UJC #11: Focusing on Focal Length

The Shutter Brothers are back with a new podcast episode, and we are focused on focal length! We break down the differences between wide angle, standard, and telephoto lens, why they should matter to you. Along the way, we discuss what our favorite focal lengths when we're shooting. Next, Kelley reviews the new documentary, Gary Winogrand: All Things are Photographable and gives it two thumbs up! It's currently available on most major streaming services.

Of course, we can't stop talking about how excited we are about Chattanooga's first community darkroom, Safelight District. Their grand opening is Friday, February 22 at 7:00 at 1804 East Main Street in Chattanooga. There will be music, food, drink, art, and both Kelley and I will be there. If you live in the Chattanooga area, we'd love to meet you there!

Finally there's listener email and a camera giveaway, as Kelley draws the name of the lucky winner of an Olympus Stylus 120.

We would love to hear from our listeners, so please consider writing to us or recording a voice memo. We welcome questions, comments, and tips, and you can send them to unclejonesyscameras@gmail.com. Don't forget to check out our blog at https://unclejonesyscameras.blogspot.com, and please subscribe to the podcast!

Happy Shooting!

Is Your Light Meter "Puttin' the Shuck on You?"

Howdy gang.  Shutter Brother Kelley here with another dive into the cookie jar of film photography topics.  Let’s face it.  If we are engaged in some form of serious photography, then I’m sure that most of us, if not all have at one time or another used a light meter to arrive at the correct exposure setting before pressing the shutter.  There is even a good chance that some in our hobby would not even consider using a camera that did not have an on-board light meter.  No doubt these light meters have come a long way since they first began showing up on cameras many years ago.  And certainly, with the re-introduction of Kodak Ektachrome slide film, I am sure that we all will be relying on our light meters more.

 

Is your light meter "giving you the business?"

Our Uncle Jonesy (for whom this blog, and our podcast is named) had a phrase he used when someone was giving him less than reliable info on a particular subject, or even going as far as intentionally misleading someone. If Kevin or I said to him that someone told us this or that, he would reply, “Well, that person was puttin’ the shuck on you.” On the old television series Leave It to Beaver, Wally would warn his little brother that someone, usually Eddie Haskel, was “giving him the business.”  So now we ask the question, is your camera's light meter giving you an accurate reading?  Or, as Uncle Jonesy would say, “Is that thing puttin’ the shuck on you?”  How do we really know if our light meters are the accurate measuring devices we trust them to be, or are they just giving you the business.  This is a truly legitimate question in light of the fact that most of us shooting film are using cameras that are at least 15 years old.  Some, like my trusty Nikon F3HP are much older.  The truth is, you can line up three or more vintage 35mm SLR’s, meter a scene with the same exposure settings, and you will get three different results from each camera’s meter.  What do we do now?

First, let’s remind ourselves just what a light meter is supposed to do.  A light meter measures the average amount of light in the scene you have chosen to photograph, and gives you the correct exposure setting based on a known standard.  We refer to that standard as 18% gray.  When you frame your subject, your meter takes the bright areas of the frame, and the dark areas of the frame, along with everything in between, and creates an average light value which is our known standard of 18% gray.  This value is then compared to the exposure settings you have selected on your camera, and lets you know if you have the adjust those settings.  If you are using an automatic exposure mode on your camera, the meter selects the correct settings for you.  If the light meter on your camera is accurate, you are good to go.  If it is not accurate, well, you know what Uncle Jonesy would say.

