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Who still uses a handheld meter?


NZDavid

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Weston V with an invacone and Sekonic 308 with either my Leica's or Nikon's as none have meter's. Only a couple of small digital camera's that I just use for grab shot's. Can't get interested in 'electronic' photography!

 

Best,

 

normclarke.

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I use my Gossen digipro F from time to time with my M9. It is very nice to get precise exposure in very difficult situations. However, most of the time, the built-in meter of the M9 is good enough and of course much faster to use.

 

Peter

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  • 2 weeks later...

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Just to open up another reason for using a hand held light meter; in my case a Pentax spot meter. I have found that I can better judge when I've reached the limits of the camera sensor's capability (without additional lighting) by measuring the EV value of a subjects recognizable shadow area. In the case of the Digilux 6 if I keep the recognizable shadow area above EV5 I won't get yellow blotches in an expanse of low light area. In the case of the X-Vario, keeping the recognizable shadow area above EV4 will prevent noise /color issues in the shadows. Essentially, it lets me know when low light conditions are going to cause problems for the digital camera sensor across the recorded light range of the sensor for a particular scene.

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  • 1 year later...
Guest NEIL-D-WILLIAMS

For the last several years, I've been using an M3 with a Sekonic L-758DR meter. Since acquiring an M 240 in December, I've continued using the meter.

 

The meter gives me incident readings, which the M 240 can't. It allows me to get more precise spot readings. And it enables me to quickly and easily translate a reading into exposure at different ISOs, f stops and shutter speeds.

I'm away to get a L758 DR as well

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In simple situations I estimate using my favourite XP2. Generally the results are pretty good. For trickier situations, or when I want absolute accuracy, I get out my Sekonic 1 degree spot meter and place different elements à la zone placement. BTW - I expose XP2 for 200 ASA. The negatives are perfect. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I only said "still" because it seems some photographers reckon proper exposure doesn't matter so much in the digital age; they will just adjust it later in PP. I'm used to slide film so would prefer to get it right first time if poss. Pleased to see handheld meters are not totally out of fashion!

The exposure meter in the MM is quite good, but I often use a Sekonic L-358 for an incident reading to make sure the highlights don't blow out - the MM sensor is quite like K25/K64 in that regard. As you say, geting the exposure right saves a lot of heroics in post-processing. The Sekonic also gets a lot of use with flash.

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  • 8 months later...

Two days ago, I bought a 1970s Sekonic L-28c2 for use with my X Vario and X2 for 30 euros. I find that most of the time, using the incident meter gives me very good results, but sometimes they're completely off, and I haven't figured out yet why that is. I am intrigued by the physics of this metering method. It's completely different from reflective light metering — the camera's built-in meter rarely agrees with the exposure choices made following the Sekonic. The histogram doesn't always show a nice Bell curve or something similar, either, but I'm beginning to see that this is not a problem: using the incident light meter, what is recorded is how the light was actually distributed in the scene (though it does make a significant difference where you point the dome, obviously, and I haven't mastered that aspect yet). Not every scene has highlights, not every scene has near-blacks, and if for artistic reasons these are called for, with the excellent sensors in the Leicas one can fix all that in post without loss of image quality. 

Edited by Mandemaker
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Sorry if I am stating something you know (and if you do some reader of your post may not), but you do realize that you are measuring the light falling onto the scene, not the light reflected by the subject. Which means that the meter is pointing backwards, over your shoulder so to speak.

 

The vintage Gossen Sixtomat is a very interesting meter to use. Not only does it measure quite well, but being a Selenium meter it does not need a battery, it has a rolling curtain for incident light metering, and it has an incorporated  comparative type colour  temperature meter.

 

 

 

 

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Sorry if I am stating something you know (and if you do some reader of your post may not), but you do realize that you are measuring the light falling onto the scene, not the light reflected by the subject. Which means that the meter is pointing backwards, over your shoulder so to speak.

 

 

Thanks... I know. But there is still the matter of where exactly you point the dome. You can point it at the camera lens, which is the traditional method, conforming to the Sekonic usage instructions, but there are those who say you should aim it at the light source. And in some situations, you may do both, and use an average reading to set your exposure, or point it somewhere between camera and light source, and take a reading like that.

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I use a Gossen Lunasix, Pentax Spotmeter and others.  But one of my favourites is the Zeiss Ikophot...old tech, very accurate, no batteries with incident screen...just rather nice in a small pocketable leather shape... :p

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 I am intrigued by the physics of this metering method. It's completely different from reflective light metering — the camera's built-in meter rarely agrees with the exposure choices made following the Sekonic. The histogram doesn't always show a nice Bell curve or something similar, either, but I'm beginning to see that this is not a problem: using the incident light meter, what is recorded is how the light was actually distributed in the scene (though it does make a significant difference where you point the dome, obviously, and I haven't mastered that aspect yet).

 

 

Yes. IMO an incident meter (which is my preferred method of metering) works most accurately when the light is either already diffuse or if the main light source is angled away from the lens axis. IMO you need to be very careful with an incident meter when the main light source is both strong and close to the axis of the lens – for example, when doing landscape work with the sun low in the sky and almost directly behind or in front. If you just point the meter over your shoulder straight into the sun behind you are likely to end up underexposing the scene (or if you do the same - meter over your shoulder – with the sun straight in front of you, you are putting the dome into a dark shadow and are likely to overexpose). Using an incident meter I think it is important to realise that the plastic dome is not infallible and, as you suggest, it is important to recognise how and where to point it when the scene or light starts to get tricky.

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