Favorite <compact> Light Meter

[crawdiddy]

Since many vintage rangefinders do not have builtin light meters (I personally do not have a Leica M6-M7-M8), and since some of us are not proficient at judging EV values (visual equivalent of perfect pitch, IMHO) with our eyes, and since we don't like to totally misjudge exposure, and thus miss a great shot, we are reduced to carrying around hand held light meters.

What is your favorite compact hand held light meter for RF photography?

What is your favorite "type" of metering (analog vs. digital)?

I acquired a used Gossen Luna-Pro F, and it's great, but it's almost as large as my Leica III. I'm looking for something much much smaller (pocket sized), and reasonably accurate.

I admit I'm ingtrigued by the selenium cell models, requiring no batteries. My Canon 7 has such as a builtin meter, and it's pretty accurate at low light, and not so much for bright light. So anyway, I'm curious about your impressions. I think it's kind of cool that the major vendors still make some selenium models.

 

[mfunnell]

I like my VC-II meter. Its small, it sits easily on top of the camera (where I find it more convenient than pocketed or on a neck strap) and I prefer setting manual exposure myself, with occasional "sanity checks" from the meter. That's just me, though, and I'm sure others work differently.

...Mike

 

[crawdiddy]

OK, what is a VC-II meter? When I made the poll, I said "CV" meter. For some reason I thought it was Voigtlander, hence CV. I guess this pretty well documents my ignorance on the matter.

 

[dexdog]

Gossen Digisix

 

[Keith]

I like my VC-II meter. Its small, it sits easily on top of the camera (where I find it more convenient than pocketed or on a neck strap) and I prefer setting manual exposure myself, with occasional "sanity checks" from the meter. That's just me, though, and I'm sure others work differently.

...Mike

The VC is a good meter for this style of use and I must admit I'm with you and tend to use it more as reference. I usually take a light reading in the open wherever I'm shooting and then mentally adjust either side of that reading as I move around. Palm of the hand seems to give me an accurate incident reading ... I used to use the back of my hand but my skin colour leads to slight overexposure that way. 🙂

 

[ZivcoPhoto]

I recently acquired a Gossen Luna-Pro Digital F, a compact meter. It agrees with my full size Luna Pro F about 90% of the time and it is easily shirt pocket small and it is packed with plenty of features.

 

[colyn]

The VC II is my favorite carry around small meter.

My Weston Ranger 9 isn't small but it gets a lot of use too..

 

[Solinar]

The VC II - sees more use than my Gossen Digisix or my old Luna Pro.

 

[Steve B]

Gossen Digi-Six, clipped to a little magnet clip available from fly fishing stores. Its a nice strong but small pair of magnets that allows you to grab the meter from its clip on your bag or belt loop, use it and and put it back with one hand. The two magnets find each other without having to look and visually verify that its hanging back on its clip. Extremely convenient.

 

[foto_fool]

I use the VC II meter as well; compact and fits well on the IIIf, Konica III, GW690III, even the Argus C3. Checked against some bodies with internal meters it is quite accurate. I still haul out an ancient selenium Sekonic Auto-Lumi L-158 every now and again.

- John

 

[maddoc]

Gossen Digisix. Sometimes the ~ 60 years old selenium meter of my Rolleiflex 3.5E.

Attaching the Gossen with a couple of magnets to a belt sounds like a very good idea.😎

 

[peter_n]

The brand-X I voted up there is for a Quantum Calcu-Light XP - the very best low-light meter out there. 🙂

 

[Keith]

Gossen Digisix. Sometimes the ~ 60 years old selenium meter of my Rolleiflex 3.5E.

Attaching the Gossen with a couple of magnets to a belt sounds like a very good idea.😎

I'd be worried about the long term effects of the magnetic field on the workings of the meter. 😱

 

[NickTrop]

Compact? Nothing beats the small cylindrical selenium Petri meter - from the 60's(?) I have. It's smaller than the modern ones, clips on to the hot shoe (without a ridiculously expensive and hard to procure "add on"), does not require batteries, and is - I think, amazingly accurate and sensitive in ambient light conditions (indoors in a reasonably naturally lit room).

I also have a nice Yashica (branded I'm sure) square selenium light meter that also clips on to the hot shoe. It's even smaller than the Petri but not as sensitive in low light.

Think I spent $10 plus ship apiece for them, from eBay.

 

[FrankS]

CV meter II, and Sekonic 308 for incident and flash.

 

[NickTrop]

Then there's the classic Sekonic Studio Deluxe from my film school days. Still use that from time to time.

 

[wlewisiii]

I had the VC Meter II and foolishly sold it. I have a Sekonic Studio Deluxe that suddenly stopped working last month (went from perfect accuracy to no movement essentially overnight 🙁 ) I now have a Gossen Super Pilot coming from a ebay win and since that will be my only handheld unless I can fix the Sekonic, it is why I chose Gossen in the poll... 😉

William

 

[amateriat]

Well, this sure depends on what we mean by "compact."

My fave "compact" meter was a Sekonic L-398 selenium job that I used to borrow from my HS photography class (early-mid '70s) with near-religious reglularity. Never actually owned a meter of my own until a few years ago, when I acquired a not-quite-as-small Sekonic L-428, used, with most of its trimmings (spot and enlarger attachments, among a few others). It's bigger, but has a silicon cell powered by still-easily-purchased silver-oxide batteries, and quite usable in quite low-light situations. Not too bad for fifty bucks.

- Barrett

 

[thomasw_]

gossen digisix is the great pocket size meter that is very dependable when i am unsure...especially when shooting slides. and, did i mention that it is small? 🙂

 

[maddoc]

I'd be worried about the long term effects of the magnetic field on the workings of the meter. 😱

Might influence linear polarized light though .... 😉😀