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Vision 500T


Matthew Buick

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Shutter speed: 180

 

Lens Speed: 1:1:8

 

Lighting Conditions: Very low, the lighint of a couple of 1:33:1 CRT TVs (one 14 inch, the other, 21 inch) and the lights from the extactor in my kitchen, 80 watts max.

 

Yeah, pretty low light.

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Are you kidding!?!?! Do I look like I'm made of money?

 

I think there's one in my camera, though I'm dubious about it's quality.

 

:lol: :(

 

Please before you do ANYTHING, buy a lightmeter or learn to use the one

in your camera, otherwise its just a guessing game

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Ok look, if you really cant afford a light meter, try this home made method:

 

Get a modern 35mm still camera, set the shutter speed to exactly the same in

your camera (or close enough), then set the ASA at 500, and now check what

f-stop you need to shoot your scene.

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Matthew,

 

The one of the points of film is to learn how to understand the relationship

between light, film sensitivity, and f-stops. Its hard to learn it but its pretty

logical. You'll learn how to paint with light, and show exactly what you

want to show, through a very painful and expensive process.

 

You obviously need to pick up a book and read as much as you can about

the process, because that is the only way you'll truly learn. Asking in this

forum is always a good idea, but try to learn it through reading books

rather than just asking one question after another, because that way

you'll learn a lot more and youll learn it a lot better.

 

Once you establish a healthy foundation of theory, put it in the practice,

not the other way around.

 

my two cents

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That's not too bad. I expected to pay about a grand. :)

 

Will a special meter be required for motion picture cameras?

Best Regards - Matthew Buick :)

 

 

The only difference between cine light meter and stillphotography light meters

is shutterspeed, again something you should read about in a book...

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Check for the Sekoinic L-358 (I think that's the model number). It's 'round 259 on bh's website. It has cine speeds. YOu set the ISO of the film (in this case 500), set it to the cine speed oyu're shooting at (normally 24fps), point the lumisphere (white thing) towards the camera lens from where the object you are filming is standing, and press the trigger button. iT will display a number of an Eu. The number is the Fstop to set your lens for. If it says EU it means you're under exposed/not enough light. add more light.

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Hello.

 

Does anyone know the correct f stop to expose Vision 500T at?

 

Best Regards - Matthew Buick :)

 

Jeez Matthew - In the past your posts have annoyed me somewhat, but of late you seem to have turned a page in the book of 'not being annoying' ...

 

But then, here we have this ...

 

 

A quick look at your posts will reveal that you are quite able to comment on all and sundry and yet you dont even know the most basic photographic principle in the relationship between shutter speed, aperture and film speed ???

 

You aren't able to search ?

 

phew...

 

Well, anyway - welcome to the world of non auto-exposure photography ! You'll learn lots, and gain a more integral understanding of the craft for sure - waiting to see some output soon ;)

 

As for non light meter situations you can go by a mostly succesful rule of thumb from the still world called the sunny sixteen rule ...

 

It goes like this:

 

Set your exposure to the reciprocal of your film speed - i.e. 1/500 sec

 

If its sunny set aperture to f16

cloudy f11

dark cloudy f8

 

a couple of problems:

 

Its an 'aperture priority' system when mostly cine is 'exposure priority' - so you have to adjust shutter angles or use ND to reverse engineer the rule.

 

It doesn't have an indoor version ...

 

 

As in the above example I suggested using a 1/500 exposure - with a 180deg shutter thats 250fps ... ~ten times faster than it usually needs to be ... You can soon see why using 500T is not going to be very useful outdoors

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I'd advise just getting the cheapest working incident meter you can find, even analog if it works.

 

500T lit only with crt's, you'll be wide-open and probably still won't have enough light. You can find fixtures at a hardware store that will take 300-watt bulbs, snip one end off some short ungrounded extention cords and attatch them to the fixtures, then find a way to focus and control the light with a little ingenuity and by searching alleyways for material. 4 300w lights is 1.2 kilowatts total; combined with a room's practicals, you can get a decent stop with that, for under $40. Or gel them blue and motivate them from the screens, if that's what you're going for. But especially if you're on 500t in super-8, you want to give the neg enough light.

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...and 180 (degrees) is the shutter angle, the shutter speed should be 1/48 of a second - since the shutter is spinning 24 times a second, the open area will be over the frame for half of that. That's important if you're translating a reading from a still camera or meter.

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What's the correct stop? It's what your meter says.

You need to know if the camera will read the ISO correctly- there's a list on wikipedia. Otherwise, look at the ISO switches on the camera- they correspond to the ISO notch on the cartridge. There will be a series of feelers. If there's only one, forget it because it's for switching between 40 and 160 ISO. If there are a few of them you may be in luck. Wikipedia tells you about that as well.

An incident meter is more useful but of course that's just what the camera meter isn't. You can 'cheat' by taking a reflected reading off a grey card. Or, if the light is too low to read that way, read off a white card and add 2 stops.

(If some of these terms are unfamiliar, you do need to do some basic background reading.

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I have used this stock once in a 40/160 only camera. What I did was:

 

1. Check the auto exposure reading for 160 (which the camera read the film cartridge at)

2. Close the lens by 2 stops.

 

This gave a great result in an XL camera in very poor lighting conditions. I believe the 500T film reads light at a sensitivity similar to the human eye.

 

Unlike reversal film, negative film has a high under/over exposure latitude. When it gets printed/telecine'd the transfer people will set their equipment to give the most even results possible.

 

I am told you could even use it on auto at 160 and you would still get something acceptable, but I haven't tried this. Perhaps someone could confirm/ dis-confirm?

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Do you need to see the image coming off of the 2 crt's or you are using them a "practical" light source.

 

The CRTs are casting light around the room. The person featured is supposed to be watching the TV, but you won't see any moving pictures reflecting in the person's face.

 

Anyway...embarrasment over. I've think I've decided on the Sekonic L 358, it seems to be pretty advanced. And I want one that will service me for a few years. I can't go buying these things all the time.

 

I'm also looking for a bedtime read in the cinematography field, perhaps David Mullen's book.

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Sekonics will last you more than a few years. I've had a 508 for almost 10 years now and it works as well as it did when I got it. Definitely a good investment. Take care of it and it ill last a long time.

 

Also remember the L358 will give you readings at 180degree shutter, so if you shoot at a different speed you'll need to compensate

 

Do that with this formula:

 

Exposure = Frames per second x 360 / Shutter Angle

 

Examples for common angles

 

24fps x 360 / 180degrees = 48

Exposure = 1/48th second

 

24fps x 360 / 220degrees = 39.2

Exposure = 1/40th

 

24fps x 360 / 150degrees = 57.6

Exposure = 1/60th (or 1/50th to over expose a bit)

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