ddb@mrvax.DEC (DAVID DYER-BENNET MRO1-2/L14 DTN 231-4076) (07/05/84)
I somehow missed the original question about using OM-4 as a spot meter, but I just saw Rob Greenbank's response. The concept of the spot size being too small is not meaningfull; for what a spot meter is used for, that is. (Now let's talk about fractals, and how if the spot is extremely small it may focus only on a specular reflection from a rock in the mountainside. Ok, it IS possible, in theory, for the spot to be too small, but I'm still not worried about it in practice.) Normal separate spot meters seem to have standardized on 1 degree acceptance, which is none too small. Be careful using a zoom as a variable-angle spot meter. The T-stop of most (all?) zooms changes (some significantly) as you zoom, so if you meter through the zoom at one focal length and shoot at another, you could be off by some amount (easily up to 1/2 stop in some zooms that I own). If you're bothering to make spot readings, you probably care about 1/2 stop errors, right? 2 of my 3 serious cameras are Nikons at the moment (in the past I've had Yashica, Leica, Pentax, and Miranda cameras also). However... I'm really pissed at Nikon for not making a camera that has a spot metering mode. This seems to be something that would be VERY important to many professionals in certain kinds of situations. I'd also like one myself.... The Canon F-1 (through focusing screen choices) and the Olympus OM-4 will do spot metering. Since I'm not planning to switch systems soon, I haven't been keeping up with what everybody is doing; who else makes a "professional-level" (whatever that means) camera that has spot metering? What about the Pentax LX? -- David Dyer-Bennet -- ...decwrl!rhea!mrvax!ddb