 

My 18% gray card.  What your meter wants to see

But don’t worry.  Here is a quick and easy way to determine the accuracy of your light meter, and, if it is not accurate, calibrate it so you can restore trust.  We can do this because we photographers also have a “known standard” for exposure, and it is called “Sunny 16.”  More than likely, you have heard Kevin and I discuss Sunny 16 on our podcast, or perhaps you have read or heard about it from another source.  It goes like this.  On a bright and sunny day with no clouds with the sun behind your back, you simply set your shutter dial to match the ISO rating of your film, and set your aperture to f16.  For example, if you are shooting Kodak Ektar (100 IS0), set your shutter to 1/125, and the aperture to f16.  This will be the correct exposure setting on a bright sunny day with the sun behind you.  Your camera’s meter, if it is accurate, should confirm this.  So let’s test your camera’s meter to see if it is giving you accurate information.  To do this, first you need a bright sunny day with no clouds.  You will also need an 18% gray card.  They are available from most photographic outlets.  I purchased mine on Ebay.  Remember that your meter averages the light it sees and gives you the exposure settings to make your subject 18% gray.  Using your normal lens (50mm), choose an ISO setting (I always use 100), and manually set your camera exposure settings accordingly (shutter set to 1/125 sec, aperture set to f16).  Now look through the viewfinder and aim your camera at the 18% gray card which you have placed in the direct sunlight and check your meter.  It should be telling you that you have selected the correct exposure settings.  If not, adjust the ISO setting on your camera until the meter tells you your exposure is correct.  Remember: we already know the correct exposure settings for a brightly lighted scene with the sun behind you.  Your camera’s meter should give you the same results.  If it isn’t, adjust your ISO setting until it does.  Now your meter is calibrated to our known exposure standard of Sunny 16.  Hopefully your meter required no adjustment, which means it is 100% accurate.  This, however, is rarely the case, especially with older cameras.  I have tested each of my 35mm SLR’s on the same day with a bright sunny sky.  Each of these cameras required a different degree of adjustment.  In order to remember how much I have to alter the ISO setting, I have placed a small label on each camera that tells me how many stops I have to add or subtract from the film’s ISO setting.  My Minolta X-570, for example requires me to add one stop to the ISO, meaning that I now shoot Tri X 400 at ISO 200.  My Pentax Spotmatic, however, requires me to subtract 2/3 of a stop.  Regardless of the amount of adjustment needed, I know that my cameras are now calibrated to Sunny 16.  Neat!

Now I can handle the truth

I do make the claim that this is a scientific way of calibrating your camera’s light meter, not does it take the place of having your camera serviced by a qualified technician.  It does, however, provide a reliable way to evaluate the information your light meter provides.  And, if you are like me in that I shoot with several different cameras, this method does allow me to bring each camera into the same consistent standard (Sunny 16) that I use in my photography anytime I am shooting without a meter.  So next time you get one of those bright, cloudless, sunny days, take your camera outside with your 18% gray card and see if your light meter is telling you the truth, or, as Uncle Jonesy would say, "puttin’ the shuck on you."  

UJC #10: A Community Darkroom Comes to Chattanooga!

The Shutter Brothers are back with a special show about the opening of a brand-new community darkroom in Chattanooga, Safelight District. It's founders, Tori Fyfe and Jet Smith, sit down for a chat with Kelley and Kevin about how they came to have such love for analog photography and how that led them to building a community darkroom for Chattanooga.

Safelight District will have it's grand opening on Friday, February 22, at 7:00 pm, and the public is invited. There will be music, art, refreshments, and, of course, tours of the darkroom facilities. It will be a great opportunity for members of the Chattanooga area analog photography community to meet, greet, and share.

Tori and Jet have labored over Safelight District ever since they conceived the idea of a community darkroom back in 2017. The darkroom facilities will include three 35mm and medium format enlargers and one large format enlarger. They also have all the tools needed to make handcrafted analog prints. For people who have little or no experience in using a darkroom, Safelight District will be offering workshops on film developing, printing, and other analog photography topics as needed. Tori and Jet also have created a small gallery space for exhibitions.

We believe that the opening of a community darkroom will be a major boost to the analog photography community in the greater Chattanooga area and could well be the hub of activities for those of us who are coming back to film photography or are interested in taking up the hobby. We are very grateful to Tori and Jet for all the hard work they have put in over the last two years, and we wish them all the best in this exciting endeavor.

Please visit Safelight District's website at https://www.safelightdistrict.com, and you can reach Tori and Jet by email at safelightdistrict@gmail.com.

