u/new_gogol

As the question says, the balance of evidence on whether Bolex RX lenses "compensate" for the viewfinder's/prism's light loss seems to be... ambiguous.

I've seen people swearing blind for both cases, all of them citing various papers and studies and manuals. Nobody seems to be in firm agreement.

Long question short: should I be metering 1/80 – thus compensating for light loss – or metering at 1/65? And does it really even matter, what with forgiving modern film stocks?

I'm about to shoot my first test reel (Kodak vision3 250D) and have spent a few hours tangling myself in knots about how I should be metering.

I have a Bolex H16 Rex 1, a 1961 model, if that helps.