Still camera as a light/incident meter?

Robert86

Robert86

Carbonite Member
Hello everyone

I have a Canon Rebel K2 still camera. It shoots film but everything like controls and shutter speed and all that stuff is electronic. If you have it on Auto mode, it'll give you a reading of aperture settings and stuff whenever you point it at a subject. Is it possible to use it as a light/incedent meter on a film shoot. I am planning to use it on a S16 shoot and want to know if it'll give me correct readings, that way I don't have to go out and spend a bunch of money on a light meter. You can set the film speed and everything. If anyone has any advice or has tried the same thing, let me know. I think it would be really cool to use it on film shoots. Thanks.
 
there are some important factors that you would want to look into. For one, your camera is a still camera, with shutter speed readings at fractions of a second. Most film cameras with a shutter at 180 degrees will capture 24fps at a shutter speed of 1/48 to 1/50.

So you'de want to match your camera to that.

Also, take into consideration the length of your lens on your still camera. If it is an automatic camera, mot probably it will give you F/Stop information (which is the ratio of the diameter of your lens to the diameter of your iris opening) for the AI (auto iris) lens attached.

So if your glass differs on your S16, then the F/stop on your still camera won't match the F/stop on your S16 camera. And to hose even that, your still camera has a 35mm gate, and your S16 doesn't. So lens focal lengths are different :)

Also, spot metering measures reflectancy of an object, which is generally fine for still work. But in motion picture work, to more accurately get contrast ratios, etc, for establishing lighting, typicall an incident meter is used.

I hope you're getting the picture that for something as important as a S16 film shoot, you want to invest in a good incident meter :) Get a spectra or sekonic. The $400.00 you spend on the meter will be worth more than the $1000.00 you lose on wasted film :)
 
You are willing to risk all of your footage being under/over exposed?!?!

At the least get one of these:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/con...889&is=REG&addedTroughType=categoryNavigation

It's $179 and it is all you will ever need. (you will want more but...)

You can buy them used on ebay for less, but then I would want to get it calibrated (and/or repaired) and that will negate your savings.

Buy it new. Even still, test it out with a roll of slide film and a 35mm camera to make sure it's working ok. Sometimes these things come non-functional from the factory... Light meters should be calibrated to w/in at least 1/3 of an f-stop.

Best of luck...
 
Seconded... if you can afford to develop your film, you can afford a few bucks for a light meter. Hell, I have a Spectra I hardly ever use that I'd rent to you for a low low price.
 
Here's an easy way out of this situation. (If you want to stay cheap)

Buy a foot candle meter, you can get them for less than $100 - even cheaper on ebay.

Then you balance your key lights to the same foot candle reading.

Then use this formula

fc.png



That is the square root of -> Your film stock times foot candles, divided by 1250.

Works every time for a 180 degree shutter @ 24 fps, and all you need is a foot candle meter and a calculator.


Example. If you were shooting on 500 ISO, and balanced your lights at 20 foot candles...

Your proper exposure is a 2.8
 
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you can get a spectra IV for around $200 to $250 used, if you look around. Or you can do the math :)
 
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