Infallible Exposure Meter Company
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| Wynne's "Infallible" Hunter Meter image by Anssi Puisto (Image rights) |
The Infallible Exposure Meter Co. was a maker of light meters in Wrexham, Wales, from the late 19th century until the 1940s. The company was founded by George Frederick Wynne. The company's best-known product is the Wynne's Infallible light meter. This is a small case shaped like a pocket watch, in which a disc of light-sensitive paper is placed. A small area of the paper is exposed in a window; the paper darkens on exposure. A small area of a fixed shade (in some models, two different shades) is provided next to the window for comparison. To take a reading, the user first rotates the paper disc to expose a fresh area, and measures the time taken for the paper to darken to match the fixed shade. This time, together with the film or plate speed and the desired lens aperture, is used to determine the exposure time with the meter's scale.
There is no timer in the meter; the user employs either a separate watch, a pendulum, or simple counting to time the reading.
Because the sensitive paper was not perfectly grey, the meters could be used with a tinted filter, intended to prevent differences in colour from interfering with the comparison of shades.
The Infallible meters are very similar to the Watkins Bee meters, and predate them.[1] Like the Watkins meters, they were available with scales for Autochrome and other colour plates, and for the different US aperture scales then in use.
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Notes
- ↑ According to Early Photography
Links
Infallible meters at Early Photography:
- Wynne's Infallible (several models)
- Wynne's Infallible, silver cased model
- Infallible Hunter Meter, with the scale mounted in a hinged cover
- Infallible Hunter Meter and Printing Meter in the catalogue of an exhibition, Cameras: the Technology of Photographic Imaging at the Museum of the History of Science, Oxford, 20 May - 13 September 1997.
