Can someone recommend a moderately priced densitometer for zone system work? How much should I expect to spend and where can I obtain one?

Thanks...Craig Sterling

-- Craig Sterling (craig@craigsterling.com), November 24, 2001

Answers

I got a old MacBeth 904 from ebay and it cost me $152 with the shipping. The thing is old (20 years), has lost a little bit of accuracy but it works for Zone System. I did not want to pay more than that for better accuracy.

-- Toan Nguyen (toan.nguyen@videotron.ca), November 24, 2001.

Craig:

IMHO save your money and get a 21 step tablet with a wide range of densities on it and comapre the negs visually. You may be surprised at how close you can come by eye if you have standards to go by. Also, Kodak publishes a reflection "densitometer" that is a cardboard sheet with spots of varying density with holes in the middle to put over sections of your peint -paper white to solid black in about 21 steps. Thse two tools make desnstomery simple and cheap. Besides, with any photo-electronis device, it must be calibrated agains a step tablet periodically as all sensors drift.

I had the use of McBeth Densitometer and it was not worth the hassle.

If you really need one to find Zone 1, then go to a pro lab and ask them to measure it for you. They will maybe even do it for nothing if you're a customer- thats how I used the McBeth.

Cheers

-- RICHARD ILOMAKI (richardjx@hotmail.com), November 24, 2001.

Craig:

See today's posting about film latitude on the Large Format forum listed below. It has reference to Dan englander's site where a step tablet is available.

Cheers

-- RICHARD ILOMAKI (richardjx@hotmail.com), November 25, 2001.