Re: another pentax spotmatic question

William Graham wrote:
"joe mama" <dmoss74@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:Za-dnV4xV4AY40vZnZ2dnUVZ_uudnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
okay,

thanks to all for the dlash sync stuff. stupid mne didn't see the X sync clearly labeled on the side of the camera. oh well, only one roll of film to learn that!

but, the other thing i wondered was the auto/manual slider on the lens. some posters stated that that is for whether yuo want to compose then shoot at full aperture. well, that only works with the meter off. once the meter is on, the lens stops down regardless of the lens settings. is this standard?

No. The lens aperture should remain full open until a fraction of a second after you press the shutter release button, just before the mirror is lifted and the camera shutter goes off. It stays open so you can get as bright a view of the scene as possible. The meter in the camera compensates for this....It, "knows" where you have set the lens aperture to
for the exposure, and sets the speed accordingly (in aperture priority mode) The sequence of events is as follows:

1. You set the lens aperture for the shot.
2. The camera holds the aperture wide open, in spite of where you set the aperture in step 1.
3. You compose the picture, and press the shutter release.
4. The camera lifts the mirror, and stops the lens down to where you have it set.
5. The shutter is released, and the picture is taken.

The photo should be correct, because the cameras electronics calculated the speed based on where you set the lens aperture, even though it measured the light at full open.



Please disregard the above: The Spotmatic has fully manual, stop-down metering, not aperture-priority AE.
Next William will start calling the Spotmatic a "darnded Liberal!"...

The manual selection lever on the lens is mainly for compatibility with older models and for special circumstances (lens on bellows, or reversed).

In practice, you'll probably just use the meter lever to manually stop down and check depth of field.

So, yes, it is standard, and in most circumstances you can happily ignore it.

Usually, I meter first, then turn off the meter so the diaphragm opens, brightening up the image, compose & shoot. The diaphragm will close down to the selected value again when the shutter fires.
.

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