Using digital cameras for metering

Orby1

Orby1

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Julian
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Hello all,
Could I pick your brains please?
I've just been out at night taking long exposures around the business park I work at, I think the shortest shutter speed I did was 5 seconds. I wasn't sure of the exposures so obviously I bracketed every one. I'd read on here of people metering with a DSLR and just transfering the exposure settings onto the film camera from the SLR's reading.

What I want to know is - how accurate can I expect the settings to be? Is 10" at f5.6 and 100 ISO on my Canon G10 going to be accurately transferrable to my OM2? I mean, where do Canon get their ISO's from on a digital camera?:thinking:

I guess I'll have to wait to see the slides (Ektachrome 100) to find out for sure, but what do you think - will I have taken a load of plop or d'you think these shots might be useable?
:)
 
Would it be simpler to use the OM2 to meter ?
 
I personely would not trust ISO rating from Digital cameras as they all vary tremendously from brand to brand and even models in the same range! For example the D3's ISO 3200 is really ISO 2000 and thats not the only example. And you would be suprised how they vary compared to a handheld meter even in the studio.
 
namllihs said:
Would it be simpler to use the OM2 to meter ?
Click to expand...

Hiya,
Yes it would!:) Unfortunately the shortest exposure I took all night was about 5 seconds, and the OM2's viewfinder reading only goes down to 1 second and the needle was right off the bottom of that, so I wouldn't have known whether to open the shutter for 2 seconds or 2 minutes.
I know I could've just stuck the OM2 on auto and gone for it but I was hoping to be a bit more controlled, if you know what I mean. I'm trying to experiment and learn, so (slightly off-topic here) I feel a bit of a fraud when I just whack stuff on auto - if I'd have done that last night it would've kind of defeated the object of why I was there. For me the thrill of getting a good shot is reduced almost to zero if the camera's brain took it instead of mine.

Back to the topic, from Paul's post it looks like I wouldn't be able to trust the readings from the G10 anyway. We'll see when I get the film back...!:lol: I was just certain I'd read on here of people taking readings in difficult situations with the more sophisticated metering systems of DSLRs rather than the 'all over' method of older cameras.
Sorry for rambling, and thanks for your replies.;)
 
I think you'd be ok with a dslr reading, not sure I'd trust a compact camera though.
Ektachrome is slide film, so exposure is tight daytime, I dunno about night, might be ok if you metered correctly, Ektachrome is good up to 10 seconds without reciprocity failure.
I've been using the Ultimate Exposure Meter for night shots, it looks complicated but its really worth sitting down and figuring it out.
I did not print a copy, I did not alter it in anyway so it would fit on 2 bits of A4, and it is not in a side pocket of my camera bag.....:)
Using your description "business park at night", on the bits of paper I don't have it calculates, and I'm gonna go for index 4, described as -

candle lit close-ups, Christmas lights, floodlight buildings, fountains and monuments, subjects under bright street lighting

index 4 @ iso 100 = (I'll start at f/5.6 but it goes from f/1.4 - f/32)

f/5.6 @ 2sec....f/8 @ 4sec....f11 @ 8sec....f/16 @ 15sec...and so on..

So you might be over cooked at 5 seconds @ f/5.6, or they maybe ok, depends how closely the description matches the actual lighting conditions.
The index could be lower, I dunno, I wasn't there :shrug:
 
Long time since I have used Ektachrome 100 but from memory it hits reciprocity failure fairly early and is not really very reliable above 1 second.

I am suffering from a severe overdose of rich food, not to mention gin and wine so not completely with it but you will also certainly need a colour correction filter as well for long exposures.

Have a read of http://www.kodak.com/global/en/professional/support/techPubs/e27/e27.pdf for more information.

I can certainly say with some confidence that Velvia 100 is far more tolerant of very long exposures indeed - a 2.5b correction filter and about 1-1.5 stop extra is fine up to about a minute.
 
