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From: anand@utastro.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.rec.photo
Subject: Spots, meters etc.
Message-ID: <137@utastro.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 26-Jun-84 20:45:28 EDT
Article-I.D.: utastro.137
Posted: Tue Jun 26 20:45:28 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 30-Jun-84 07:18:57 EDT
Organization: UTexas Astronomy Dept., Austin, Texas
Lines: 29


I use a Pentax V spotmeter ($130-170 or thereabouts)
for most low-light work, it meters down to extremely
low light values where reciprocity failure effects are 
dominant, so effectively it meters down to the proverbial
black cat in a coal cellar at midnight. There are spots
that meter lower, but at that stage (meter says give it
8 sec at f/32... do you give it 20 or 50 or 100 sec?
It's up to you and depends on how you develop.....)
it's seat of the pants.

The meter is a little bulky after the Weston Master II that
I generally use for daylight metering (Zone buffs love the
scale on the W-M's, the U, O and C marks), and it takes a
little more time to 'visualize' (to borrow a phrase from the
master) using the Pentax scale, but I've found it extremely
reliable.

A real spot meter is generally more useful (in the Zone System
context) than a 'zoom' meter with a 'narrow angle'(10 or 15
degrees?) field.

If one is going to spend the time setting up a view camera
and then going to the trouble of developing one neg. first,
scratching one's head a little, developing the second, etc., 
the spot meter really is a must to separate out the
illumination levels in the field of view. And it's a lot
easier carrying around a spot meter than a Canon F-1
with a 135mm lens on it to use just as a quasi-spotmeter!