Discovered my old Pentax K1000 was dead on accurate after 45 years of guessing exposures

I was digging through some old family negatives last weekend, mostly stuff from the 70s and 80s. My grandpa shot everything on a Pentax K1000 (you know, the classic all manual beast). I decided to check his exposures against modern digital metering just for fun, using a light meter app on my phone. Turns out over 90 percent of his shots were within half a stop of perfect, which blew my mind because he never used a separate light meter, just guessed based on the sunny 16 rule. I found this out by comparing his old prints to the metadata on my digital scans. Has anyone else tested their vintage camera's accuracy against modern tools?

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wesley_hart8d ago

Funny how that works, isn't it. People back then had to really learn their gear and the conditions because there was no chimping or auto modes to bail them out. I've noticed the same thing with old mechanical watches keeping better time than people expect, just because the person using them paid closer attention.