this was my mother's, back in the day... I dug it out to try it in advance of receiving the camera Victoria... in case i want to take it off auto... I think i get the gist of how it is supposed to work but it is not agreeing with my digital camera, that could be the metering mode i used, does anyone have any advice on how to use this? eg. what is the DIN number ? and the EV ?
I do remember them very well, I own one (still a little more complex). DIN was just another scale for film speed (alternative to ASA, which is the same as ISO). So you just select the ASA Value to match the film ISO speed (in your photo it's set to 100) and disregard DINs
EV would be "Exposure Value" - an absolute measure of the combination of the three exposure parameters, in terms of the classic idea of "stops" ISO 100, 1 second f/1 is the zero base, 0 EV. Bright sun requires somewhere about 15 EV, and that is sort of how the "Sunny Sixteen" Rule works. Here's Ken Rockwell's essay. http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/ev.htm
Whew, some answers. Michael has a Weston light meter and we spent time discussing its use. It's so long since he used it, we are pretty rusty. It used to drive me and the kids mad in the days when he spent so much time getting his light meter readings we were all tetchy and smiles were in short supply for the Family AlBUM
@frankhymus thanks Frank, i now understand ev in principle, as the needles come together its telling me the ev, and all the combinations of f-stop and shutter speed that are equivalent, pretty cool. how do i know if it is calibrated correctly? as i said its not telling me the same as my camera does ....could that be the exposure meter... evaluative, spot etc.
on the back it has a zero adjust screw... @domenicododaro
@graemestevens thanks, tells me some more, but this one is a less sophisticated model! there is a red pointer that moves which i presume is reading the light, and a green one that moves with the shutter speed dial, i am presuming when i turn the green one to match the red one it is telling me the ev and the different combinations. @domenicododaro@frankhymus i am presuming it doesnt need a battery!
How far different are they? The digital camera (in normal or matrix or average or evaluative mode depending on your camera manufacturer, there are others, center and spot being the other two common ones) evaluates the whole scene in the frame and averages out all the light and assumes this should be the so-called gray card value. This might be right or wrong depending on the scene, high proportion of white, (snow, sand, bright sky) and the camera will "underexpose" (making the mass of white come out mid-gray) with lots of dark and black, the camera will "overexpose" again judging the blacks to come out sort of gray. Many more advanced modern cameras, too, try to get even smarter with a database of scene recognition parameters and further adjust the "metered" exposure. The simple light meter will try to do the evaluation about mid-gray, depending on where you point it, and is it getting a wide or spot view. So yes, try to match them up and try again to see if they agree or not. Have fun...
@frankhymus so many variables O_0, having just read in the manual how to take a reading i will try it out tomorrow with evaluative meter mode on my dslr and get back to you..
thanks Lynn, definitely something to consider! @ltodd
Ahh...scary technical stuff. My dad has one of these in the back of a cupboard somewhere but whilst I remember him using it, I was spared the instruction on how to do so myself. Good luck in your venture.
Apparently you got plenty of answers, I think @ltodd gave you all you need! To calibrate, just try pointing it on a flat even surface possibly mid grey with different lighting conditions and compare the aperture/shutter speed combinations with the ones metered with your camera pointing TTL on the same surface and lighting conditions. Then you'll have a "circa" idea of the aging of the selenium cells...
Too late to take the technicalities in, but I'm intrigued it's your mother's, what did she photograph, was she as experimental as you? my dad in his seventies now, had a analog camera and he made lots of slides (I still remember watching them together with family and the stories would flow). He never developed film himself, but his sister did and I wish I had asked her to show me how, but she passed away several years. Funny enough she never took the photographs, just developed them for her husband.
@overalvandaan my mum had this from the age of about 19 when she headed to Australia for her OE around 1960, she just used to take holiday and family snaps. my dad used to take slides of us and yes i remember very light hearted evenings showing them, he has digitised many in recent years . Maybe developing is like cooking .
@ingrid2101 not at this stage, Spanner has offered to do some for me, and brett has said i could get some done in wellington at the same time as his, I did a little bit of develpping at school but i cant remember if i had any good results! maybe i will get the bug//..
@kali66 I hope I'm not coming across as critical. If you can still use it, then good. But it will degrade further, and eventually the needle won't go all the way across the scale.
do you need a clearer picture of all the numbers?
on the back it has a zero adjust screw... @domenicododaro
thanks Lynn, definitely something to consider! @ltodd
You can't really fix those without spending more than they're worth.
Still, it's a nice bit of family history!
Still, enjoy it while you can. It's nice.