Where to start - M3, Sekonic 208, Vuescan

[mikbau]

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Hello everyone

I've been shooting for well over 30 years, mostly digital. I did some film in school and a bit as a young adult, so I do have a bit of experience both shooting and developing.

A couple weeks ago I acquired a near-Mint early M3 (with the early shutter speeds.) I shot one roll of Ilford HP5+ using an iPhone app as my meter - they turned out okay, usable, but I picked up a Sekonic 208 twinmate meter for a bit better accuracy. This morning,  I ran through a lighting test using HP5+ and the meter (incident readings.) Developed the film in HC-110 and scanned them in using Vuescan and my old Minolta ScanDual III.

I took readings at f2, f4, f8, f11, and f16. I captured one shutter speed below what the meter read, one on the reading, and one faster. I used minimal settings in Vuescan to keep the scans as original as possible - saved as RAW tiffs. What I found was even with the shots that were one stop slower than metered, they still required an exposure increase in Lightroom to get the Histogram/visual where it was reasonable (my monitor is calibrated.) Just about every shot was useable, but I guess I'm struggling a little with where things might be off - I can think of a number of things:

1. Shutter speeds on the M3 could be off (supposedly KEH did a CLA, but who knows what that consisted of)

2. Perhaps my negatives were a little under exposed - I used HC-110 Dilution B single shot for 5 mins as my process - I don't think this is the issue

3. My Sekonic meter could be off

4. I know HP5+ works well over exposed a bit, but I would have thought the one stop slower shutter speed in my tests would have accounted for this a little bit better

5. Vuescan with flat settings renders a little dark 

6. Since the exposures were all usable, just shut up, adjust the histogram/visual to my liking and move on

Wondering if the collective has any advice here. I've posted a couple of quick screen shot examples - the darker one is as it was brought into Lightroom - the lighter had some exposure correction

 

thanks!

Michael

 

 

 

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[105012]

For option 1, maybe ask KEH if they checked shutter speeds? Otherwise, get the M3 serviced. 

The 208 has a battery test function, presumably you checked that.

A scanner issue is also possible, if you have a good negative or test negative, check the scanner.

[PetPhoto]

if you  have the early version with the so called scientific shutter speeds,  how did you correlate the shutter speed dial settings, with what the sekonic was telling you?

 

Hp5 is a friendly film, so perhaps you had the exposure wrong.. At least you tok the lens cap off.

[Ko.Fe.]

Your phone metering application has to be accurate. Some are allowing calibration.  Check against digital camera.

With classic  meters you really need to understand what and where to meter.

Phone metering is much more easy to use. And it is accurate just as more complicated meters.

Camera shutter has to be working with correct speeds. 

And film has to be developed correctly.

[mikbau]

Hello everyone

thanks for the responses. 

9 hours ago, 105012 said:

For option 1, maybe ask KEH if they checked shutter speeds? Otherwise, get the M3 serviced. 

The 208 has a battery test function, presumably you checked that.

A scanner issue is also possible, if you have a good negative or test negative, check the scanner.

I called KEH and asked. They said the shutter speeds should have been checked as part of the process. However, I've heard various opinions on their CLAs, and as we all know, they aren't Leica experts (thinking about the adjusting not the checking)

Yes, 208 batter is brand new and I check it each time I use ir

I don't have a test negative, but I do have some older negs from my SLR film days. A couple of them required some adjustment in the exposure department, but I don't think I'd call that conclusive yet. 

 

8 hours ago, PetPhoto said:

if you  have the early version with the so called scientific shutter speeds,  how did you correlate the shutter speed dial settings, with what the sekonic was telling you?

 

Hp5 is a friendly film, so perhaps you had the exposure wrong.. At least you tok the lens cap off.

Well, clearly there are some matches. But for instances where it called for a speed and there wasn't a match, I chose the slower shutter speed (ie. 50 when meter was 60, 25 when the meter was 30, etc.)

Funny thing about the lens cap. I've shot SLRs or EVFs exclusively. I had to perform this light test twice. The first time I came inside and couldn't find my lens cap. I'll give you one guess where it was....

 

 

 

[mikbau]

7 hours ago, Ko.Fe. said:

Your phone metering application has to be accurate. Some are allowing calibration.  Check against digital camera.

With classic  meters you really need to understand what and where to meter.

Phone metering is much more easy to use. And it is accurate just as more complicated meters.

Camera shutter has to be working with correct speeds. 

And film has to be developed correctly.

I haven't had a chance to put the meter head to head with a digital yet - but I can. I can also compare it to my studio Sekonic meter. All of my test reads were incident on the faces of the stuffed animals. 

I'm dubious of the shutter speeds - but I'm confident my film developing was spot on. 

[mikbau]

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Mystery solved. I went back and double checked some of my Vuescan settings. It turns out, the film profile I was using wasn't a good match at all for the HP5+ After a couple of adjustments, and a re scan, the histogram is dead on. Below is the re scan of the shot above with no adjustments. 

 

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