This is not an SL question but...

[phovsho]

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...What hand held light meters are you landscape/available light photographers with SL's using and would recommend? Was thinking of an incident meter coupled with an integrated 1 degree spot.

 

Thank you

 

Murray

Edited March 15, 2017 by phovsho

[AlanJW]

...What hand held light meters are you landscape/available light photographers with SL's using and would recommend? Was thinking of an incident meter coupled with an integrated 1 degree spot.

 

Thank you

 

Murray

How would you use an incident meter for a landscape?   I find the spot meter in the SL very useful and no longer use a hand held meter.

[ramarren]

How would you use an incident meter for a landscape?   I find the spot meter in the SL very useful and no longer use a hand held meter.

 

 

By metering with the incident bubble held in the kind of light that typifies the exposure you're targeting in the landscape. 

 

I have Sekonic meters:

 

• My 'old faithful' is a Sekonic L328 that has a 5° spot attachment: incident and reflected light, flash, limited area spot. I've been using it since the middle 1990s ... the incident dome assembly has recently just started to come apart. 
• I bought a new L478 to replace it, but honestly am not entirely convinced that the touch screen interface is the best for me. Many more features than the L328....
• Thinking about it, I've acquired a L358 along with its reflective light and spot attachments. It's simpler and more to my liking.
• A Sekonic L398 gives me battery-less incident and reflected readings

 

The Sekonic L758D gives you the combined incident hemisphere and 1° spot reflected light meter without needing accessory attachments. I had one to use for a bit and liked it, but felt it a bit more bulky than I wanted to carry most of the time. 

 

Have to say: I use incident metering with my hand-held meters about 98% of the time. I take a reading, survey the scene with my eyes, and apply whatever adjustments I feel are needed. When in doubt (rarely), I bracket. 

Edited March 15, 2017 by ramarren

[Bill W]

I used a handheld meter in my film days but with digital, you can take as many variations of the same shot as you want to get it right and not need to wait and wonder did I get it right.....!!!

[AlanJW]

By metering with the incident bubble held in the kind of light that typifies the exposure you're targeting in the landscape. 

 

I have Sekonic meters:

 

• My 'old faithful' is a Sekonic L328 that has a 5° spot attachment: incident and reflected light, flash, limited area spot. I've been using it since the middle 1990s ... the incident dome assembly has recently just started to come apart. 
• I bought a new L478 to replace it, but honestly am not entirely convinced that the touch screen interface is the best for me. Many more features than the L328....
• Thinking about it, I've acquired a L358 along with its reflective light and spot attachments. It's simpler and more to my liking.
• A Sekonic L398 gives me battery-less incident and reflected readings

 

The Sekonic L758D gives you the combined incident hemisphere and 1° spot reflected light meter without needing accessory attachments. I had one to use for a bit and liked it, but felt it a bit more bulky than I wanted to carry most of the time. 

 

Have to say: I use incident metering with my hand-held meters about 98% of the time. I take a reading, survey the scene with my eyes, and apply whatever adjustments I feel are needed. When in doubt (rarely), I bracket. 

My concern is that it is not always possible to place an incident meter located near the camera in light that matches a landscape that could literally be miles away.  But I am no expert.   I am happy to use spot metering in those circumstances and then adjust exposure after having a look at the capture.  Ignorance is bliss.

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[scott kirkpatrick]

I was shooting film with an M2 a few years ago, and found that my Ricoh GR was an excellent light meter, just by taking one shot and having a look at the result.

 

scott

[ramarren]

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My concern is that it is not always possible to place an incident meter located near the camera in light that matches a landscape that could literally be miles away.  But I am no expert.   I am happy to use spot metering in those circumstances and then adjust exposure after having a look at the capture.  Ignorance is bliss.

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I can't do that very easily if I'm shooting with the Hasselblad SWC or 500CM. Of course, landscapes of things 'miles away' are rarely what I'm interested in ... and the exposure for such subjects I can usually just estimate and be close enough as no bother. Remember all those stunning photos made by the Apollo astronauts were all simply Sunny 16 with mechanical, meterless cameras.

[phovsho]

Thanks all.  Think I will look into the Sekonic L758/ or 858 series.   

 

Best

 

Murray

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[FlashGordonPhotography]

I prefer the histogram in the SL to any lightmeter I own, for landscapes.

 

I haven't spot metered since Velvia. 5 stops of DR. Those were the days.....

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Gordon

[IkarusJohn]

I also use the Sekonic L398 (de lux?)

 

With the SL, though, I find I'm using light meters less and less.  The problem with built in light meters (as I'm sure everyone knows) is that even with the spot setting, you're not getting a true 1º reading, and even then you're getting the camera's idea of how to get a relatively vague area to match neutral grey.  I have never really found them satisfactory.  The great thing about an incident reading is that your only consideration is if you're making your reading in the same light conditions as your subject - you don't need to adjust for lighter or darker subjects (explaining to my daughter that she needs to over-expose when taking a picture in snow will stick in my mind forever).

 

So, with the Monochrom, I use the histogram (because it's based on the raw file - very useful), and with the SL I use exposure simulation - I don't need a meter at all, as I see the exposure of the final image through the viewfinder.

[ramarren]

I use the hand-held meters for flash metering mostly with cameras like the SL ... I get better results with them than I do with any in-camera or in-flash auto-metering stuff. In the field, I use them mostly for work with film cameras (the OP did suggest this wasn't really an SL question) or when I want to check a camera's built-in metering calibration against a known reference standard. 

