Weston V Meters

Knikki

Knikki

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I have two of these things and both, I am fairly certain, are out by a stop or two.

I guess that they can be serviced but at what cost considering you can pick these things up for less than £50.

Question: send them away and get them sorted or just cut losses and get a Sekonic L398A?
 
I have never found Weston's to be very reliable and much prefer my Zeiss Ikon Ikophot meters. Cost about £5.00 each. Very reliable.
 
Knikki said:
I have two of these things and both, I am fairly certain, are out by a stop or two.

I guess that they can be serviced but at what cost considering you can pick these things up for less than £50.

Question: send them away and get them sorted or just cut losses and get a Sekonic L398A?
Click to expand...

Not worth £50, when working properly they are accurate but not much use in low light.....now and again see them at the bootie for £10. My III and IV are accurate but don't use em (except for the RB67) as I use my camera's light meters and good enough for me, esp when you think for non electronic shutters the speeds might not be spot on, then is the film spot on 200 ISO, is the Fstop on you lens accurate and so on o_O
 
Knikki said:
I have two of these things and both, I am fairly certain, are out by a stop or two.

I guess that they can be serviced but at what cost considering you can pick these things up for less than £50.

Question: send them away and get them sorted or just cut losses and get a Sekonic L398A?
Click to expand...


I have a couple of them too which are out slightly ( probably less than a stop tbh).

It's an age thing

Why give up on them?....If they are out consistently by the same amount then it's no effort to accomodate that error into an exposure calculation.
 
Thanks for the replies and yes Asha you have a point, just need to work out now by how much they are out and compensate.
 
I have used old Weston and Gossen meters in the past but they never seemed to be consistent. I gave up on them and ended up with two Sekonic meters - the Twinmate L-208 and the L758 spot meter. I usually carry the L758 when I'm carrying a Mamiya RZ67 and a tripod and the Twinmate the rest of the time.

I would suggest having a look at the spec for the Twinmate to see if that would meet your needs, as it is half the price of the L398A - although it does use a battery and may not be so robust.
 
One day the battery will die on your fancy electronic meter and you'll be pleased you kept your Weston, so check out the accuracy and mark it on the Weston now!
 
In my experience the Westons (ii, iii, iv, v, whatever) last for years but the cell output gradually weakens. So yes, a stop or more out could be typical (if I could only find my notes ...). I'd say that the accuracy as with most meters derives from where you point it, having in mind its angle of view. I read an article once in which the Invercone was held by practical testing to be superior to the simpler hemispherical domes ...

And yes, you can compensate by how you set the film speed dial ....
 
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All selenium meters are now unserviceable since the closure of Megatron, the last manufacturer of selenium cells. Like Kodachrome, they belong to photography's past and won't ever come back.
 
NickT said:
All selenium meters are now unserviceable since the closure of Megatron, the last manufacturer of selenium cells. Like Kodachrome, they belong to photography's past and won't ever come back.
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The Sekonic L398a selenium incident light meter is still made, I have a recent one.
They are extremely accurate.
I also have a gossen flash and ambient incident meter.
Incident light meters are far more useful and accurate than reflected light ones.

That said I do have three working westons, with invercones, including a weston V, that are still accurate. But I keep them out of interest, rather than use
 
I have three Lunasix 3 metres and none of them agree exactly with each other through the range (even if using the same [correct] silver oxide battery adapter in each one respectively to test it.)! Two of them are accurate enough to be used though, especially with old 'clockwork' film cameras where the shutter speed range includes 1/300, 1/100, 1/50, etc. Besides, no two of them will probably be exactly the same speed as each other either! In a lot of cases I think we probably worry too much, particularly when shooting print film with it's rather lenient exposure latitude?
 
NickT said:
Like Kodachrome, they belong to photography's past and won't ever come back.
Click to expand...

Who knows?... Kodak announced the return of Ektachrome yesterday!

I have two Weston Master III meters which are very accurate. However, I have a V which is useless.

I think the cells deteriorate based on the amount of time they spend with light on them. If they spend their lives living in cases, they will last longer.


Steve.
 
Terrywoodenpic said:
The Sekonic L398a selenium incident light meter is still made, I have a recent one.
They are extremely accurate.
I also have a gossen flash and ambient incident meter.
Incident light meters are far more useful and accurate than reflected light ones.

That said I do have three working westons, with invercones, including a weston V, that are still accurate. But I keep them out of interest, rather than use
Click to expand...

I appears that the Sekonic L398A has been updated and now uses an 'Amorphous silicon photocell eliminates need for batteries'. I am fairly certain that Megatron were the last manufacturer of Selenium cells in the world. They have definitely closed their Tottenham site.
 
Just read that Weston "speed" does not is not the same as ISO but their own film rating system and whilst there are conversion charts rule of thumb is to set the "speed" to 1/3 stop lower than the film rating, so ISO 200 needs to set to a speed of 160 on the meter. This is/was for a Weston III which I dug out to use with my Vito B. Is this correct? Not read about later models, so this may not apply to them.
 
Pretty close. There's a table here.
 
That's great thanks, but have ISO/GE figures been transposed on the last table entry? Should it read ISO 400 not 820? Anyhoo, next clear bright day I will carry out the test suggested.
 
The perils of not checking the authorative information one finds on the internet! Yes, you're correct about the figures being transposed; but when I come to check the other values at that end of the table there are other errors as well. I can't find the manual for my Weston meter, which from memory has conversion values, but the (printed) sources I've checked indicate that the values are broadly correct, but may need small adjustments. Whether the adjustments are of any practical value are another matter.

The DIN figures are a logarithmic scale (add 3 to double the speed) and ASA arithmetical (double the number to double the speed). You should be able to work out any values from that information. The start of the table appears to be correct, so any problems should be correctable.
 
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