On Saturday 01 January 2005 15:06, John wrote:

I use a Nikon CP5700, with a Minolta IVF Incident meter. Does anyone
know why I cannot get the hand held meter to give consistantly decent
results.
For example; I will take an incident reading of a scene, use that
reading
and set my camera manually to the settings called for by the Minolta.
In
most cases the result is an overexposed shot. I have fooled around
with
different ISO setting trying to match the camera to the Minolta.
Anyone
have any ideas or suggestions? Thanks

My guess is that you are using the meter incorrectly or the camera ISO
settings are not exactly equal to film ISO.

To meter properly with an incident meter you point the metering dome
toward the camera on the camera-subject axis. Pointing the dome toward
the subject as you would do with a reflectance type meter is incorrect
and will result in erroneous readings.

To check if you camera ISO settings are accurate, you'll need an 18%
neutral grey card. Afix the card to a dark vertical surface that is
exposed to full mid-day sunlight, set your camera to ISO 100, then fill
the camera frame with the grey card being careful not to let your
shadow fall on the card, and take a picture. Note the meter reading.
Using the "Sunny 16" rule, which says that the reciprocal of the ISO
number at f16 is the correct exposure in bright, mid-day sunlight. So
for an ISO of 100, you should get f16 at 1/100 sec (or the equivalent
at any other f-stop) for the reading off the grey card. If you didn't
get within 1/2 stop, plus or minus, of the Sunny 16 reading, then the
camera ISO setting isn't equivalent to film ISO, and you'll have to
make adjustments to the ISO setting on your meter, that is, set the
meter at an ISO that is higher or lower, as appropriate, than the ISO
number on the camera. Don't adjust the meter calibrations!!! They're
fine. Just adjust the ISO dial up or down on the meter to get the same
reading as the camera gave off the grey card.

As a double check, at the same time take a spot reflectance reading of
the grey card with your meter, and do a proper incident reading, too.
Compare all the results. They should all closely correlate.

Go here -- http://www.sekonic.com/IncidentVsReflect.html -- for a quick
course on proper metering technique.

--
Stefan Patric
NoLife Polymath Group