Noticed everyone sets their light meter to box speed without thinking

Been shooting film for about 3 years now and I kept wondering why my negatives looked thin. Finally tested my Olympus OM-1 against a handheld meter at the local camera shop and found the internal meter was off by half a stop at ISO 400. Checked a few friends' cameras and 4 out of 6 had meters reading differently than the dial said. Has anyone else found their camera's meter drifts from what you set it to?

2 comments

2 Comments

xena_taylor6419d ago

Read an old photography blog from a guy who worked at a repair shop in the 80s saying this is way more common than people realize. He claimed most consumer cameras from that era were never calibrated after leaving the factory, and half a stop off was basically standard. Once I checked my own OM-1 with a phone app, found it was reading slow by nearly two thirds of a stop at box speed. Started setting my dial to 200 when shooting 400 film and my negatives finally came out properly exposed. Makes me wonder how many people are chasing the wrong problem with their development technique when it could just be the camera lying to them.

nora_wells5819d ago

Totally agree @xena_taylor64, it's wild how much we blame ourselves or our chemicals when the camera's been lying to us for decades. I learned this the hard way after two rolls of Portra came back looking like dog food, then realized my Nikon FE was a full stop off. Started metering for 200 on 400 film and suddenly my photos didn't look like they were taken in a cave anymore. Makes you wonder how many of those old camera repair guys just pocketed the cash and said "it's fine" because they couldn't be bothered.