P3D Re: Using a Realist without a light meter

[fj834@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Dr. George A. Themelis)]

>I'm heading off on vacation tomorrow with my Realist; thing is, I don't 
>have a light meter for it. I know the sunny 16 rule - are there any 
>other quick-and-dirty rules for partly cloudy days, etc? I'll be in 
>Greece, so hopefully it will be sunny most of the time. 

I took my first Realist pictures in Greece in June 1988.  All nicely
exposed following the "sunny day" rule: f16 @ 1/ASA.  Sometime back
I posted a rather long list of past-sunny-day settings.  I'll try
and dig it out tonight.

>Dumb question, but with 100 speed film, will I always use the 1/100 
>setting? Or does that change as well with the weather?

As the illumination goes down you need to open the aperture and/or
reduce the shutter speed.  I usually use 100 ASA film and go as follows:

f16 1/100, f11 1/100, f8 1/100, f8 1/50, f5.6 1/50, f5.6 1/25, f3.5 1/25

I tend to give priority to faster shutter speeds because a common error
is blurred pictures due to camera shake.  I generally do not trust the
sharpness of the stereo camera lenses or depth of field at any wider
than 5.6 but took some very good pictures last year in Greece with 1/25
at f3.5 inside a church with my Realist Ilex.

>What speed film(s) is the Realist capable of taking? 

Any speed, but if you use anything faster than 100 ASA, you might
have trouble shooting on a sunny day with Realist's top 1/150 shutter
speed.  I do not like the increased contrast & grain of 400 ASA films
so I use 100 ASA speed film most of the time.

Enjoy your vacation! "Greece in the Light of Spring" (this was the title of
slide presentation I attended recently - only 2d unfortunately :()

-- George Themelis


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