was amazed to find A14PX light meter batteries were still being made. i had always fiddled two, slim 1.35v cell batteries into the Z-2's battery compartment, so today i strode purposefully outdoors, toting camera + single, chunky 3v battery: disaster ~ whatever i pointed the camera at it registered massive overexposure, and i ended up manually fumbling with the aperture control doing 'guestimates', wondering if the light meter had totalled itself?

soon home - i shook the offending 3v battery from its compartment and replaced the two 1.35's: instantly, the light meter began to record sane aperture values from F2.8 to F5.6 . It seems that the extra 0.3 volts delivered by the A14PX is enough to squew the meter completely?

addmitedly, i was using the new 'Super8' type film customised to Single 8 cassette format, rated at ASA 200 - pretty fast / light sensitive - but the 3 volt battery rendered the aperture useless, jammed over at F.8 / minimal aperture for the Z-2, even pointing the camera at the floor!

does anybody know if the original, single cell battery called PX-14, rated at 2.7volts, is available? the A14PX is marketed as a replacement for the PX-14, which it certainly isn't! :-o

luckily i have another cassette of RetroX and the weather is set to hold for tomorrow

bests

Ric

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ric

I understand you pointed the camera at the ground but was this inside or outside?

If you covered the lens with your hands (without actually touching the lens) how low does the f-stop go?

Do you have any outdated Kodachrome 40 since all cameras meter that film correctly? What about Velvia 50? Those two cartridges are probably the most accurate for using to see how well a camera's metering system is working for outdoors shooting.

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yes - the RetroX is incredibly light sensitive for an old-time ciné @ asa200; but the reason i'm using it, is that a) i can backwind on a Fuji cam, and b) i can home-develop it the way i develop Super8 Tri-x [Lomo method]

the Z-2 is pre-TTL metered and has a separate 'electronic eye'; when i cover this, the meter needle drops back to 'underexpose'; using the double 1.35v batteries, i can get the meter to hover between F5.6-F8, under normal-bright outdoor conditions; several times i had recourse to stopping the 'eye' down 2 stops, and matching this with the Fractional Exposure Control, which is a procedure recommended for very bright conditions

how does this sound, please?

thanks again

hm,

the light meter calibration goes " F1.8 - 2.8 - 4 - 8 ", although there are 'dots' beside the F8 which suggest a smaller F-stop, perhaps up to F16/32 at the extreme limit of the calibration: in which case, the metering is probably ok, since the needle remained in the higher register, throughout?

be interesting to see what the meter makes of the asa 50 Velvia when it turns up?

[lol]

thanks

these new filmstocks are going to motivate me to process my own colour film

later

lol

bests

Have you considered starting a business processing super-8 film? Do a processing run every Friday, find a specialty niche, like black and white, or color reversal.... There might be more work there then you think.