Using a digital whatever to judge lighting?

[roteague]

If you have any 35mm lenses you could always go for the cheapest smallest oldest DSLR you could find that your lenses will fit. They are surprizingly affordable now and you would be able to see what you are dealing with better than just a pic from a cellphone or p&s digi-cam.

Yes, I was looking at a used Nikon D100 for $600 last week; I may buy it if the price drops another $100. I don't know about the "slippery slope" though - I just don't like the images that digital cameras produce. The same store has a Toyo 45CX and lightbox for $400 that I am more interested in - I'm still very much in love with LF, especially Velvia.

[Nick Zentena]

With everybody talking me out of the Sunpak strobes I've decided to put the digital device money towards a better strobe. So digital is going to have to work harder to just get me to the edge forget down the slope-)

[ajuk]

I Have been using my Fuji F610 as a light meter while taking picture of car trails in town, Now will the image on the digital camera be acurate enough.

For example I found I got a good picture on the digital using an exposure of 3sec @ F/5.6 ISO 200

I converted this to 12sec @ F/8 ISO 100

Does the fact that the exposure on the back of the digital is right mean that the film exposure will be right?

[Michael Slade]

No.

I originally bought my first D1 to use as a Polaroid of sorts for my F5. Although the shots looked good, the exposures weren't the same. Digital is *different* than film...it's hard to explain how and why, but it's just different.

I think that the people that have a very very very very strong aversion to digital haven't been around enough high-end cameras with users that are skilled enough to show off what it can do.

I don't think though, that even a high-end digital camera would suffice as a light meter.

I went out shooting yesterday with my D2x and my Mamiya 7II. I made sure my Sekonic light meter worked and had a fresh battery even though I had my D2x.

[ajuk]

Does that mean the the 200 ISO equiverlent setting on my digital compact isn't actually ISO 200?

[Michael Slade]

I don't know how they do it, but years ago (1999), when I was thinking of doing the Polaroid thing with my D1 it wasn't correlating to the main slide film I was using at the time, Kodak 100VS.

I remember that I was dissapointed that they didn't match exactly.