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Conrad Brett
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, April 07, 2004 - 04:49 am: | 
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Hi, I just bought a gossen sixtomat off the internet but I don't know how to use it. Could anyone tell me how to use it properly?
Thankyou in advance. any help would be welcome |
Jos Slechten
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, April 07, 2004 - 10:49 am: |
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Conrad,
Don't despair. Look at the Gossen website: there you will find the instruction manual you are looking for. Just one snag: it is in German. The address is www.gossen-photo.de/pdf/ba_sixtomat_d.pdf
Success,
Jos |
Donald Qualls
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, April 07, 2004 - 04:26 pm: |
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The Sixtomat is very easy to use (I've had one since the early 1970s; mine came used, without a manual, and I learned to use it in five minutes at the camera store).
Set the film speed by rotating the brass dial in the knob on the right side (with the meter honeycomb facing away from you, dial up); it's on a ratchet to prevent slipping, so you have to hold the knob and use a fingernail or two against the two rivets to rotate it (in 1/3 stop increments). For speeds faster than ISO 400, set one or more stops slower and compensate the reading (a small sticker on the meter glass makes a good reminder). Once that's done, you can take either reflected or incident readings.
For reflected (averaged), open the meter's tambour cover completely, point the honeycomb at the scene you wish to read, and rotate the knob on the right side so that the meter's needle, the horizontal line in the meter glass, and the helical line on the drum inside all cross at the same point. Then read your exposure from the upper part of the meter face (you don't have to keep the meter aimed after setting the knob).
For incident readings, close the tambour cover to the two red arrows, so the portion without the gold tone metal ribs between plastic sections covers the honeycomb. Stand in the same light as your subject, point the meter the opposite direction as the camera, and read the meter the same way as above. This will give the same reading as metering reflected off an 18% gray card, at the same aspect angle as your scene, completely filling the meter's field (which is wide, wider than 90 degrees).
When not in use, preserve the selenium cell and protect the meter glass by closing the tambour cover completely.
There are also cine exposure readings available, and a simple color temperature chart on the bottom of the meter, but I haven't yet used either of those (in thirty years); you'll find they're not hard to figure out if you need them. Mine is still accurate within a half stop or better, and despite being used by a 13 year old (me) when I first got it, including being dropped a number of times, it has outlasted the camera I bought it with, the one that replaced it, and several others; I expect it to outlast me. Do be aware, however, that a selenium meter like this, while needing no battery, is only good down to about the light level of a well lit home interior; you can't meter, say, a moonlit forest with it and expect to get an accurate exposure (for that, you need a LunaSix, which requires a battery for its CdS cell, not to mention a detailed knowledge of the reciprocity characteristics of your film). |
Conrad
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, April 08, 2004 - 03:34 am: |
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Thankyou, you've been a great help. |
Conrad Brett
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, April 08, 2004 - 04:42 am: |
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ok one more question.
say your sixtomat doesnt have two red arrows, only two red lines with dots on the end but when you move the tamor to them the part of the tamor "with" the gold tone metal covers the honeycomb, are you supposed to cover up the numbers so that you can only see the black lines and needle, so that the part of the tamor without gold tone metal as you stated doestn cover the honeycomb.
Also (aorry about all the questions) does anyone know how to use the color finder on the back, he has numbers 2600, 3200, 4000, 5800 and 10000 with colour boxes next to it and then just another long box the length of all of them.
Thankyou for any help and sorry about all the questions. |
Donald Qualls
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, April 08, 2004 - 12:38 pm: |
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Conrad, I apologize -- I posted from memory instead of digging out my meter (I use Sunny 16 most of the time and seldom actually use my meter for common conditions); you're correct, the brass strips will be over the meter honeycomb when it's set for incident metering, and the marks are red lines with dots at the end, not arrows.
The color temperature finder on the bottom of the meter is used to gauge what color correction filter might be needed for shooting transparencies in light other than daylight -- it won't give accurate readings under fluorescent or vapor lighting. You simply look for the section of the step chart column that matches the apparent color of the solid strip, and read the color temperature from that line.
The cine conversion chart is also under the color finder cover; it tells you what shutter speed equates to what frame/second speed for common disc shutter cameras (there were a few high end cameras that had a higher percentage of open time or had adjustable shutter angles and would confound this chart, but they generally had their own information on plates on the cameras).
I just realized (after having this meter for 30+ years), this meter can also read out EV -- after setting the film speed, take your light reading as usual, and the red numbers below the lower (green) speed numbers are EV for that film speed. That's primarily of use for cameras with EV setting systems (which typically let you set the EV, and then adjust aperture and shutter together to automatically maintain exposure), but can also be used as a more convenient direct comparison of light levels than writing down f stop and shutter speed.
Not bad at all, for a meter that needs no battery and was old and used when I bought it in 1972. |
Conrad
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 10, 2004 - 01:15 am: |
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Thank you |
remonannetti
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, October 15, 2005 - 03:09 pm: |
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Anyone know how to open a Gossen Sixtomat light meter like the one mentioned in the previous postings? The glass is cracked and I would like to replace it, but can't find any screws to gain access. |
Glenn Middleton
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, October 15, 2005 - 05:42 pm: |
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First remove the dial and then the two side plates.Remove tambour cover when you have removed the first plate.Do not loose the metal rods that strengthen the cover.Note the rods go in the cover slots that are over the glass when cover closed.On the back of the meter are four screws - two each side,one top,one bottom.However they are hidden by small white plastic discs.The screw holes are partly hidden by the lip of the side plates,so seeing the covers with side plates on is difficult.Sometimes if meter has been fiddled with the discs are missing.Lever out with needle,take care they can fly all over the place.
Remove the four screws and then pull the case apart.Do not let the four square nuts for the side plate screws fall out and get lost.Just remove them if they are loose.The same goes for the wire lug for the snake chain.
I have not taken this particular model apart.In other models using this case, the 'works' are attached to the back half of the case.Thus the glass is very easy to replace.I have used thin acrylic sheet as replacement in a number of refurbishments. |
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