 

And, as I said, "when in doubt, bracket."

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[Cliff S]

Can't you just look at the LV screen to judge exposure? Why rely in numbers when you can see immediately the exposure, adjust the Exp Comp dial and confirm, if you're unsure, with the histogram.

 

Light meters are only useful if you don't have live view with exposure review set to permanent. In my opinion and practice.

[ramarren]

Can't you just look at the LV screen to judge exposure? Why rely in numbers when you can see immediately the exposure, adjust the Exp Comp dial and confirm, if you're unsure, with the histogram.

Light meters are only useful if you don't have live view with exposure review set to permanent. In my opinion and practice.

That sounds like someone, in another thread, saying that 'zone focus is obsolete because autofocus exists'.

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Sorry: a display isn't always the best way to evaluate exposure. A light meter is a device designed to measure light intensity ... the human eye is notoriously bad at measuring light due to all its otherwise excellent autoadaptive behaviors.

Edited March 15, 2017 by ramarren

[IkarusJohn]

Can't you just look at the LV screen to judge exposure? Why rely in numbers when you can see immediately the exposure, adjust the Exp Comp dial and confirm, if you're unsure, with the histogram.

 

Light meters are only useful if you don't have live view with exposure review set to permanent. In my opinion and practice.

 

 

Hi Cliff, the EVF and LCD (I think) adjust their brightness for optimal viewing with M and other non-auto-stop down lenses.  With the SL lenses, they do not stop down until you hit the shutter release.  Regardless of the aperture you might select, the lens remains wide open like an SLR with auto-stop down.

 

So, if you under or over-expose, the image through the EVF when using M lenses is adjusted automatically to look the same.  You can get the actual exposure which the camera will capture if you press the Fn button on the front of the camera twice, to start exposure simulation - you have to do this for every shot (see Gordon and my comments in other SL threads).  Unfortunately, it seems that this is another Leica decision where they don't want us to be able to set a default of stop down.

 

I don't mind pushing the button twice to check exposure - it's a great feature.

[ramarren]

John, if you have exposure preview mode on, you see representative exposure on the display when you half-press the shutter release. This is the default, I believe. Exposure simulation mode takes it a step farther by switching on aperture preview and simulating actual exposure time as well.

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[IkarusJohn]

John, if you have exposure preview mode on, you see representative exposure on the display when you half-press the shutter release. This is the default, I believe. Exposure simulation mode takes it a step farther by switching on aperture preview and simulating actual exposure time as well.

 

 

Hi Godfrey,

 

Yes, that is correct.  When you half press the shutter release, you get a preview of the exposure, but the lens is not stopped down to the selected aperture.  You need to press the Fn button for stop down, and then exposure simulation is on without having to press the shutter release.  The second press of the Fn button simulates the selected shutter speed (if I recall correctly).

 

Cheers

John

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[Jeff S]

 

 

Yes, that is correct. When you half press the shutter release, you get a preview of the exposure, but the lens is not stopped down to the selected aperture. You need to press the Fn button for stop down, and then exposure simulation is on without having to press the shutter release. The second press of the Fn button simulates the selected shutter speed (if I recall correctly).

 

Cheers

John

So if you tweak exposure after twice pressing the button (via aperture or speed), does simulation remain on or do you need another double press?

 

Jeff

[Cliff S]

True. Admittedly I got some very impressive shots of some of my buildings on the M240 using LV for exposure. Shooting into the sun gave magnificent contrast and depth that made some crappy looking buildings I did look amazing. I would have never been able to get the effects with a meter though. I would have had a properly exposed building without the drama of contrast.

 

I used the SL recently but need to use manual lenses to be able to move the camera around, get the most drama and lock exposure after focussing. It was too risky with the 24-90 and I relied on the exp comp dial but it wasn't the same. I could see exposure with a half press but I couldn't hunt the best exposure without fiddling with buttons to first lock focus.

 

I use the M10 now exclusively for architecture and street scenes. I can't get the same success with an AF lens. My office thinks I'm a photographic genius. But I know it's the camera.

[pkwok]

I use M and R lens. I think the EVF shows you the real exposure already, or is very near the real exposure.

[ramarren]

I use M and R lens. I think the EVF shows you the real exposure already, or is very near the real exposure.

 

 

Not quite ... of course you have the lens at taking aperture so you see the DoF, but the default behavior of the SL is to keep the viewfinder bright and clear for focusing and framing. With Exposure Preview on, aperture priority will track the exposure dynamically part way, but the camera will not slow the EVF refresh down beyond a certain point or it loses responsiveness. At some point, the view just starts to go dark but that may not reflect the actual exposure.

 

At that point, pressing FN twice will engage Exposure Simulation (the first press is aperture simulation, which doesn't affect M and R lenses at all) and now the SL will accumulate enough light through enough refresh cycles to fully simulate the planned exposure time even in very dark situations. 

 

 

The behavior of the SL's different modes and EVF with adapted lenses is, at the least, complex—particularly at the limits of exposure in either direction. I spent oodles of time working it out to my satisfaction way back at the end of 2015 when I got the SL. Now I just use it and find it a little hard to articulate because all of what it does seems 'normal' ... It's become a part of my subconscious thinking when I'm using the camera. I'm having to re-learn a bit of it now because I'm using the dedicated AF lenses more of the time... and they behave differently.