Camera Settings - help please.

Mozziephotography

Mozziephotography

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Out with the Pentax S1a today, working my way through a roll of film. I'm not too particular about the composition at the moment, it's more about checking that everything is working correctly and there are no light leaks. Using a mobile phone app, I take a reading off the road or something of a similar colour.
If the app says f8 at 1/350th or any reading that doesn't translate to the shutter speeds on the camera, what's the best thing to do?
Just noticed that the "old" lenses I have seem to have half stops, is that correct.
Bum! Is this something that went out of fashion with digital?
 
Fishfish is right going down to a slower shutter speed and the film wont mind. And on a sunny day and if the subject is in the sun f8 @ 1/250 is about right, I use that setting a lot.
 
With negative film, a bit of over-exposure is okay. For your example, you could set to 1/250th at f/8 and it would be fine.

I tend to fix the shutter speed in the meter so it matches the steps that the camera can do, and then see what the aperture is. Lots of lenses have half stops, and those that don't can usually be set mid-way between the two detents anyway. That way, if I want to be close to the metered reading, I can get to within half a stop at the worst. (say the meter reads f/8.1 - I can either set f/8 and under-expose by 0.1 stop, or f/8.5 and over-expose by 0.4 of a stop). Once I have a combination for shutter speed and aperture, I can adjust them up/down by a stop to get equivalent exposures for faster/slower shutter or more/less depth of field.
 
mossienet said:
Thanks for all the contributions, much appreciated. I'll get there.
Click to expand...

AAMOI f8 @ 1/250 lasts for hours in sunshine in the Uk in summer and even in wintertime, but I found if going to places like Ibiza it would be f11 @ 1/250.
Dunno what the setting is for the Sahara desert, equator or on top of a mountain in clear air.... ;)
 
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I can't seem to change the app to calculate the aperture by setting the shutter speed. Not sure where I'm going wrong.
 
Which app?

With this one:

play.google.com

Light Meter - Lite - Apps on Google Play

A reflected light meter with spot metering and incident light metering.
play.google.com play.google.com

you go into 'Camera Meter' mode, and the parameter you are measuring (e..g. shutter speed) is highlighted in red. You can then set aperture and ISO. The aperture setting has full, 1/3 and 1/2 stops all in one menu. If want to set shutter speed and measure aperture instead, long-press the aperture box until it turns red. You can then access the shutter speed settings.

Here are the 1/3, 1/2 and full stop scales:

havecamerawilltravel.com

F Stop Chart - Lens Apertures for Full Stops, 1/2 Stops, and 1/3 Stops

This F Stop Chart shows full stops, 1/2 stops, and 1/3 stops when setting the aperture of digital camera lenses.
havecamerawilltravel.com havecamerawilltravel.com

If there is a single 'click' between full stops on the aperture ring of your lens, then those are half stops. Two clicks between full stops would be 1/3 stops, but I don't know if any of your lenses would have this (it's more of an electronic camera thing, where you are using a dial rather than a mechanical ring, and you can often choose the interval in a custom setting).

I wouldn't worry about fractional stops too much on negative film, but as suggested above err on the side of overexposure (slower shutter speed than indicated, or wider aperture).
 
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Sorted the app. Found a YouTube video. Press down on the one you want to change and ... DOH! I need to change my name to Homer Simpson.
 
I was just editing my previous post before I saw your post - luckily it's the same app! (the long-press thing isn't very intuitive!)
 
I'm terrible for not looking into things more closely. Loving the fact that you have half f stops on these old lenses.
 
With film, + or - one stop is not critical. Certainly, being half a stop out will make no difference at all. When I am using meterless cameras I take a light reading every half hour or so unless the light obviously changes.
 
john.margetts said:
With PRINT film, + or - one stop is not critical. Certainly, being half a stop out will make no difference at all. When I am using meterless cameras I take a light reading every half hour or so unless the light obviously changes.
Click to expand...

My bold, italicised red addition!

Slide film is rather pickier.

FWIW, my modern Fuji 100-400 has 1/3 stop steps of aperture (according to the display, anyway!)
 
Hello @mossienet, perhaps have a look at this light meter app instead; it's the one I use and has an 'old fashioned' analogue light meter type display. As with a genuine old analogue light meter, it allows you to see a range of f stops and shutter speeds at the same time by looking at which ones line-up together on the mock dial:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dq.fotometroNa&hl=en_GB

I've used this app on a Sony Xperia T and a Samsung Galaxy S7 and found it to be quite accurate. The other handy thing is that you can see an image of what you're pointing the light meter at in the central window display of the light-meter. It's also got a 'zoom in' facility but I've never really explored the spot metering capabilities of that. At £2.10 it might be worth a gamble to see if it suits your phone and photography requirements. (y)
 
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