TMLee asked:
> Anyone of U out there employ the technique of the zone system when taking
> pics with the OM-4Ti ? Even with colour film.....
Yes, I am strongly of the opinion that the OM4 (and OM3) manual mode
was designed with the Zone System in mind.
Why else would the LCD display bar cover such a long scale (-4 to +4
stops) and be marked off at 1-stop intervals over that range?
> What I do is to look for the mid shade of grey ( stage 5 of the total 9
> stages of grey in the zone system) , then I take a spot reading of that and
> then shoot.
That's a reasonable approach in auto mode, but in manual you have
*far* more flexibility.
If I resort to some ascii art I can try to show how neatly a zone
scale maps onto the OM3/4 manual-mode finder display:
IX VIII VII VI V IV III II I
+ . . | >|< | . . -
-----------------------------------------
You can see that nothing forces you to align the reading with the
center (Zone V) mark, instead you can place a spot reading on
whichever zone you think it requires. Even fractional zone placements
are easy.
Furthermore, if you store more than one spot reading (of different
values) you can still see them all on the scale, and can judge how
they relate to each other and to the tonal range of the film. The
important thing in this case is to *ignore* the LCD bar (i.e. the
averaged value) and concentrate on the individual spot diamonds.
Of course, experience and/or testing of your film&processing
combination will be necessary in order to be able to relate the zone
measurements to the actual result on the negative or slide.
> Am I doing something ridiculous ?
Certainly not. Ansel Adams himself was of the opinion that the Zone
System *wasn't* just relevant to large-format black-and-white
photography, but was also of use to photographers working both with
35mm and in colour.
Maitani-san appears to have thought much the same.
Incidentally, C*nt*x try to call their S2 a 'Zone System camera' with
rather less justification than the OM3/4. The S2 has a spot meter of
sorts, but doesn't have the viewfinder display needed to make it
really useful.
-Brian
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