Help with a Minolta Autometer IV--nonLeica

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Hi, I've just purchased a used Minolta Autometer IV, incident meter. Great deal, but a problem. I think one of you can help me.

The thing seems to meter okay (though I haven't compared it to another indident meter). But inside the metering head, under the dome, where the photocell lives, I've got some oddball stuff happening. It looks like the cell got knocked out of its socket.

Behind it (I took the back off the head to look) there are six circular pieces that look like they're supposed to go in front of the cell. Three are flexible black washers, and three are like filters--one 1.5mm thick clear glass and the other two colored/coated(?) plastic.

So, does anybody know about these little guys? I can see how too get them back into the place where I think they belong, but I don't know in what order they should go, or if they belong there when using an incident dome (I bought the meter with a reflective metering disk on it). In the Sekonic 358 I used briefly, I know the photocell was just exposed under the dome, without any filters.

If you have one of these filters, can you bayonet the dome off, have a look at the place where the meter cell lives, and tell me what you see? If you've had the metering head apart, do you know what these little disks/washers do and in what order they should or should not be replaced for incident metering?

Leica content? I'm going to be using the meter instead of the somewhat erratic meter in my CL, at least until I get a CLA and feel I can trust it.

Thank you for any help.

Best Scott Squire

-- Scott Squire (scott_squire@hotmail.com), March 16, 2002

Answers

At the newspaper I worked at every photographer (about twenty of them) was issued one of those. The lab manager didn't like them because he said he was always sending them in for repair. He thought they were not very reliable. I had to send mine in once or twice and I didn't abuse it.

-- dave yoder (lists@daveyoder.com), March 17, 2002.

Hi Scott

I have a Minolta IVf incident meter. Great meter, although I've mainly only used it with studio flash so far.

Taking the dome off and looking inside, the centre is glass-covered, with a grey appearance, and the photocell is visible behind this. It looks like the assembly sequence, looking from the front, is glass, coloured plastic (ND filters?), then photocell. Not sure what order the filters go in, or if it matters....I'm not brave enough to take the head apart to look! There's nothing floating about loose in there, though. If it were me, I would take it back to the supplier and get a replacement.

Hope this helps.

-- Nick Cooper (nick_pc2@yahoo.co.uk), March 17, 2002.


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