Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1997/07/17

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Subject: Re: Incident Meters and such
From: ROB HEYMAN <rheyman@cynergy.com.au>
Date: Thu, 17 Jul 1997 21:04:32 +1000

>   The incident meter is a secret the camera manufacturersdon't want
> you to know about.
>

About twenty years ago I was teaching at a NSW University and I realised
that, surprise, surprise, my students didn't want to buy their own
incident meter.  It was then that I found that if you place one of those
styrene coffee cups over your SLR lens, set the exposure to the
reciprocal of the ASA at f16 and pointed the camera at the sun your  got
the same reading.   Does it work in shadows? You bet your R8 ir does!!!
Any minor adjustments can be made by either sanding down the styrene
slightly OR marking it with a black felt pen till the exposure reads
correctly.

(I said to calibrate it in sunlight, but I just realised that some
cities have smog and others have 6 months of nighttime, so best to
calibrate it against a known meter)

Now, when you have a tricky lighting situation, like a black cat in a
coal cellar or a white feather in a snow storm you will be able to whip
out your trusty coffee cup and take correctly exposed pictures.

Now... we have a meter which gives correct exposure. The whole thing
costs either 2 cents or nothing.  This leaves all that money you were to
spend on you brand new incident meter for other important things, like
sending your M6 to Leica for a focus adjustment!

Rob