Light Meter

Tintin124

Tintin124

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Hi All,

I can't see a thread about Light meters so thought I'd start one... Feel free to point me to one if there is one! :oops: :$
  • What Light Meter do you own?
  • How often do you use it?
  • How useful do you find it?
  • When do you use it? (Most useful situations and not so useful situations)
  • Would you recommend it?
  • Do you need one that does spot and incident?
Cheers everyone I keep coming back to sekonic ones and thinking do I really need to spend £300 on this type of thing as a hobbyist who wants to do more Portrait and Landscape photography?
 
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I use a Gossen Variosix F2 with cone and spotmeter attachment

I use it every time I use my Linhof, and a lot of time when using my studio flash and occasionally when shooting landscapes on my other cameras as a spotmeter

For the Linhof it is almost invaluable, for the flash very very useful, for general landscape use occasionally useful.

The Linhof has no meter, so I use the spotmeter to check the scene, work out my base exposure, and what I'll need in the way of grads.
For flash use I use it for checking exposure, it is quicker than just trial and error
For general landscape use the most useful thing is for working out the difference in exposure for foreground and sky and how strong a grad I'll need, a lot of times to be honest I use experience and my eye to work it out.

Yes, I would recommend the Gossen, it's worked very well for me. That said I keep fancying one of the top end Sekonic's (a 758 or similar) which have built in Pocketwizard triggers although it isn't a big issue to press the test button to fire a flash.

For my use I need spot, for a lot of uses you could manage without.
 
Well I haven't had one since the 80's but there is one on its way to me as I speak. Following another thread mentioning buying second hand from Cash Converters online I put in an offer for a Sekonic L-308s which looks to be in good condition and the offer was accepted. Waiting to see what it is like. Main use will be landscapes and still life work, and the plan is to get hold of a MF film camera to use with it in time.

The main use for it while using my DSLR will be to slow me down, and think more about what I am taking.
 
Got an batter old Minolta III,don't use as much as used to,used to be used mainly for reflective light reading :)
 
I have a Sekonic 308S. I know most people say you dont need one with DSLR's, but I saw my portraits improve massivley since I started using one.
 
When I was still shooting 35mm slides with my T90 I would use the cameras spot meter to meter the plam of my hand and then add +1EV, worked like a charm, but only if my hand and the subject were in the same light.

Since going digital I have not used either the above technique or a hand held meter even once. Having said that I do now often ride the exposure compensation in a way that I never did when shooting slide. Being able to review images instantly has helped me a lot in understanding how the camera reacts in different situations and what I need to do to get the best images (not trust the camera most of the time seems to sum it up)

I still have a Minolta hand held meter but it's in my drawer of redundant photographic equiPment.

David
 
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For general snapshot work a hand held meter is not really necessary, as the meter built into most digital cameras work just fine.
For flash, portraiture and difficult conditions they can be a great help and sometimes a life saver.
If you do get one, get one that takes incident readings and reflected readings, though few amateurs need spot metering as it requires a lot of knowledge to get the best out of one.
The Sekonic L 308s seems to be the way most people go these days and is very accurate and adaptable... however the L478 and L758 ranges have all the bells and whistles, But rather over the top for the majority of users. All these modern digital meters are incredibly accurate and fast to use. as they give direct readouts.

However nothing is more "convenient" than a built in meter, even if it is less accurate and less comprehensive and can not be used as a studio flash meter.
 
Weston Master V, Sekonic 758D, and the UEC.
 
Hi, I have and use a "Weston Master V" with invercone, it is used mainly for the outside work I shoot on film.

My main meter though which I've had for many years is a "Gossen Lunasix F" with several attachments, I use it mainly as an incident meter both for ambient & flash readings. It can also be used for accumulative readings which is very useful for my product photography work in the studio using flash.
 
twhite87 said:
I have a Sekonic 308S. I know most people say you dont need one with DSLR's, but I saw my portraits improve massivley since I started using one.
Click to expand...
Terrywoodenpic said:
The Sekonic L 308s seems to be the way most people go these days and is very accurate and adaptable... however the L478 and L758 ranges have all the bells and whistles, But rather over the top for the majority of users. All these modern digital meters are incredibly accurate and fast to use. as they give direct readouts.
Click to expand...

I've bitten the bullet and gone for a 308S as they aren't too expensive and I can see if it improves my landscape and portrait photography and been watching all the MAC_ON_CAMPUS videos and sekonic videos seem to suggest it can be very versatile when used with Camera spot metering for Landscape and has functions I would need when doing flash work too.

Please keep posting as i'm sure all the advice would be helpful for anyone who also is looking to get a meter. Thank you all for your time to respond.
 
Terrywoodenpic said:
however the L478 and L758 ranges have all the bells and whistles, But rather over the top for the majority of users. All these modern digital meters are incredibly accurate and fast to use. as they give direct readouts.

However nothing is more "convenient" than a built in meter, even if it is less accurate and less comprehensive and can not be used as a studio flash meter.
Click to expand...

The one significant advantage of the L-758 for landscape shooting with film is that it has a spot meter. I was lucky to find one at a good price.
 
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