Winging it with Sunny 16

[philslizzy]

I've been giving my collection an airing this last few weeks and taking photos with 50's cameras in a 50's style. Sunny 16 and guesstimate focusing. Over all I'm pleased with the results. The focusing is my biggest problem, as is the rubbish supermarket scans. However I still get them done and re-scan any decent images on my Epson 3490.

All film is Agfa Vista 200, devved and scanned at ASDA.

First up my Fujica 35ML (1957)

1/250 f16




1/250 at f8, could have been better - perhaps 1/60 at f8, it really was that dull.



Voigtlander Vito ll (1954)

5:30am 1/10at f3.5



1/250 f11 (sunny about an hour before sunset)



1/250 f11 (as above)



1/60 f8 deep shade



1/250 f11 (as before)



Braun Paxette ll (1956)

1/200 f8, a little under exposed. My first Sunny 16 outing, perhaps a couple more stops would have been better.



1/100 at f11 with Westanar 35mm lens Fungused hence the softness.



1/200 f16 Westanar again



1/200th f11 Westanar again



I shot a couple more rolls in Llandudno today on my 1957 Altix N. I had some interesting conversations with some of the old guys. Two kids were watching me change the film, whispering; "what's he doing?" "Changing a film", "film? is it a video camera?"

...and a few sneers from the big DSLR users.

I like sunny 16, its more reliable than my light meters of similar vintage to my cameras. I only wish my focusing was as reliable!

[Excalibur]

Very good results from sunny 16 h'mm plus experience. There can't be many photographers around today that don't have\use some sort of exposure meter

[philslizzy]

Thanks! They're only snapshots really, I am just testing the cameras, making sure all works as it should. For serious or paid work I'd use a metered camera.

Sunny 16 isn't hard to memorise. Film speeds and camera settings range were pretty much designed with that in mind. In the 1950's normal film speeds were between 16ASA and 100 ASA so almost all my old cameras have shutter speeds no higher than 1/300th.

This makes it hard to get f8 or wider with 200 film.

[uddhava]

This is an old thread so I hope I get a response.
If I have 200 ISO film and I want to shoot at a 125 shutter speed, for example to be able to get more depth of field
on an overcast day, how would I adjust my aperture accordingly?

[philslizzy]

Hi and thanks for bringing this old post up. On a dull day with 200 film sunny 16 says 1/250th at about 5.6 if really dull. remember 1 stop slower shutter speed requires one aperture stop down and so on for these conditions:

1/1000 f2.8
1/500 f4
1/250 f5.6
1/125 f8
1/60 f11
1/30 f16
1/15 f22

a sunny day would give

1/1000 f8
1/500 f11
1/250 f16
1/125 f22
1/60 f32

You run out of options with a 200 film, which is why back in the old days you had such a variety of speeds available and for the most part slower than 160ASA.

Of course as mentioned in another post, many old cameras would have max shutter speeds of 1/100 or 1/200 giving you no leeway with 200 film on a bight day!

Oh by the way some cameras have shutter speeds like this: 1, 1/2, 1/5, 1/10, 1/20, 1/50, 1/100, 1/300

rather than this: 1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/15, 1/30, 1/60, 1/125, 1/250

complicating it a little, use the nearest shutter speed to the film speed, latitude takes care of the rest.

[uddhava]

Thanks for the quick reply.
I wrote it on an index card.
I will carry my Zorki 6 with me to Budapest today and it's overcast outside.
I suppose I could try 60 also to give me one higher f stop.
Thanks!

[miran]

Also keep in mind that when you're not sure which speed/aperture to choose, it's always better to overexpose than to underexpose. And another thing, with most old cameras with mechanical shutters speeds are not 100% accurate even if the camera is otherwise perfectly fine. 9 times out of 10 the actual shutter speed will be slower than spec. For example if it says 1/60s on the camera, it might be closer to 1/30s, depending on the condition of the camera. It's best to measure your camera and keep that in mind when estimating exposure.

[philslizzy]

[buerokratiehasser]

Aperture goes quadratic,
f4 has (8/4)^2 = 4 times the light of f8

The numbers can get a bit unwieldy when trying to calculate 1/160 F6.3 into F5.6 for instance (even more so when you have a camera limited to 1/50, or 1/50 and 1/100)
so when shooting slide a calculator may actually be helpful - shooting CN or BW usually doesn't care about +-1..2 aperture

[uddhava]

Here is another question. My Box Tengor has a shutter speed of about 1/30 of a second.
I am using 100 ISO B&W film. Aperture options are 11 and 22. Seems like I will have to push the limits in this case. Any suggestions?

[Minolfan]

[philslizzy]

On your tengor, the shutter/aperture combo with ISO 100 film is about a stop lower than sunny 16: f22: Sunny and f11: cloudy. almost perfect.

Remember the camera was made with this in mind.

[uddhava]