don't seem to get appreciably closer :p
 
excalibur2 said:
I have a similar MTL3, and the meter is quite accurate in bright conditions, not much to say really other than you have to watch out for the usual things that confuse a meter.

MTL3, Fuji 800asa, Tak 35mm.
http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn172/chakrata/tak35mm19.jpg
Click to expand...

TheBigYin said:
I think the best word for the metering in my MTL5 was "tenuous" :lol: I pretty much had to bracket every shot +-1 stop and hope for the best. Worst thing being, it wasn't consistently up or down, it varied with the wind direction, time of day, level of sunspot activity, my pulse rate... I never did get to the bottom of why, it was just pants. If I hadn't lost the film that was in it, I'd have smiled as it sailed the 700-800m down into the valley when I dropped it.

Of course some people will have had one, that worked perfectly, and they loved. I didn't.
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Does it just average the scene, or read a specific part of it? At the price they seem to go for it may be worth the gamble of it being inaccurate.
 
The Matt said:
Does it just average the scene, or read a specific part of it? At the price they seem to go for it may be worth the gamble of it being inaccurate.
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I had the damned thing nearly 3 years and never quite worked out what it was doing. I was better off with sunny16 to be honest.
 
Well I'm a "kodak grey" man with most cameras...if the subject is roughly kodak grey that's the correct exposure, if the subject is confusing for the camera e.g. subject has a mass of white sky behind, then I would take a reading of say dark green grass, shrub, grey pavement etc, set the aperture, then take the shot. So I don't usually have exposure problems esp for negative film.

http://www.benjohnstonphotography.com/understand/greycard/greycard.html
 
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