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Old 9th February 2010, 10:13 PM
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Default Re Starlite II Spot-Meter

I recently acquired one of the above meters which seems really very good at the price offering a great many functions however I am have a little difficulty getting my head around it's operation within the Zone System mode and wondered if someone familiar with with this meter might be kind enough to give me a call tel 0113 257 0519

In the instructions you are asked to first set the dip switch which is applicable to Zone operation and set the diffusor to 1 deg- then holding the function key select zone mode with the setting wheel. You are then asked to point to the darkest area where you wish to see shadow detail and press the top M key.. Then it asks you to rotate the setting wheel to appoint the zone you with. It then tells you to take further readings pressing the M- key which then appear on the scale, up to 8 different areas can be saved. This all seems very straightforward up to and including this stage but what I cannot work out is how to get the sum of these calculations in f-stops and shutter-speed .
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Old 9th February 2010, 10:25 PM
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Firstly I don't know that meter. But what you are describing is a method of averaging subsequent readings to your original reading of a shadow area. The whole point of the zone system is that you set exposure for the shadow reading. That means the other readings are unecessary except to check that the brightest area you want to retain some detail in, is within range.
The long and short of it is that you meter the darkest area you want to retain detail in and close down 1.5 or 2 stops from that single reading and use that as your exposure.
Taking other readings and averaging them is not using the zone system. You may as well use an incident meter if you are going to do that or use your cameras inbuilt meter.
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Old 9th February 2010, 10:55 PM
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CORRECTION

I read the rest of it. You need to switch back to ambient mode * to see the reading for zone V.


Quote:
When the measuring process is completed and
you then switch over to the function „ambient light“ *
and the desired measuring function, the value
measured in the zone V is displayed as shutter
speed/f-stop combination. Additionally, the flashing
ZONE symbol is displayed.
Now, you can select further shutter speed/f-stop
combinations using the setting wheel.
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Last edited by Argentum; 9th February 2010 at 11:06 PM.
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Old 10th February 2010, 12:38 AM
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Originally Posted by percepts View Post
CORRECTION

I read the rest of it. You need to switch back to ambient mode * to see the reading for zone V.
Rob. So you are saying that once I have taken the readings in the 1 deg setting by pressing the M- symbol mode I just move the dial back to the ambient * mode to read off f stop and shutter speeds? Sorry to appear dumb about all this
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Old 10th February 2010, 01:03 AM
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Thats what the manual is saying. When you are in zone mode it is just taking zone point readings. The first one you take you then dial in the zone it is supposed to be. Say Zone 3 because it was a shadow. Then all the subsequent points you meter from different areas of the subject are relative to that point. i.e. it shows the contrast range difference along the little zone bar at bottom of screen.
When you switch back to ambient mode it gives the fstop and shutter speed for each of the metered points which you can apparently scroll to and fro using the wheel as far as I understand from the manual.

I would suggest you just take one reading in zone mode and switch back to ambient and see what it says. Then try the same but doing two readings etc.
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Old 10th February 2010, 09:12 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kennethcooke View Post
Rob. So you are saying that once I have taken the readings in the 1 deg setting by pressing the M- symbol mode I just move the dial back to the ambient * mode to read off f stop and shutter speeds? Sorry to appear dumb about all this
This will be correct, I have a Starlight version 1 and it works this way.
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