[OM] C5050 as a meter, was Quick Poll

[Chris Barker]

That is the most interesting little dissertation that I have read on digital cameras so far Wayne.  It makes the C5050 sound really quite interesting.  I agree with your point that, to be effective, your metering has to be relevant to the tonality of the subject; and I find it an interesting idea that you can check the colour map that results from treating this or that part of the scene as the middle tone; but is it not ironic that you can do this with a camera whose results you can check immediately, albeit on a tiny screen?  

With a film camera you get around the problem of uncertain tonality, surely, by making an assessment with your meter and bracketing the exposure by however much you judge necessary.  For me, bracketing is not second nature and I tend to average middle tones (or the ones that I think important to the scene) using the OM4's spot meter.

The disadvantages of the C5050 are the alleged colour fringing and the limited top ISO.  I have to keep reminding myself of these otherwise I should be in the shop I looked in yesterday, in Cambridge, spending money on it ;-)

Chris

On Tuesday, Sep 2, 2003, at 14:53 Europe/London, W Shumaker wrote:

> The camera does not make a better photographer. I have been working
> with my C-5050 as a metering tool - the histogram function in
> particular. What I discovered at a recent workshop is that spot
> metering requires a known tonality to use accurately. For example, if
> you spot meter the green leaves of the trees in the background, there
> are greens, speckled highlights, dark shadows, and it may be difficult
> to determine how much of each is influencing the spot meter. Using the
> histogram display with the C-5050, the spot meter portion is displayed
> in green on top of the overall histogram. If you get a sharp spike in
> the green histogram display, you are spotting on a known tonality, if
> it is spread out, you don't have a known tonality. Aiming the C-5050 at
> some background trees, sure enough, the spot meter portion is not a
> sharp spike. Aiming at the sky, it sharpens up to a spike.
snip
<|_:-)_|>

C M I Barker
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