[Leica] Underexposure in Tungsten Light

[richard-lists at imagecraft.com (Richard)]

Hi Richard, I take quite a number of photos under Tungsten light and I 
never have major problems as you describe. Usually I meter off some gray 
tone and set the camera to manual if it is the M7 and just forget about it. 
I did some searching after I read your posts, I use 3 types of image 
capture medium:
- for the last 6-8 months, mostly Tri X, HP5+ etc.
- for the last 12 months, most color works are done on the Epson R-D1 
(digital)
- before that, most are shot in Provia slides

I notice that the B&W just don't have any major problems to speak of. 
Indoor the Epson shots do seem to have more problems, but I was assuming it 
is because the Epson meter is not as semi-spot as the Leica's. However, on 
checking the slides, it seems to have some problems too. Then I was 
assuming that the slides just respond badly to tungsten.

So may be it really is that normal silver B&W films have no problems with 
tungsten, but when you use digital sensors, or slides, or even the 
chromogenic B&W, that the spectral responses do not match well with the 
tungsten output?

At 06:29 PM 1/10/2006, Richard S. Taylor wrote:

>Don -  It's interesting that I only noticed this effect in the last couple 
>of years since I started shooting chromogenic films regularly. My older 
>Tri-X negatives and transparencies (from about 1950 - 1980) never showed 
>this effect.  It makes me wonder if the older films had better red 
>sensitivity.  And what exposure meter was I using in those years, you 
>ask?  Why a Gossen Luna Pro and Weston Master V, of course.  :-)
>
>It's curious though that in all that time I also used a long list of 
>Pentax and Nikon SLRs with built in meters and never had a problem with 
>tungsten-light exposures with any of them as long as I kept metering area 
>away from light sources.  I wonder if the CdS cells in those older cameras 
>had lower red sensitivity than the silicon cells in current models.
>
>May not matter.  I'll open up a 1- to 1-1/2 stops in the future and I 
>suspect all will be well.

// richard (This email is for mailing lists. To reach me directly, please 
use richard at imagecraft.com)