Using hand held light meter with digital ? held

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Eddie1

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is anyone here using a hand- held light meter with a digital camera ?

Haven't used one for a long time but did today and found it v helpful
 
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Old light meters are reading light. Sensors, like films, are sensible to the same light.
So, any which way you go, you're always going in the right direction!
 
I nearly always use a hand held light meter for setting up lighting with more than one flashgun, I sometimes also use it in dimly lit places to decide which lens to use.
 
It can be very usefull at times.:):plus1:
 
Occasionally for an incident light reading although my current camera seems to do a fair job of metering
 
I use one if the lighting is going to be constant or I want to control the changes.
 
dandeakin said:
Out of interest why would you use one when you could just meter using the camera (either in spot mode, or matrix mode etc)?
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You can't use the camera's meter when using one or more flashes (unless using TTL and leaving it all to the camera), but you can use a meter to measure each flash individually.

shreds said:
Read up on the difference between reflected and incident light. The camera light meter cannot do the latter so very important in the studio and with lighting set ups.

http://www.sekonic.com/l-478/incident-vs-reflected.html
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Reflective metering (as done by the camera) measures the amount of light coming back from the subject. You'll get different results according to whether the subject is black, white or something in between. To get an accurate exposure you need to ensure the spot is precisely over the area you want 'correctly' exposed. If you want the whole scene correctly exposed then that means spot metering off an 18% grey card or equivalent.

Incident metering measures the amount of light hitting the subject regardless of the luminosity of the subject. It'll normally give the same results as reflective metering off an 18% grey card but it's usually faster, more reliable, more convenient and more accurate than using a camera and a card.

It also does a much better job of measuring the light coming from different directions; for example metering a side-lit portrait.
 
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I only use a meter when using OCF, much more reliable than the camera metering.
 
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