Yashica 50xl

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Hi,

I have just bought a yashica sound 50xl macro and I am puzzled. It has a four way switch on the side and I don't know what it does. The 4 positions are 4,2,1x,1/2 and it seems to ajust the F stop. Is it a +/- correction and if so, how do i use it?

Thanks,
Will

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Will,

This is highly likely to be exposure compensation. What it does is adjusts the amount of light coming into the lens up or down (hence the +/-), say basically if the conditions are to bright or if the conditions are too dull. In other words to override the cameras metering system to "fine tune" the exposure, i guess.
Exposure is measured in "F" stops and when you double an F stop you double the amount of light entering the lens, when you half the F stop you half the amount of lens coming through the lens.

(sorry if you already know all that, just making sure)

To use the camera normally (with no exposure compensation), I reckon you'd set your camera on 1x. 4 will overexpose by 2 stops, 2 will overexpose by 1 stop, x1 (or just 1) is the normal setting, 1/2 will overexpose by 1 stop.

The 4 setting is useful for white backgrounds, snow scenes or bright backgrounds, the 2 setting is good for a something like asubject infront of a window where the meter will tend to read off the bright background and underexpose your subject. The 1/2 setting is useful for dark backgrounds or spot lighting and I guess, more constrasty lighting conditions.

Pretty sure thats how it works, its very common on all sorts of cameras. Ive got exactly the same kind of exposure compensation on my Canon A-1 stills SLR.

Hope that helps [img]smile.gif[/img]

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Great, Thanks James. I thought it could be a +/- but as this is my first Super8 camera I was a bit unsure. Thanks again for your help.

Will