General MF lens discussion

Manual focus and manual exposure. Know the Sunny F/16 rule by heart.

Thnx, gas.

Between having a live Histogram, another histogram in review mode, knowledge of the Sunny f/16 rule, exposure compensation, a spot meter and much experience - I find it hard to see how anyone gets the wrong exposure. Ok, you are new to this, something takes you by suprize, I can see problems.

gasrocks wrote in post #8791597
Manual focus and manual exposure. Know the Sunny F/16 rule by heart.

Wait....there are rules?!?!?

Fuzzmuffin wrote in post #8791454
Hey folks,

Anybody using their manual focus lenses for "street" photography? If anyone does, how do you meter to prevent burned out highlights? Do you set the camera on aperture priority and underexpose by .3 stop, or something? Do you use evaluative metering? Some of these manual focus lenses can cause the meter to overexpose by up to one stop or more at certain f-stops; a bit of a pain. I've been experimenting with taking an initial reading and then setting the camera to that reading and vary shutter speed only if the light changes. I don't like checking the LCD on the street. Anyway, if anybody has any tips to share I'd be very grateful as I'm new to street shooting. Thnx.

Honestly you will get to learn whether a particular lens over or under exposes. My 50mm f1/4 likes to under expose by a stop..my 80-200mm f/3.5 likes to under expose by half a stop. My 135mm f/3.5 likes it just right in the middle

Audible is right, my Pentax 50mm underexposes by 2/3 stop and my 70-200 overexposes by one stop. You just have to practice with the lenses and try different expsoures. As gasrocks said, the histogram is your friend.

Yup, agree with my pal Mike You just have to learn your particular lens' "personality".

For the record, the lens doesn't over or under expose...it's the light meter that reads that...hence gasrock's suggestion of relying less on the techology and more on your own reading of light...in that meter between your ears....

Ya, I'd prefer not having to look at the LCD much while out there. Sunny f16 works very well with b&w negative film but I'm a little cautious about using it with a digital camera re: likelihood of burning out highlights. Michael Reichmann and some others using digital cameras for street photography actually recommend full auto-everything. The only problem is that the exposure variability thing with the manual lenses throws a bit of a spanner in the works. Anyway, I'm sure it'll be okay when I get to it. Oh, I'll be zone focusing. Thnx everybody for the tips.

AudibleSilence wrote in post #8792235
Wait....there are rules?!?!?

[GIFS ARE NOT RENDERED IN QUOTES]

Yes, they're on that little piece of paper you got with each roll of film!

I've been trying to decide on a 85mm but there are so many of them. Argh!

kitacanon wrote in post #8793274
For the record, the lens doesn't over or under expose...it's the light meter that reads that...hence gasrock's suggestion of relying less on the techology and more on your own reading of light...in that meter between your ears....

Always someone that HAS to be right.. I think we all understood that bud, the point is that the meter will read about the same way depending on what glass it is metering for. I.E. My meter acts a certain way for my 55mm vs. my 135mm vs. my 80-200mm. You're normally fine if you read the meter before each shot like you should.

AudibleSilence wrote in post #8795516
Always someone that HAS to be right.. I think we all understood that bud, the point is that the meter will read about the same way depending on what glass it is metering for. I.E. My meter acts a certain way for my 55mm vs. my 135mm vs. my 80-200mm. You're normally fine if you read the meter before each shot like you should.

I wasn't meaning to be a wise-A...it's just that I've read posts occasionally where people think different lenses are metering different at the same F-stop
e.g. that two lenses @ 5.6 meter differently...and ask if 5.6 on one lens is the same as 5.6 on another....hence my post...
I just am grateful that I can use these alternative lenses at all...workarounds and all....

I think the reason people run into overexposure issues on manual focus lenses is because modern dslr exposure meters weren't meant to read apertures that are "physically" stopped down with adapters.
On a modern auto lens, your camera's meter usually reads from a wide open lens, even if it's at f11.
On a manual lens, metering stopped down at f11 confuses the meter into overexposing because the adapter makes the camera think is wide open and it's not getting enough light, causing overexposure.
I know we are not talking about "that" much overexposure but I think the above example could be the main cause.
I also could be completely wrong.
Any thoughts on this? Possible?

I set out to investigate this once, maxblack. I have found that my camera (5D, YMMV) meters 'live' - in fitting with its 'TTL' metering system. The aperture report from the adapter just permanently reads 1.8/2.0 depending on adapter...no funny exposure issues here.