[pure-silver] Re: Off topic, Spot meter problem

  • From: Tim Daneliuk <tundra@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:23:16 -0500

Dennis Purdy wrote:
> Thanks guys I appreciate the help.  I went with Tim's suggestion because
> he is convincingly authoritative and because I have alcohol and WD-40 on
> hand. The alcohol on Q-tip work remarkably well in wiping the rust out
> and once I got a bit of WD-40 applied,  the thing looks nearly good as new.
> 

Good news, that.  In a day or do, pull the battery and see if there is
much WD-40 residue on it.  There should not be, but you can wipe off
what you do find.  We had a saying at the Radar shop back in the
Bad Old Days, "If you can't fix it with WD-40, a hammer, and some
1N914s *** it can't be fixed."  I do not recommend hammers when tuning
a Pentax meter :)

*** A 1N914 is a type of diode very common in many kinds of radios
    and Radars.

One thing Bob Kiss mentioned triggered something in my ever-declining
faculties, having to do with meter "accuracy".  (I own the same meter
you have - it is my second one, as the first was stolen some years ago.)
The Pentax meter in and of itself is just spectacular.  Whether the
Zone VI modifications are of much benefit has been debated for years:

  http://www.butzi.net/articles/zone%20VI%20reprise.htm

But - and here is the important part - "accuracy" isn't really all
that important. *Repeatability* is. When you do Zone System
calibration to find your "personal ASA", you're effectively
compensating for any inaccuracy in the meter. However, this only works
if the meter is "consistently inaccurate" (repeatable).

Now, both the meters I had/have were pretty much bang on (accurate)
AND very, very repeatable even after years of use. Whether or not they
solve the problem of correctly metering through filters - the claim
that Zone VI fixed this - is an exercise left to the reader.

-- 
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Tim Daneliuk     tundra@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
PGP Key:         http://www.tundraware.com/PGP/

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