External light meter: Which one should i get?

[pico]

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Okay, this is an old thread and it has been beaten up enough.

 

Most people do not know know how to use a light meter. Incident mode is good if you can place the meter at the subject pointing to the camera, or an equivalent which is possible in many situations. When you know what incidence is, you will know if it can be correct.

 

Spot metering for our miniature 35mm format is a waste of effort. Spot metering is for people who can adjust exposure/development to an obsessive zonie metric which cares not for rolls of exposures. It cares for individual frames developed separately, and even those fanatics, the sheet film people screw up regularly.

 

You are using a miniature format - 35mm - where you do the best you can without becoming anal-retentive to no good outcome.

 

That's my two bits.

Edited May 6, 2015 by pico

[sc_rufctr]

WOW... Arrogant much???

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[FredR]

 

Spot metering for our miniature 35mm format is a waste of effort. Spot metering is for people who can adjust exposure/development to an obsessive zonie metric which cares not for rolls of exposures. It cares for individual frames developed separately, and even those fanatics, the sheet film people screw up regularly.

 

Huh?

 

Fred

[atournas]

[...] Spot metering for our miniature 35mm format is a waste of effort. Spot metering is for people who can adjust exposure/development to an obsessive zonie metric which cares not for rolls of exposures. It cares for individual frames developed separately, and even those fanatics, the sheet film people screw up regularly. [...]

 

My favourite lens on the R6.2 is the ASPH 28-90mm. I use the 90mm focal length as an aid for light measurements from the darkest area with desired details and then adjust settings for a simplistic zonal technique. No need to carry along the Sekonic spotmeter--just one body, one lens. There is one downhill with that SF combo, though. With 36 exposures, I have to forget N plus/minus corrections in the processing. If a scene requires it, I simply don't take the shot.

 

So, pico, despite his... acute comments, is more or less right.

 

Paul

[250swb]

Huh?

 

Fred

 

Spot metering is primarily for shooting frames that can be individually processed, such as any large format film where you can expose for the shadows, but develop for the highlights (crudely put). It is pretty well pointless for 35mm as a shadow spot reading for each individual frame is likely to be too precise for processing a whole roll of varied lighting. So average reflective readings, or average incident readings are generally a better option. For 35mm cameras that can do multiple spot readings (such as an Olympus OM4) it would either be for controlled studio shoots with perhaps a single spot reading, or the spot metering would be used to create an average by taking multiple readings, but again it would usually be in controlled conditions. Of course you could take a spot reading from a grey card and use that as your average reading, but then you wouldn't need spot meter to do it.

 

 

Steve

[gberger]

Having shot transparencies, almost exclusively, since 1940, I've either owned or used quite a few light meters. Over the years, I found that incident metering was the better way to go.  Obviously, there are exceptions, such as photographing stained glass windows from the inside of a cathedral, where reflective metering is a must; however for a majority of photographs, incident metering provided me with far better results that reflective.  

 

I bought one of the first Norwood Director B models available to the public, and I've ended up with a Sekonic 308S that provides both incident and reflective metering. 

 

Just my ancient three cents (inflation, you know)

[robert_parker]

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I use a Polaris Dual 5 in the street all the time and love it - it's light, accurate, has a spot and incident mode, as well as flash meter capability and has a clear digital read out.  I find this meter fits easily in a jacket or trouser pocket and it's light enough not to be inconvenient.

 

I also have a Sekonic L208 which is a handy miniature meter that fits in the coin pocket of my jacket

 

I have Lumu, thinking it might be useful for extremely low light situations because of its sensitivity but need to calibrate it, so haven't tried the note taking function

Edited May 9, 2015 by robert_parker

[skucera]

At the risk of marking myself as a Visigoth, I switch off between three light meters.  For convenience, I use a Leica-Meter MC on my M3, but sometimes it is a little unwieldy (no needle lock).  Like many things about Leica cameras, it is very intuitive to use.  I just wish that thedf Leica-Meter MR-4 that also came with the camera still worked, but it doesn't.  Oh well.

 

I also pull out my dad's old Gossen Luna-Pro, which still works great.  It has an incident opal on it, which comes in handy sometimes.  One of these days I'll get the spot meter attachment for it, but then my dad said the same thing for 40 years and never did.

 

I also use Nuwaste's Pocket Light Meter app on my iPhone, which works very well.  As a spot meter, it comes close.  I like it a lot, and often use it with the Leica, as a supplement to tricky metering problems.

 

Scott

[asiafish]

I use a Minolta IVf for incident, and the spot meter is already built into my Leica M5, thought I also have a spot meter attachment for the Minolta that works well.

[asiafish]

My favourite lens on the R6.2 is the ASPH 28-90mm. I use the 90mm focal length as an aid for light measurements from the darkest area with desired details and then adjust settings for a simplistic zonal technique. No need to carry along the Sekonic spotmeter--just one body, one lens. There is one downhill with that SF combo, though. With 36 exposures, I have to forget N plus/minus corrections in the processing. If a scene requires it, I simply don't take the shot.

 

So, pico, despite his... acute comments, is more or less right.

 

Paul

M5 does this as well.  

[Wayne]

I started out using my old Luna Pro, but it is large. In another thread somebody referenced the Sekonic Twinmate L-208. It does measure both incident and reflected light- but no spot metering. It is marked in half stops. And, when I compared it's measurements against the Luna, it matched. It seems like a good meter. Other advantages include: It is pretty low priced; very small; comes with a bracket that allows you to mount it to the hot shoe. I would say it's sort of like a cheap, reliable, modern version of the old leica meters...Except it does not interact with the shutter speed control dial. 

[ekindangen]

I have the Sekonic 758 with spot meter. But I only use it with medium format or larger camera where I can custom develop film. For my Leica, I like the Gossen Digisix 2. It's small, light and got both incident and reflective mode. Here it is next to my Leica M-A.

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[iphoenix]

I have yet to go wrong with my (very pocketable) Sixtino2, aimed just below the subject; and I've been using it since the early '70s.