On Mon, 10 Feb 2003 10:10:34 -0800, "Michael Zhao" <mizhao@cisco.com> wrote:

>I pointed my N80 to clear north sky on a bright day and got a read of f/8 at

>1/125 for ISO100. I tried another camera got the same reading. I got f/16

>via a grey card .It seems that sunny 16 rule of pointing to clear north sky

>is not true.

You are correct, as you state "the rule", it is not

correct...;-) Clear sky blue will give you an incorrect

reading both 'cuz it is the wrong thing to read, and 'cuz

meter color error will give incorrect results. The rule,

for upstate NY: For an average scene on a bright sunny

day, with the sun behind you, set the aperture to f11 1/2

and the shutter speed equal to the film speed; modify

exposure by the amounts printed inside most film boxes

for other lighting conditions (the f-stop may change

some with latitude and predominant conditions - like

sand, snow, black rock, etc...). This will get you close

enough for negative materials, if not always close

enough for slide film...