• Members 1241 posts
    Jan. 2, 2026, 11:26 p.m.

    Even in this digital age, the Adams/Archer Zone System lives on, and some may still use it even now.

    It is said that Adams would spot-meter a scene in various places, pick the important one and "place" it into the output by varying the exposure of the scene. This is not unlike the proverbial white cat on a coal heap; simple metering would cause a gray cat in the output; so upping the exposure by say two Zones (2 EV) would get you a white cat on a dark-gray coal heap. Nothing new so far but I did say "spot-meter".

    Some older light-meters have Adams Zone scales on them, for example my Weston Master 6 came with their optional Zone scale on the calculator. Again nothing new, many of us know about those. BTW, in this thread, I am talking about the older style light-meters which have the circular slide - not the latest whiz-bang marvel that does everything Sekonic.

    OK, here's the anomaly:

    Adams used a spot-meter ... the light-meters I am talking about can not spot-meter; so what is the use of their Zone scales?