Does Sunny 16 Rule Work?

fokker · Feb 22, 2012

Just FYI, your camera's light meter probably isn'tbroken but rather just needs a new battery.

Mot · Feb 22, 2012

It is surprisingly good in most cases. I used Lomo cameras quite a lot over the Summer and, of course, they don't have light meters. I even surprised myself with my judegment of light, I found at first I was over-exposing by around a stop so I had to adjust my in-brain exposure compensation. Good, accurate-enough exposures since then!

Some Kodak boxes still have the guide in them, I think it's the cheap colour-plus stuff.

Arpeggio9 · Feb 22, 2012

fokker said:
Just FYI, your camera's light meter probably isn'tbroken but rather just needs a new battery.

I got MRB625 1.35v brand new from ebay as soon as I got the srt. I got a working light meter to compare it to. Not even close, fortunately

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Josh66 · Feb 22, 2012

I was actually a little surprised how close the Sunny 16 rule was to my light meter.

djacobox372 · Feb 23, 2012

Yeah it works... It doesnt take much practice to teach yourself to meter at least as well as the stupid automatic metering your camera provides.

dxqcanada · Feb 24, 2012

warheit12 said:
It has some kind of light meter, but I think its either broken or I just dont really understand how to read it properly.

Match circle (aperture) to needle (shutter speed).
If the needle does not move ... then (as Fokker mentioned) the battery might be dead.

Ysarex · Feb 25, 2012

Compaq said:
I practice seeing lighting conditions in exposure values. It's easier than remembering shutter speed / aperture combinations, or remembering the sunny 16. I'm not very accurate yet, but I'm improving.

This is the right answer! It's too complicated to try and mentally juggle light condition plus shutter speed plus f/stop. It's much easier to learn light condition plus EV number. The shutter speed and f/stop combinations become a single EV value. Therefore sunny 16 is EV 15 for ISO 100. Back in the glory days of Kodachrome 64 sunny 16 was just EV 14 for glorious color.

Back in the glory days when photography simply worked and worked simply cameras had EV locks. On your Hasselblad or your Rolleiflex you set exposure by setting the EV value that you read directly from the meter -- shutter speeds and f/stops then locked together for that EV. I still break out the Rollei now and then. This chart is on the back of my Rollei:

Those are EV numbers laid out in a grid with "scene modes." Pick the scene from the picture and then find the EV value that matches your ASA (ISO) and set your exposure. Next step, memorize the chart -- it's easy. I memorized that chart decades ago with another 1/2 dozen scene modes added on.

I spend many hours on the water in a canoe. I like to take a camera along but I'm reluctant to take an expensive digital camera. So I take my old pocket Retina (I still have film in the freezer). If my Retina goes for a swim, well... I'll be sad, but not devastated. It has no light meter but it does have an EV lock. I look at the light condition, remember my chart and set the exposure by setting the EV value -- piece of cake.

Joe