Pentax Digital Spot Meter

[rkharris]

Am considering buying my first Hasselblad 501CM. Being that it doesn't have an exposure meter I was planning to use a Pentax Digital Spot Meter. Will this spot meter work well for outdoor applications or is there a better type meter to use? Thanks in advance for your help.

Rick

 

[nikonguy]

Richard;

In my opinion, a spot meter is the way to go for serious outdoor work. I carry a spot meter when I plan to do serious landscape photography with either Mamiya, Pentax 67 or Hassie.

For travel, I use the hassie with a contax G1 system. I only shoot 100 film, so I get a semi spot reading from the Contax and transfer to the hassie.

I had a professional photographer tell me that he only used 100 film for every thing. There is no way you can get confused about exposures this way.
This has worked for me for many years, but requires a tripod a lot of the time. I got a new velbron maxi 343 last year that works well with the Contax and Hassie when traveling.

With the spotmeter you need to brush up on the Zone System to get dead-on exposures of shadow detail. John Sexton says to place the shadows that you want to hold detail at zone 3 1/2. Zone 3 won't quite do it for him. (i.e, it is always better to overexpose than underexpose.)

 

[yepaaa]

Hi,

I bought a 503CW on ebay and i bought at same time a sekonic 608 cine which does spotmeter and incident metering too, perfect for studio and outdoor, the 608 incorporate the aperture and time in the spotmeter, you don't take the meter of your eyes, for me it's the ideal deal than buying a PME45 which is not so helpfull like a handmeter.
For serious photography you need a handmeter, you can't have the same results with a incorporate metering, the best that exist is not efficient like a handmeter, i bought a 608 cine and very bulk made and waterproof and i'm sure that i got the right choice. Now if you want to spell money.......it's yours.
To richard, go to ebay site there are very interessing bussiness to do at the thirth of the official price!!.

I bought the 503CW here.

Sorry for my english.

 

[steve_tester]

Rick, Have a look at the Sekonic range of hand held meters. I use one with great satisfaction. It has a zoom function so the spot metering can be 1 deg to 4 deg. It has a variety of displays that I find helpful.

 

[kommini]

Hi Rick

I am new to Hasselblad like you. I have a Minolta autometer IV which can take an accessory called 5º viewfinder. I get escellent results with this combination

Cheers, Kommini