Polaroid and metering

[Carl Socolow <csocolow@microserve.net>]

>At 08:02 AM 6/3/97 -0800, you wrote:
>>
>>Recently on a shoot I took readings with two meters (incident), verified
>>with incamera meter and shot a polaroid I liked.  At the lab I had to
>>push the Astia one stop to get it to match the polaroid.   I moaned to
>>lab owner (a super guy and ex-Kodak tech rep) who immediately said,
>>"Polaroid's not accurate test of exposure."  So I said how about three
>>meters and a polaroid which all agree?  "Well, I don't know. "  
>>
>>I don't either.
>>
>>Donal Philby
>>San Diego
>>
>
>Donal,
>
>I have had an impossible time with Polaroid. It's not the cheap stuff
>either. I use Pro 100 color. In frustration, I now use it only for
>composition. It seems like you need a stop watch and a thermometer to get
>consistent results. And they still don't match (exposure wise) the Velvia
>that I mostly shoot. My incident meters are dead-on and I trust them. I
>meter for the Velvia, cut the exposure in half, shoot the Polaroid, and it
>looks crappy. So now I just check the composition with Polaroid and ignore
>the color & exposure. Actually, recently, I've cut way back on the Polaroid
>use. There is such a GIGANTIC difference between what you see on a
>Polacolor print and what you see from a Velvia transparency, it's sometimes
>un-nerving. I have _not_ shot something because of what I saw on the
>Polaroid, only to kick myself later. When I visit a trade show, the
>Polaroid booth always has great looking stuff. I must be doing something
>wrong??? Maybe I'm expecting to much. This holds true with both my 4x5
>Polaroid back and my NPC LEICA Polaroid back.
>
>Jim
>

Alright, this is not strictly Leica but since it's a reply to several
members of the LUG from whom I've benefitted greatly please bear with me.

I use Pola Pan Pro (black & white ISO 100) almost exclusively for proofing
location and studio work particularly involving complex lighting scenarios.
First of all I find that if it looks about 1/2 stop overexposed on the
Polaroid the chromes will be right on. This is based on incident readings so
after taking the reading I do the shot on Polaroid about 1/2 stop over
metered reading and go back to metered reading if Polaroid looks a little
over. But, and this is the reason for my post, what has really made a
difference in getting critical results from my Polaroids is using one of the
self-adhesive aquarium thermometers attached to the my Polaroid film back.
Keep it out of direct sun and let it reach equilibrium with temperature
surrounding Pola back. Then adhere to the time/temp processing
recommendations on the Polaroid pull tab. You'll be amazed at what a
difference this makes. For example Pola Pan is nominalized for 30 seconds at
75 degrees processing time. Go to 70 degrees and it's 45 seconds, a 50%
increase. You begin to see my point in how critical processing time is to
film temperature. Try to find a thermometer with the greatest temperature
range possible. Hope this helps.

And, so I'm not competely overstepping the bounds of LUG, I love my Summilux
50mm M Wetzlar that I recently purchased used. Never thought I'd love using
a 50mm again.

Carl S.

"Between the ideal and the reality lies the shadow." T.S. Eliot