measuring exposure with 200 and 500 asa

[sebastian]

How do you guys measure you exposure when using 200 and 500 asa on your super 8 cams?

 

Share your experiences and techniques

 

Regards

 

Sebastián

[Matt Wells]

Hi there,

 

I assume you are referring to the Vision 2 200T and Vision 2 500T.

 

If you are using one of the high end Nizo's (2056 - 6080) they will operate on automatic exposure with the notches on the cartridge, as will the Beaulieu's with settings to 400ASA.

 

However, I gave up using automatic exposure a long time ago and now find it much easier to set the exposure manually. It is also much more accurate and cuts out a lot of the classic exposure errors caused by automatic systems. By setting manually you can specifically set the exposure for which ever part of the scene is the most critical, or the mood you want or whatever.

 

I am talking here about shooting "off the hip" - It is worth saying that if you are shooting a short film or something where there is time to set everything up, don't even consider automatic exposure.

 

I can highly recommend the Sekonic range of lightmeters with the digital read out as they are so quick to use, and easier than the old dial in meters.

 

Matt

[sebastian]

I have a Nizo Pro super 8 camera, but the asa wont got higher than 160 asa, that?s what I read in the manual. I also have an external light meter. A Sekonic 508 dual cine light meter. The thing is that I also read that the Nizo has a lot of coats in its lens, so it would probably need more light that my external light meter would read.

 

Any suggestions?

 

How do you guys handle that?

 

Regards

 

Sebastian

[Matt Wells]

First, you could expose 200ASA neg at 160 without too much bother if you really wanted to expose with the camera's own metering system.

 

However in the manual it will give you the shutter speeds for the different frames per second. Use these in conjunction with your light meter, and don't worry about the lens coating.

 

Matt