Quick Polaroid Bronica Question

Messages
2,467
Name
Matt Thomas
Edit My Images
No
If your using Polaroid film to check the exposure of your shot and the film your using is 160 how would you set the ISO of the Polaroid film on the SQ-A pola back??

The Polaroid film which I have been looking at is the Fuji FP-100C which has an ISO of 100 so would it affect the film if it was above that?

Also the Polaroid back I have only has two ISO settings like this one

109476.jpg


So would I just stick it on the lowest one even thou it is at 75 or 3000

Thanks
 
The Polaroid back is only intended to give you a correct exposure at 100 ISO, if that's the only ISO setting on the back.

You need to recalculate your exposure for the film if it's a different ISO to the Polaroid pack you're using. So to keep it initially simple, lets suppose that your film is twice as fast as the Polaroid pack at 200 ISO. You take an exposure reading at 200 ISO (for the film) and get an indicated exposure of 125th at f8.

To make this reading good for the 100 ISO Polaroid back, you'd simply select an aperture of f5.6 OR a shutter speed of 1/60th. (assuming you're not using flash of course, when you'll probably just alter the aperture.)

You can either make the calculation mentally, or take the initial reading with a handheld meter, then with the reading held in the meter, simply change the ISO in the meter from 200 ISO to 100 ISO which will visually give you your new exposure reading displayed on the meter.

An increase in ISO from 100 to 160 is as near as makes no difference, a difference of just 2/3rds of a stop.

Hope that helps? Sounds like you'll be having fun! :D
 
Thanks for that. Well hopefully I'll be getting my light meter (L-358) soon so it'll be a lot easier.

I understand what your saying but it just seems a bit harder than I thought first of all :(

I was hopeing it would help me when I start shooting skateboarding with my flashes but I might just use my DSLR to meter it off.
 
LOL. Hang in there! Polaroid backs have largely fallen into disuse with pros as they've moved over to digital backs. Polaroid backs aren't particularly cheap to run either.

Actually you'll probably be miles better off metering with your DSLR as you'll have the choice of spot or evaluative metering. If you can match the viewfinder view (for your scene) between the two cameras by choosing the appropriate lens for the DSLR you should get very accurate exposures.

I still think you should shoot some Polaroids though for the Hell of it! ;)
 
Yea as thats what I did for my film shot I took a while back.

I will buy just like a pack of 10 for £7.95 of 7day and just have a play with them. I'll also look into it more as well.

Thanks for your help thou
 
I have a real love hate relationship with pola backs. On the one hand it was always a buzz to be able to get an instant view of the shot your working on, yeah I know.... not such a big deal now is it. :LOL:

...but on the other hand, if the polaroid comes out perfectly, you're screwed as the film version will never be as good. Especially when working with live stuff where the pose, expression or action never comes out the same way twice.

The best meters these days actually seem to be compacts with a live histogram. :D
 
I also posted this on another forum and they said that the 75 to 3000 switch only works with a metered prism and that they just meter for the film then shoot a polaroid??

Hmmmm

I can't see how metering for a film with a different IS0 to the Polaroid pack (and using that reading for the Polaroids) helps you get the right exposure before you start shooting for real - which is the whole purpose in using the Polaroid back. I suspect a lot of people using Polaroid backs these days are just messing around with them rather than depending on them to bring home the bacon. ;)

In fact if you want to make life a lot easier for yourself - just shoot 100 ISO film and 100 ISO Polaroids, then the above advice would be sound.
 
I can't see how metering for a film with a different IS0 to the Polaroid pack (and using that reading for the Polaroids) helps you get the right exposure before you start shooting for real - which is the whole purpose in using the Polaroid back. I suspect a lot of people using Polaroid backs these days are just messing around with them rather than depending on them to bring home the bacon. ;)

In fact if you want to make life a lot easier for yourself - just shoot 100 ISO film and 100 ISO Polaroids, then the above advice would be sound.


Yea I see what your saying. Might as well just use my light meter when it comes :LOL: Much easier hahaha
 
Back
Top