Newbi with a question

dmtinker · Mar 1, 2007

I recently purchased a Pentax Spotmatic F because I wanted to get back into photography again. This was the camera I learned on 20 years ago. I was wondering if someone could explain stopped down metering to me.

xfloggingkylex · Mar 1, 2007

If stopped down metering is what it sounds like it simply means that you meter (determine how much exposure you need) with the aperture already stopped down.

What this means for you is that you will need to turn your aperture ring to set the aperture to what you plan on using before metering. It really has no effect on your camera unless you are using a lens that can meter with an open aperture (since this was pentax' first model capable of doing so).

The difference here, is that with modern cameras the metering is all open aperture, which is nice because it provides great lighting in the view finder.

hope this helps explain, and welcome to the photo forum.

usayit · Mar 1, 2007

dmtinker said:
I recently purchased a Pentax Spotmatic F because I wanted to get back into photography again. This was the camera I learned on 20 years ago. I was wondering if someone could explain stopped down metering to me.

See the black plastic switch on the side of your Spotmatic? When you slid it up, it automatically stops down the lens and activates your meter. That is assuming your meter is working with the proper battery. By stoping down the lens, we mean it brings the aperture diaphragm of the lens down to a preset.

So the process is:
Compose, focus (meter off, lens wide open), slide the switch (stops down the lens and activates the meter), adjust exposure, trip shutter (which also stops down the lens).