Is There a Place For External Incident and Spot Meters for the M11 Shooter?

[BWColor]

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Years ago M3-M6TTL, I was quite taken with my Sekonic L-508 for my black and white film work.  Years of digital Canon, Fuji and Sony have me a bit lazy and less involved in my shooting.  I just picked up an M11 Monochrom and putting up most of my equipment up for sale and I just came upon my Sekonic L508, L-358 and a Gossen Digisix.  I have the M11M set to protect highlights, but it seems that spot metering would be good to understand the scene and incident great for times when there aren’t bright areas. Obviously, not for dynamic environments, but if they aren’t of any use, I should sell them.  Do any of you use external meters for non flash environments?

[rogxwhit]

It sounds to me like you're trying to over-think this.  Slim down, cut back to the chase, and get on with life ... 😉

[BWColor]

8 minutes ago, rogxwhit said:

It sounds to me like you're trying to over-think this.  Slim down, cut back to the chase, and get on with life ... 😉

True, but this is my point.  I haven’t been thinking.  The wonderful thing about film was the lack of a screen to check results.  Light meters helped to control the end result in difficult lighting/subject.  Now, cameras have auto-bracket…think later.  Luckily, the EVF feature can be disabled.

[burchyk]

I came to the M system from years of using spot mode exclusively on OM-4 and also DSLRs in full manual. I've borrowed an M10 before and have tried metered bodies in the shops multiple times and find the Leica built-in meters awkward. For this reason I went with M2 and then M-A. Using DigiSix or Minolta Spot F depending on the situation. I even ended up preferring DigiSix with M10. 

Hold on to your meters for a while and see what you prefer. In the "street" situation I can meter without getting noticed as opposed to holding the camera to my face which tends to attract more attention.

[lct]

Last time i used my meters must be some 20 years ago but why do you want to sell yours if you still enjoy them?  Only you can answer this question.

[Mute-on]

Always keep a light meter that will do incident and reflected metering. Spot metering is probably more useful for landscape, but never entirely redundant.

Most of us are well aware of the limitations of in camera metering, particularly unsophisticated or the more traditional metering patterns (i.e., not evaluative matrix metering). That’s why we have external meters in the first place (or because we use unmetered cameras). Don’t limit your options unnecessary. 

[Chuck Albertson]

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I use an incident meter a lot with the M Monochrom, in order to protect the highlights.

[Sandokan]

I only use my incident and spot meters for film cameras. With OM4 it is built in and gives you an accurate exposure setting when used right. 

These days, the incident gets used most often with the MF cameras, M3 and Nikon rangefinder or if I find the M7 or R9 readings funny or a scene that is hard to read. Spot is used for Large Format. 

With the digital, I use the histogram and worst case, I will bracket the shot. You have instant feedback so why would you waste time trying to get it "perfectly" exposed before shooting? Just shoot, look and shoot again if necessary. 

[ramarren]

I use my Sekonic L-358 (or any of my other hand-held meters; I probably have seven of them) with all of my cameras, film or digital, when I want to be in complete control of what I'm doing. Nothing beats a hand-held meter ... incident, reflective, spot, whatever ... for precise light measurement. 

G

[DadDadDaddyo]

I guess the main thing here is the idea of gathering accurate information prior to a shot, when time permits, and then running the obtained information through that venerable old computer, the Human Brain, the Knowledgeable Noggin, the Mark One Meat Machine...

The goal: to decide how you're going to map the objective information gathered about subject illumination onto the particular medium you've chosen, taking into account your intended appearance for the resulting piece of work. 

You can do this either with the built-in metering or with a handheld meter. Folks have already mentioned how different metering methods have different strengths under varying circumstances.

I'm particularly fond of using a spot meter to get a sense of the illumination range across different parts of the scene: the highlight textures, the shadow details,  how the middle range values are distributed. And because it's already in-hand, I end up using the camera's metering to do this.

Many of my various other cameras, old and recent, mainstream and anachronistic, have no built-in meter. For handheld, I often use a one degree spot meter, but other times, a reflected or incident meter.

Takng the time to do this metering and evaluation step unites the process I follow across all the widely varying camera platforms I use. 

But by far the big idea here is that of intention. 

Intervening in the process goes a long way towards ensuring that the result you get is on purpose. It's intended. It's based on your decisions. It's how you wanted the shot to be.

Enjoy!

[JimP]

Absolutely, I sometimes use a spot meter with my Q2 monochrom. Mainly for static scenes shot on a tripod, it helps me evaluate the scene. Could I use the histogram? Sure, but I got used to this with my 4x5 and I enjoy the workflow. It also allows you to place a part of your image at a specific tone, like the zone system. I like to do the minimum of post processing. 

Edited June 29, 2024 by JimP