Don Homewood

So I have this old Bauer C700XLM camera. I haven't used it for a few years, ever since I made the move into the 16 and 35 world, but recently I've had an unexplainable desire to shoot with it. Now in the past I've always used the internal lightmeter in the camera, and most of the time it was spot on. But now I want to use my digital lightmeter instead, so I tested the two against each other. And they didn't match up. I put a roll of 200asa film in the camera and filled the frame with a grey card. It measured an F2 1/3. Then I took the white dome off my digital meter and put the clear plastic piece for reflected measuring on. I pointed it at the grey card and it measured F2.8 2/3. I figured there would be some kind of difference because of the viewing system of the camera, but what I don't understand is why the difference isn't consistent. I measured under different lighting and this time the camera measured 2 stops brigther than the digital meter. So if you guys could help me out with this that would be great. I know that the camera has a 220* shutter, so that means I need to stop down 1/4 stop from what the digital meter reads. I'm also guessing that the camera has a prism viewing system judging by the fact there's no flicker in the viewfinder when the camera is running. From previous experience with prism viewing systems that means I need to open up 1/3 stop to compensate for the light loss. So these two factors basically even themselves out, meaning if I have 200 speed film the camera I can enter 200asa on my meter. So why the difference in the two meters? What else is going on inside the camera? And why isn't the difference in the two meters consistent?

Thanks for all the help guys. B)

I'm shooting a commercial for a winery in two weeks time and I need advice on how to light the product shot. I've lit product shots in the past, including wine bottles, but I've always had a dot and finger set. This time I do not. A colleague suggested making my own (solid) dots and fingers out of blackwrap, which sounds like it will work and I may use, but I'm curious as to what other solutions are out there. So come one, come all, and share your wisdom.

If you can wait about a week I can show you some 7218 shot on a K3. I shot 100 feet for my lighting class and it came out beautiful. I just have to wait until Friday for the telecine.

There are high-speed video cameras out there. The TV show Mythbusters uses them all the time. (And I totally want one.)

No, it will not affect any time lapse. The way the K3 works is when the camera has a wind, whenever the shutter stops it stops over the film gate, meaning it won't block the viewfinder. So even if you're just clicking off one frame at a time, the shutter will always stop over the gate. This is assuming there is still some wind left in the camera. When it winds out the shutter can stop anywhere. The one problem with this otherwise great system is that the K3 has no inching knob, so you can't move the shutter out of the way to check the gate. <_<

Aye, she's a beauty. You named her yet?

Yeah, 16mm film isn't rare at all. Quite easy to come by. Also note that super16 and 16mm film are the same thing. It depends on the gate in your camera. Sounds like yours has a regular 16 gate. But yeah, check with Kodak. If you can't find it anywhere else, go right to the source.

Just got a quick question about where to point the light meter. Last semester my Cinematography professor taught us to point the meter at the camera position, and I've DP'ed several projects doing so and the exposure looked just fine to me. This semester however both my new Cine professor and my Lighting professor say point the meter at the key light. This obviously will read a lot more light and affect my image drastically. So, getting to the point, which method do you guys use and why would my teachers not agree on this? :huh: