While I have used the Zone system extensively and will still use it when shooting sheet film...your correct that its not really the best system for roll film. That said...I still use my Zone VI Labs modifed Soligor spot meter with the old zone system label (actually I made new labels recently...can talk you all through that if there is interest) on it as a visualization tool. Those of you shooting B&W film can find alot of use out of a simplified zone system. Using this process you can meter different areas of your scene and place those readings in the appropriate 'zone' and with my spots I can then tell where other metered areas will fall. I have been known, with the right subject, to shoot one subject on the entire 120 roll so I can extend or reduce development time to alter detail in shadow/highlights as needed.

Something another friend of mine is working with roll film centers around actually playing with developer temperature and time to affect shadow detail. Again this requires a committment of the entire roll of film. I would be hesitant to do this with 35mm...but with us shooting 120...especially at 6X7 with 10 exposures on the roll...its far less of a committment.