How many people use spot meters versus incident/reflected?

[buzzardkid]

Other: got a Gossen Lunasix 3 and it has an attachment for 15° and 7,5° angles, and without the attachment it does reflective and incident too.

It's big but it's useful so I'm not complaining!

[taskoni]

I don't use any metering except when I shoot my R7. I have a Pentax spot meter that's too big so I never carry it with me. If I had a handheld meter I would more certainly use it...

Regards,

Boris

[jammcat]

I rarely use a meter, but when I actually do feel the need to use one spot metering is quite helpful.

[EdwardKaraa]

I use incident mode whenever possible. When not, I use the camera meter, which works fine with some interpretation/correction.

[barnwulf]

It depends if I am using a Leica M2 or my MP. I usually use an incedent hand held meter unless the camera has a meter. Sometimes if lighting is tricky and I want to save detail in shadows I will get in close for couple of reflected light reading on something specific hoping to also keep hightlight detail. I got into this habit back when I was shooting a lot of color landscapes with a ISO 50 or 100 Velvia or Ektachrome VS. Although then I was using a spot meter. - Jim

[Shutterspark]

I use whatever is on the camera if it's center weighted or spot, otherwise incident for snapshots and 1% spot for when I want to be 100% sure or in difficult lighting.

Spontaneous shots aside, I never leave it entirely up to guesswork even when I'm fairly confident. Film is too expensive these days to blow a shot every now and then just out of laziness.
Then again, that's just the practical side of me trying in vain to make up for all the money I spend on gear

[sepiareverb]

With the view camera usually an incident, but sometimes a spot meter. With everything else the meter in the camera- except for the 0Serie- then I guess.

[Sejanus.Aelianus]

For many years I used a reflective, with my hand as the "grey card". Then I discovered incident the hard way, when four rolls of Kodachrome, for something important, went badly wrong. Now I use incident for film and various modes on my digitals, depending on what I'm trying to capture and how I feel at the time!

[nikon_sam]

Just started using a Weston Ranger 9 with my non-metered cameras...the meter along with a Zone System scale on it is making B&W shooting so much easier...and the results speak for themselves...

[raid]

Using a digital spotmeter has not failed me in 30 years of photography. It allows me to calibrate the exposure from multiple readings.

[fotomeow]

I used to have a spotmeter that looked like a bansai'ed ray gun. too damn big to lug around. but what it taught me was to guestimate an extra
zone or two beyond what my center-weighted meter told me (e.g., a bit darker in the shadows than the center-weighted told me, and same for the highlights).
so i ditched the spot meter and use the in-camera CW'ed averaging meter, and now learning to use the Gossen DigiSix.

[Roger Hicks]

How many actually know what they're doing? How many recognize the simple fact that with practice, you can get good exposures with just about any form of metering, however unsuitable (think incident for B+W with long brightness ranges)? And how many are saved by the inherent latitude of negative films, especially for overexposure?

Cheers,

R.

[Sparrow]

Originally Posted by Roger Hicks

How many actually know what they're doing? How many recognize the simple fact that with practice, you can get good exposures with just about any form of metering, however unsuitable (think incident for B+W with long brightness ranges)? And how many are saved by the inherent latitude of negative films, especially for overexposure?

Cheers,

R.

... and how many are aware of the latitude of negative film to overexposure and consciously choose to use it that way?

[funkydog]

Under some circumstances, color negative film has something like 6 stops overexposure and 1 stop underexposure latitude. Makes one wonder if the consumer film labeled as 400 ISO is really a 6 ISO film with -6stop underexposure latitude? Or a 50 ISO film with +/- 3 stop latitude?

Btw, I use a handheld incident daylight/flash meter for film and rf cams. TTL for digicams and always -2/3EV.

I have AA's The Negative and read it at least twice. Spot metering and the Zone system is really meant for BW sheet film development.

[Robert Lai]

I have the semi-spot attachment for my Gossen Lunasix F, but I have rarely used it. In my view, if you meter enough spots, you have basically performed a manual averaging metering.

I use incident metering for almost everything, if I use a handheld meter. I still shoot a lot of slides, so that's how I've gotten into the habit. I meter for the highlights, and I almost always carry a flash to fill in the shadows - to get them into the film's range.

I have been familiar with my Nikon F3's meter pattern for 25 years, so I can rely upon it almost without fail. Lately, I have migrated to using a Nikon F2 with DP-11 prism, and the slides look fine also. People may pooh-pooh the center weighted metering on these cameras, but for the large majority of photographic situations, they work just fine. With the F3 in auto mode, I can keep up with fast moving subjects, or mottled lighting.

I'm still learning the meter pattern on my Leica M7. It seems to be a big spot pattern. It needs more exposure lock than what I've needed to use with my Nikon F3. For a fill flash lover, the TTL modes of the F3 and M7 are great.

[mike rosenlof]

I'm a big fan of incident metering and use it whenever I can, and it makes sense. Incident metering *usually* makes sense, but not always. I use handheld incident meters for 35mm up to 8x10.

I also have one of those little shoe-mount CV meters, so if I'm travelling light, that's what gets used.

A little bit of intelligent thought behind ANY meter reading is always a fine idea.

[jwnash1]

With my Canon-P and fed II, I use a Sekonic L-208. My Pentax SLRs have built in meters.

[Godfrey]

I tend to prefer incident light metering, when I use a hand held meter.

[rxmd]

As a backup meter I nowadays use my telephone, with an Android app called BeeCam Light Meter. Most phones have a built-in built-in light sensor for adjusting screen brightness, and the app turns it into a pretty decent incident meter. The interface is rather basic, but the program is free and the results are good.

[JustPlainBill]

Hi,
I use my Zone VI Pentax spotmeter when I'm photographing with my field camera mounted on a tripod. When photographing with a hand-held film camera, I usually meter with my Luna Pro used as an incident meter. With my Nikon D60, I let the camera determine the exposure.
JustPlainBill

[colyn]

I use both depending on the light.. Sometimes I even guess..

[ronnies]

Handheld incident or reflective meter. It's all I have unless I use the D200 as a spot meter.

Ronnie

[blauvelt]

I use a an old Luna Gossen Pro (checking reflected light) for 90% of my shots and an iPhone app for when ever I am shooting with ilford XP2.