Spot Meter - 1 degree or 5 degree best for landscapes?

[George S]

I have a sekonic l-358 meter which can be fitted with a 10, 5 or 1 degree spot meter attachment.

I have seen the 5 degree attachment fairly reasonable second hand however I was wondering whether I should just go ahead and buy a new 1 degree but don't know if the extra expense will be worth it.

Any thoughts?

George.

[Apple]

George,

If you can afford it, I'd go for the 1° option - it gives you the accuracy to hopefully choose individual tones in a picture rather than having to pick relatively large areas to avoid "contamination" from nearby tones.

I have a Pentax Digital Spotmeter and now I'm used to it I find it's great - I used a Gossen Multisix for a while and with it's 15° sensor, it was virtually a waste of time apart from incident readings with the cone on.

I don't take flash pictures so that part of the metering's not important and I could use a grey card to do an "incident" reading if really stumped with the reflected placings.

It's possible to get meters with all sorts of whizz-bang features but find one you're comfortable with and can trust without needing the 1" thick manual each time you use it!

There are dedicated spotmeters from both Gossen and Sekonic and both are national debt jobs to buy. They also make combined spot / incident / flash meters at varying prices along with Minolta who have a good reputation but no longer in go apart from secondhand or the Kenro versions which cost an arm and a leg. Cheaper still are the dedicated spot meters and incident only meters. Could it be an option to get a dedicated meter of each - with both coming to less than the price of a whizz-bang version, e.g. Pentax spotmeter and Gossen Digiflash?

Andrew

[Joanna Carter]

George, I would concur with Andrew on this one. Anything wider than a 1° spot is fairly well useless when it comes to assessing for shadow and highlight readings in a scene. If those readings are "contaminated" by surrounding brighter/darker areas then you will not get valid readings that will help you assess the brightness range and thus determine the correct: filtration for colour or development strategy for B&W.

e.g. I was shooting (Velvia 100) a riverside scene on Wednesday and everything seemed to fit into 4-4 1/2 stops; until I noticed that part of the side of the red boat in the foreground was actually giving me a highlight reading that extended the range to over 5 1/2 stops in bright sunlight. My solution, in this instance, was to continuously meter the brightest part of that boat until sufficient thin cloud reduced the reading to within 4 stops.

Had I used a 5° spot, the meter would have averaged out the darker areas of the boat and thus caused a hotspot. Now all I have to do si get the film dev'ed to see if I got it right

[George S]

Joanna & Andrew,

Thanks for your time and thoughts on this one. As I already have and am very impressed with the Sekonic l-358 I think you have persuaded me to go with the idea of getting the 1 degree attachment.

I am particularly interested in trying to get the best out of the Zone system as I am fed up with hit and miss negative densities over the years and have decided that if it (Zone System) was good enough for Ansel, then it's good enough for me!

Thanks folks.
G.

[Apple]

George, it might be an idea to try and beg, borrow or maybe steal a copy of "The Negative" by Ansel Adams - even though the films he was using are possibly long gone, the metering techniques and thought processes are still current.

Modern electronics in meters may take away some of the maths but if you can add and subtract numbers between 0 and 10 then the world's your oyster etc...

[sandeha]

if you can add and subtract numbers between 0 and 10 then the world's your oyster etc...

That's actually about my limit.

[George S]

it might be an idea to try and beg, borrow or maybe steal a copy of "The Negative" by Ansel Adams

I think I'll do that. I'd say it's probably still available on Amazon.

G.

[Ole Tjugen]

I'm using an old analog Pentax Spotmeter when I feel the need for "Zoning".

But most of the time I take an average reading with an even older Leningrad Selenium cell meter (or use "sunny 11-ish"), and develop for standard contrast. Except in the most extreme situations this gives me negatives which are far easier to print than anything developed N+2 or N-2 has ever done.

Most films are able to record a far higher contrast range than we can use in printing, so unless the lighting is unusually contrasty I concentrate on the tonality, not on being able to print everything. And if it's a gray and misty day - the scene I'm drawn to probably looks best as "gray and misty", not an ultra-contrasty Ansel Adams pastche.

[alangolding]

A small book which I can recomend is "Creative Exposure Control" by Les Meehan which was published by Collins & Bpown in 2001, which may still be available. It includes a lot of practical tips about using the zone system and I have found it very readable.

Alan Golding

[George S]

Thanks Alan...another one for my collection!

George.

[Joanna Carter]

Not suggesting that you don't buy the book, but Les Meehan has also published a short précis of the principles here http://www.pixalo.com/community/tutoria ... 10529.html

Try this as the link instead:

Thanks Andrew, I have edited my post and removed the duplicate in yours

[Apple]

That's blatant post-whoring and stopping me adding to my total...




...so I had to make this post instead

Heheh

[Nigels]

George, I have the 1-degree spot att. for the L358 that is hardly used that I'd part with. Maybe we could negotiate.

[George S]

Thanks Nigel. I have pm'd you.

Regards,
G.