As always, you can send questions, comments, and tips to Kelley and Kevin at unclejonesyscameras@gmail.com. Please visit us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ujcpodcast/, where you also can leave questions, comments, etc. Oh, and now you can find us on Instagram @ujcpodcast.

Happy Shooting!

UJC # 9: Local Film Lab Found, Community Darkroom Opens, and a Keeper Rangefinder!

The Shutter Brothers (Kelley and Kevin Lane) are back with another podcast show packed with news and information about film photography. First, Kelley talks about find (quite by accident) an actual local color film developing lab, Fast Foto.

It's located in Dalton, Georgia just a few miles from Kelley's home. We both thought that there were no one-hour film labs left in the greater Chattanooga area, so this discovery is both a surprise and a delight. Kelley relates his happy experience with Fast Foto and talks about how he hopes that labs like it will get enough business to remain open.

Next, Kevin announces the opening of a Chattanooga's first community darkroom, Safelight District, which is the project of two young film photography enthusiasts, Tori Fyfe and Jet Smith. Safelight District will have it's grand opening on Friday, February 22, at 7:00 pm. It will be a fun evening of getting to see the darkroom and meeting fellow film photographers, so if you live near Chattanooga, Tennessee, you definitely should check it out. Also, Kelley and Kevin will be interviewing Tori and Jet very soon, and you will hear that interview on the next UJC Podcast show. Stay tuned!

Kevin continues the show with a review of a book, Glass, Brass, and Chrome:  The American 35mm Miniature Camera by Kalton C. LaHue and Joseph A. Bailey.

Published in 1972, the book provides an anecdotal history of the rise of 35mm photography in American, sparked by the German Leica and Contax cameras, and each chapter breaks down the progression of American manufacturers who made 35mm cameras for the masses. You probably have heard of Argus and Kodak, but you may not know about Perfex, Universal, Bolsey, and several other companies who made and sold 35 mm cameras in America. Glass, Brass, & Chrome chronicles the format's history in America up to the introduction of Kodak's Instamatic 126 cartridge cameras, and their wildly successful sales (millions of cameras sold) along with the rise of Japanese and European single lens reflex 35mm cameras completely killed off all American production, and so it remains today. If you enjoy history and want to learn more about American camera makers, you will greatly enjoy this book.

Of course, much of the 35mm film that was shot in the "golden age of 35mm photography was slide film, and that meant that photographers needed gear that would allow them and others to view their photographs.

Slide viewers were perfect for one or two people to view slides and also were useful for editing, sorting and ordering slides for later projection. Kelley recently came across one of the best viewers he has ever seen, the Argus 693 Electromatic, which is powered by AC current and features a bright bulb, large viewing screen, and automated slide changer. With the return of Ektachrome slide film, finding a viewing like this would be nice indeed.

Speaking of 35mm cameras from Japan, Kelley talks about his favorite rangefinder camera, the Canon P. The Canon P

was an approximation of the Leica 35mm camera (both use the 39mm lens thread mount), but this camera stands on its own for build quality and features. It's solid, fits well in the hands, and the lenses are sharp. Kelley thinks that the Canon P could easily be the go to 35mm rangefinder for anyone who can't dish out the big bucks for a Leica.

Finally, we read some listener email. Speaking of email, we want to hear from you so bad that we are going to have a giveaway. Kelley recently found a very clean

Canon Stylus 120 at his (secret) neighborhood flea market and bought it for the whopping total of $1.00. We are going to send this camera to a lucky listener, and all you have to do is send us an email. We'd love to know something about your love for film photography and how you would use this camera. Kelley and I will pick at random one email for the winner, so please write us or send a voice memo to:

unclejonesyscameras@gmail.com.

You can find the Uncle Jonesy's Cameras Podcast on any of your favorite podcast places, or you can click on the link below:

https://unclejonesyscameras.libsyn.com/rss

As always, we hope you will subscribe so you won't miss a show. Finally, please like us on Facebook and Instagram (@ujcpodcast).

Happy Shooting!