Brake Fluid on Pads...

[Punkstig]

If your worried about getting fluid on the new pads carry on doing the bleeding with old pads in then replace with the new ones when done, just leave a bit of space below max level on res so when you push pistons in for new pads there's room for fluid.

It's not necessary to have the fluid any where near the max line whilst bleeding the system, so once it has been bled push the pistons back in then fill to the max level, no need to make any guesses for fluid level that way!