Nicos Rex said:
Long time since I have used Ektachrome 100 but from memory it hits reciprocity failure fairly early and is not really very reliable above 1 second.
Click to expand...

Depends which Ektachrome 100, bog standard E100 is 10 seconds

Nicos Rex said:
I am suffering from a severe overdose of rich food, not to mention gin and wine so not completely with it but you will also certainly need a colour correction filter as well for long exposures.
Click to expand...

I slept crap last night, bunged up with Christmas crap:gag:

Kodak Ektachrome E100S, E100SW and E100VS
The latest additions to Kodak's Ektachrome stable are Ektachrome E100S, E100SW and E100VS.................They also have superb reciprocity characteristics which means you can get away with exposures of up to 10 seconds without needing to compensate with a filter.

Ektachrome 100 -

No filter correction or exposure adjustment is required for
exposures from 1/10,000 to 1/10 second. At 1 second, use
a CC05M filter and increase exposure by 1/3 stop. We do
not recommend exposure times longer than 1 second. At
longer exposures, significant color balance shifts in the
cyan-green direction or contrast mismatch may occur. :shrug:
 
Hello Orby1
This is what I do. I use the spot or partial metering pattern to take a reading from something well lit, but not spot lit, in the scene and use this number. I tend to use the metering camera in program and just work out the exposure I want from there (so 1sec at 5.6 would be 4sec at F16 if that’s the aperture I want to use). I would suggest you use an ASA setting on the metering camera of 100 as they tend to be quite close to proper ASA levels at the lower end.
Hope this helps.
 
I used my konica Minolta 5D to meter some stuff last weekend and pretty much everything was underexposed by about a stop. Someone mentioned that it might be because film has a higher dynaic range than digital (certainly in the case of my camera) but I reckon it could be plain old under exposure. I guess the only way to tell is to run a test roll through in pretty safe scenes and see what happens.
 
Thanks guys, this is all top info.
This whole excersise has been a learning experiment for me actually so if everything comes out over-cooked, then hey, at least I've learned. OK I'd love to get some nice shots out of it too obviously but I'm just experimenting and mucking about.
I'm really enjoying learning about photography again, the process of getting a good image is far more enjoyable to me than the final product in a way.
I have to correct something in my 1st post - the film in the OM2 is Velvia 100F, not Ektachrome, so I apologise to the people who looked up the Kodak data. I posted that at about 3:00am and I was pretty groggy!
In my lack of experience I also neglected to use a colour correction filter - Velvia is obviously daylight film and this was all artificially lit stuff... Arse.
I'd love to host a few shots here, the digital ones I got with the G10. I only took it for metering with but it came up with some beautiful images. However I work at Chiswick Park and I had to sign a form saying I wouldn't publish any photos that I took in any form and they'd all be strictly for personal use. It's a real shame as this is a very photogenic place - a lake lit up red from underneath, the bridge over it is lit up blue, modern sci-fi chrome buildings are all around, it looks magic. The streetlights of West London were lighting up the clouds giving them a really eerie glow, it looked very striking. Still, they won't budge.:shake:
Joxby - thanks for that website link that you haven't printed out and I haven't either - and I also won't tuck it into my bag. You're right, from the data there I may have over cooked, so I may go out again tonight (nighshifts....:bonk:) and finish the roll off.
Thanks again guys. I WILL post on this thread when I get the slides back and let you know the results.
:thumbs:
 
100F.....is the kiddies snot danglers :thumbs:

Don't worry about the colour correction, night ones always looked fine to me even with mercury street lighting, the ones with no lighting at all I found were a bit blue.
 
Right, it's 1:30am and I just got back in from finishing off the roll of Velvia 100F. I used the Fred Parker chart from Joxby's link, judged my scene to be roughly EV-4, and took exposures at 4" at f8, bracketing a stop either side.
I only got to do 3 scenes before the film ran out, but to be honest it's so cold out there I could hardly feel the cable release in my hand, so I was glad to come inside!:lol:
Many thanks again for the info.
Julian.
 
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