Use a camera as a light meter?

[Nick Norton]

I purchased a Canon 518 SV camera, and everything seems to work just fine on it excpet the automatic exposure. It has manual exposure, but i do not own a light meter.

 

I do however own a Canon 518 camera, which has some more problems such as it does not shoot when set to Slow Motion and it is not even capable of 24fps... but the automatic exposure on that camera seems to work just fine.

 

Could i use my Canon 518 as a light meter, and then shoot manual exposure with my Canon 518 SV?

 

does anyone see a problem with this? i thought maybe the camera would function differently with film in it because of the automatic ASA reading, but i wasn't sure.

 

thanks-

 

Nick Norton

[Andy_Alderslade]

Could i use my Canon 518 as a light meter, and then shoot manual exposure with my Canon 518 SV?

 

does anyone see a problem with this? i thought maybe the camera would function differently with film in it because of the automatic ASA reading, but i wasn't sure.

 

The problem I see with this is both cameras will need a cartidge of the same film for the notches to correspond properly, plus you are now relying on a second inferior camera as your light meter, and a light meter is the most important link in the chain.

 

To be honest and frank, I would bite the bullet and buy a decent incident meter. It will be smaller to carry about than a second super 8 camera, and an incident reading will be far more accurate than the vague spot/average meter reading of a 30 camera.

 

The Sekonik Studio Deluxe is cheap and reliable.

 

http://froogle.google.com/froogle?q=sekoni...=Search+Froogle

 

If old they can drift so avoid second hand ones on ebay, you can of course try a second hand photography shop where you can test them against each other.

[Andy_Alderslade]

The problem I see with this is both cameras will need a cartidge of the same film for the notches to correspond properly, plus you are now relying on a second inferior camera as your light meter, and a light meter is the most important link in the chain.

 

To be honest and frank, I would bite the bullet and buy a decent incident meter. It will be smaller to carry about than a second super 8 camera, and an incident reading will be far more accurate than the vague spot/average meter reading of a 30 year old camera.

 

The Sekonik Studio Deluxe is cheap and reliable.

 

http://froogle.google.com/froogle?q=sekoni...=Search+Froogle

 

If old they can drift so avoid second hand ones on ebay, you can of course try a second hand photography shop where you can test them against each other.

[steve hyde]

....I have used a 35mm SLR with a good light meter (Nikon N90) to measure exposure for Super 8. If you know the effective shutter speed of your S8 camera fix that shutter speed on the SLR and ask for an apperature. Again, same as the other light metering thread, what ever you choose, do it consistantly for consistant results.

 

Serious cinematographers use hand-held light meters. If you are planning to take cinematography seriously, you should seriously consider picking one up..

 

Steve

[Hal Smith]

An economy solution is one of the older Spectra meters. The slides can be a bit clunky to use but a working Combi-500 or Professional can be had off eBay for $30 or so (they're functionally identical, the high sensitivity mode of the Combi probably will have died years ago). Spectra will calibrate them for $50 flat rate. So for around $80 you've got a calibrated meter identical to the ones that many older Hollywood movies were shot with.

[Zuma]

Pardon my ignorance guys but does the Canon 518 SV mentioned above need to have a cartridge in it to measure light in Auto mode? I have an SV I haven't used yet and presumed the light meter was shot because although the indicator moves when the filming trigger is engaged the meter always reads the same. It seems to works fine on manual. The earlier 518 metered on auto without a cartridge. Anyone shed any (ahem) light on this subject?

Cheers zuma...