Hugo Knapp

Interesting! This definitely sounds like the most plausible answer. Thank you David and Greg!!??

Could be... A friend of mine just told me he's seen on instagram another DP using these and apparently it's some kind of secret vintage diffusion filter? Who knows...

Hi there,

Would anyone happen to know what an 'MDA' filter is? Or what filter it stands for? I was sparking on a set recently (just before the whole virus thing) and I noticed the DP's matt box on the shoot had an 'MDA' lable on it as well as a Pola for polariser. Just curious to know what the filter was.

Cheers

On 4/10/2020 at 10:50 AM, Stuart Brereton said:

I also have the Spotmeter M. Years ago, I recalibrated it using the dial inside the battery compartment so that an 18% gray reading at 1/60 matched my incident meter at 1/50. Obviously, this made it inaccurate at any other shutter speeds, but as I only use it for cine work, it didn’t matter.

This is a great idea Stuart, thank you for this. 

Thank you for this Charlie. I'm sure they just made those changes so people would buy the more expensive F meter.

Would you happen to know that the conversion sum or how much compensation i'd need from 1/60s to 25fps @1/50s?

Hugo

This is the meter with the 6v batt + measure lock.  Manual:  https://www.cameramanuals.org/flashes_meters/minolta_spotmeter_m.pdf

No, this is my meter. 

1 hour ago, Charlie Peich said:

 

Hello Hugo and Dirk!

Hugo, you said: "On my Minolta M Spotmeter when I get to 30m and press the decrease key again, nothing happens..".

That's correct, nothing will happen on the Minolta M meter. The model M was the 1st version, and in my opinion the better of the 2 models (the F being the 2nd) for Cine work at the time it was introduced. Yet, the model F was faster to make settings adjustments and figuring the Cine measurements. (seems the model F went to 11)

The model M does take one AA battery, 1.5 volt.

Here's how to set the meter for Cine measurement...

It turned out that the model M was better at reading discontinuous light than the improved model F.  So, for me, the model M is more accurate when reading the old TV monitors, projected film on screens and subjects under HMI lights.

I used both models.

Another thing to think about when using your spotmeter on sets with multiple light sources, you need to shade the meter's lens from stray light. As these meters became popular, small cottage industries popped up making nice slip-on aluminum snoots for the meter......

One had to have a snoot to look cool among the crew members.

Charlie

Hello Charlie,

The thing is though, there is a another version of the M that takes a 6v battery (and has a mesure lock where the on/off button is) that does say it can measure 1/50s after 30m in the manual, which, is why i'm confused as to why your's and mine both don't measure 1/50s. 

Cool snoot! Would you also happen to know how much compensation i'd need if I shot 25fps?

49 minutes ago, Dirk DeJonghe said:

You can use the 1/60 setting, you will be overexposing by about 1/3 of a stop, not harmful at all.

 

Think I will have to. If I was shooting 25fps, how much would I be overexposing then?

1 minute ago, Dirk DeJonghe said:

It has the 1.5v AA battery.

On my Minolta M Spotmeter when I get to 30m and press the decrease key again, nothing happens...

4 minutes ago, Dirk DeJonghe said:

I have a Minolta F Spotmeter. If I go down in exposure times past 1m, 2m, 4m, 8m, 16m, 30minutes, I get 50 (1/50 of a second, also useable for 1/48). 

See that's what mine doesn't seem to be doing... Is yours the one with the 6v battery?

Hi there,

I just purchased a Minolta spotmeter M (AA battery version) and I can't seem to find the 1/50s metering mode on it. In the manual it states I need to decrease the time/shutter speed past 30min to get to the 1/50s, but my meter it doesn't seem to do this... I noticed the manual that I was reading was for the 6v battery version and not my aa battery one (I can't find a manual for an AA one). Would anyone happen to know how to get to the 1/50s mode on an AA battery version or whether or not the AA battery version does not support this mode?

- Cheers 

- H