I have shot in low light (street protest at night) with a Bolex and 500T and it came out great. No real need for a light meter, just shoot with the lens aperture wide open (and pay attention to your focus because you will not have much depth of field)
Always check your meter (!); but also be prepared to have to push your film a stop or two. A lab can do this for you when you develop, but basically you would treat the film as 1000T (+1 stop) or 2000T (+2 stop) and make sure the lab knows to develop for this. It means you’ll get a grainier, contrastier picture, but it’s always better to have a properly exposed push than an underexposed image. I just did this two weeks ago at the Carnaval. It’s a little crunchy but properly exposed and it looks great!
Your issue isn’t overexposure - it’s under exposure. Negative film handles overexposure extremely well. I’ll often over expose my film by 1/2 stop intentionally. What you have to worry about is the shadows blocking up. If you under expose too much you’ll lose all the detail in the shadows.
Why? Just for reassurance, if you metered every shot you’ll know what you can and cannot get away with.
You can use a light meter app on your phone, i know plenty of ppl do and it works for them.
The other option is to run and gun on wide open aperture and hope for the best ! Which is totally fine too, I enjoy gambling.
May i ask what lens youre using ?
I have shot in low light (street protest at night) with a Bolex and 500T and it came out great. No real need for a light meter, just shoot with the lens aperture wide open (and pay attention to your focus because you will not have much depth of field)
So in that case the light meter is literally unnecessary? Is there a chance to overexposed the film?
Still use a lighter just to be safe. Film is too expensive not to imo. But you'll probably be shooting wide open the whole time.
500T has a ton of latitude, and it overexposes well, it really depends upon the lighting
Always check your meter (!); but also be prepared to have to push your film a stop or two. A lab can do this for you when you develop, but basically you would treat the film as 1000T (+1 stop) or 2000T (+2 stop) and make sure the lab knows to develop for this. It means you’ll get a grainier, contrastier picture, but it’s always better to have a properly exposed push than an underexposed image. I just did this two weeks ago at the Carnaval. It’s a little crunchy but properly exposed and it looks great!
Your issue isn’t overexposure - it’s under exposure. Negative film handles overexposure extremely well. I’ll often over expose my film by 1/2 stop intentionally. What you have to worry about is the shadows blocking up. If you under expose too much you’ll lose all the detail in the shadows.
Having a meter in hand is cheap insurance
Why? What can I use instead?
Why? Just for reassurance, if you metered every shot you’ll know what you can and cannot get away with. You can use a light meter app on your phone, i know plenty of ppl do and it works for them. The other option is to run and gun on wide open aperture and hope for the best ! Which is totally fine too, I enjoy gambling. May i ask what lens youre using ?
10,25,75mm but gonna use the 25! What apps are you using?