Light meter with digital?

[CI Photography]

Hey gang.
This is my first post. I,ve been shooting film and just made the move to digital. With my 35mm body my light meter seemed to work fine but with my 20d, if my light metet says f11, I must set the camera to f20 for correct exposure. Light meter is a Konica Minolta VF.No mater what power I have my elinchrom lights on I must keep this gap, or my shot will be over exposed. When I'm not using my lighting equipment and hand held meter and use the 20d in P,TV,or Av I have no exposure problems. So my question is do I have to have the light meter reset for digital or has something happened to this meter.

P.S I've enjoyed reading the post all of you have left on this site. Looks like it will be a great one.

Thank
Joe

[photosbymorgan2]

There is nothing wrong with your meter. Each cameras internal metering is a bit different from any other camera. If your meter allows you to calibrate then you should calibrate it to your cameras internal metering so that what your meter states is what you set your camera on. I have the Sekonic 358 meter and I had to calibrate it to the 10D when I had one. then I had to recalibrate it to the 20D when I had one and now I have it calibrated to my 1D mark II.

I know that back in the film days, photographers would do a lot of test shots after metering a scene with the meter set at different ISO's then they would examine each photo and see what ISO gave them the best lights and darks in the photo. Once they had the correct ISO, they would always set their meter to that ISO. Example. : the photographer finds that the meter set at ISO 80 is the best setting when shooting with ISO 100 film. The photographer would always set the meter to ISO 80 and meter to set their camera settings for ISO 100 film.

[CI Photography]

Thanks. Now I just have to try to find my box and papers to see if I can change the Minolta VF or if I have to send it in .

[photosbymorgan2]

Originally Posted by CI Photography

Thanks. Now I just have to try to find my box and papers to see if I can change the Minolta VF or if I have to send it in .

You might be able to find instructions on the web also.

[JDArt]

Originally Posted by CI Photography

Hey gang.
* * * * * * *This is my first post. I,ve been shooting film and just made the move to digital. With my 35mm body my light meter seemed to work fine but with my 20d, if my light metet says f11, I must set the camera to f20 for correct exposure. Light meter is a Konica Minolta VF.No mater what power I have my elinchrom lights on I must keep this gap, or my shot will be over exposed. When I'm not using my lighting equipment and hand held meter and use the 20d in P,TV,or Av I have no exposure problems. So my question is do I have to have the light meter reset for digital or has something happened to this meter.
* * *
* P.S I've enjoyed reading the post all of you have left on this site. Looks like it will be a great one.

* * * * * * * * * Thank
* * * * * * * * * * * Joe

I haven't read the responses, but I'd bet that your ISO is set too high. I use a light meter with my old Hensel lights, and I've used the meter with every Canon digital body, or almost every one, and it's always right on, except when I have the ISO set wrong or something else wrong in the camera.

So make sure your light meter and your camera are synched in terms of ISO. Your in-camera settings should never be that much off from the meter, unless something is drastically wrong.

[CI Photography]

I checked and The ISO is in sync. I found My papers and think I can calibrate this meter. My camera's f stop scale shows for instance, f8,f9,f10,f11,f13,f14,16. My light meter shows like f11, f11.1, f11.2, f11.3, f11.4, f11.5, f11.6, f11.7, f11.8, f11.9, f16. Am I right in thinking f11.6 would be just a hair wider opening than f14 ?

Thanks for all the help.

Joe

[deluco]

Originally Posted by CI Photography

Hey gang.
* * * * * * *This is my first post. I,ve been shooting film and just made the move to digital. With my 35mm body my light meter seemed to work fine but with my 20d, if my light metet says f11, I must set the camera to f20 for correct exposure. Light meter is a Konica Minolta VF.No mater what power I have my elinchrom lights on I must keep this gap, or my shot will be over exposed. When I'm not using my lighting equipment and hand held meter and use the 20d in P,TV,or Av I have no exposure problems. So my question is do I have to have the light meter reset for digital or has something happened to this meter.
* * *
* P.S I've enjoyed reading the post all of you have left on this site. Looks like it will be a great one.

* * * * * * * * * Thank
* * * * * * * * * * * Joe

You are accustomed to the lab making exposure corrections when they went from film to print. With digital, you are seeing pretty much the negative, with all its exposure inaccuracies. There is much less latitude, especially when shooting jpg. Your film camera may not have been calibrated to your meter because it didn't matter if you were a stop or so over. The print still came back looking good. You can calibrate either your camera or your handheld meter by adjusting the exposure compensation. I recommend calibrating the handheld meter.

The other thing you can do is to meter with a grey card thru the lens, using the camera's spot meter. That would be the most accurate and consistent.