Sekonic L-208 Twinmate: Just how "locked" is the lock-function of the needle?

[Ljós]

Sekonic L-208 Twinmate: Just how "locked" is the lock-function of the needle?

Greetings all,

I just got my Twinmate delivered to me (replacing a Gossen Digisix that I unfortunately lost a while ago). Battery is fresh and checks just fine. I am a bit surprised about the action of the needle: after releasing the metering button, the needle sure locks in the sense that, if the meter is held still, it will stay in the position for 15 seconds. But if you move the meter, you get to oscillate the "locked" needle quite noticeably around the lock-position. It is not like with a Weston Master V where the needle really stays put.

It is not a major nuisance - but if want to quickly take a reading while walking, as I often do, not really ideal.

My question to you fellow Twinmate-users: is this the way it is supposed to be? Or is my specimen faulty? And if it is normal, how well do you get along with this "feature" in the long run?

Thanks in advance for taking the time to answer!
Greetings, Ljós

 

[sevo]

It is not like on the Weston or on the L-398 (or any other purely electromechanical meter), where the meter needle is physically clamped in its position when locked - the Twinmate meter value is locked electronically, so any force big enough to swing the galvanometer spring will set the needle moving, and after 15s the power is cut off so that the needle drops to zero.

Sevo

 

[ruby.monkey]

That's the way it is. The metering needle doesn't lock rigidly in place, but does retain the same reading for 15s (and is pretty well damped). Moral of the story - don't shake the meter until after you've matched needles.

On the other hand my first L-208 survived being my eldest son's favourite chew toy for four years, only succumbing in the end to a two-meter drop onto hard tiles. They're pretty tough little items.

 

[Ljós]

Thanks, Sevo! I figured as much, good to have confirmation. Well, goes to prove the Universal Rule, that no lightmeter can be PERFECT. (Boy did the Digisix drive me nuts at times.)

Greetings, Ljós

 

[Ljós]

That's the way it is. The metering needle doesn't lock rigidly in place, but does retain the same reading for 15s (and is pretty well damped). Moral of the story - don't shake the meter until after you've matched needles.

On the other hand my first L-208 survived being my eldest son's favourite chew toy for four years, only succumbing in the end to a two-meter drop onto hard tiles. They're pretty tough little items.

Thanks for chiming in with your experience. Regarding the materials and the finish I am actually positively surprised. From the threads here and the pictures etc. I had braced myself for something "cheaper". The good thing about the Digisix was its incredible capability to live up to knocks and falls and whatnots. Strong little bugger. Because of the needle action and possibly the material of the translucent plastic, I'll be more careful with the Twinmate. But it feels better than expected so far.

 

[damien.murphy]

Thanks, Sevo! I figured as much, good to have confirmation. Well, goes to prove the Universal Rule, that no lightmeter can be PERFECT. (Boy did the Digisix drive me nuts at times.)

Greetings, Ljós

Indeed. Mine goes with me everywhere, but I always feel it could have been designed to be smaller, better and tougher.

I would love if they designed an EV-only version, with a serious build-quality, and small enough to fit on a key-ring. Until then, I will consider to baby it, although I am grateful that small meters such as the digisix and twinmate even exist 🙂

 

[Ljós]

Indeed. Mine goes with me everywhere, but I always feel it could have been designed to be smaller, better and tougher.

I would love if they designed an EV-only version, with a serious build-quality, and small enough to fit on a key-ring. Until then, I will consider to baby it, although I am grateful that small meters such as the digisix and twinmate even exist 🙂

Oh yes, a direct EV readout via needle would have been perfect. I can see already however that with my baseline of 400 speed film, the left side of the "angle-of-measurement" marking comes to EV 9, the middle of the zone close to the (to me in my street lighting here) very useful EV 12...

There should be a lock for the ISO scale... I don't think it will go all over the place by itself... and you can argue that when you WANT to change ISO, it is faster... but a lock for that function would have been good.
The flicking action of the incident"dome" is smarter on the Digisix, truly one flick with one hand/finger.

But, but , but: the Twinmate is perennially quiet... gotta love that. Digisix could beep and beep during the most untimely moments. (Mine also ate batteries, AND would go blank even with fresh batteries. Dance (with "music"): take out the battery (bad solution in itself, the battery "carrier" is eminently droppable und losable, and you have to fumble with reinserting it), put it back in, waaaaaaait for the self check, reset the ISO - which will lead to two unavoidable beeps! First time people don't know where it is coming from, second time all heads turned towards you...
But that is history with the Twinmate now, so I will stop crititzing my new little critter ;-)

 

[damien.murphy]

Lol, indeed. It is a capable little meter alright, and mine usually lives at hand in my jacket pocket when I'm out and about shooting.

I think I shall have mine until someone designs a watch style meter, whose entire face is a toughened incident dome, which constantly meters when in the 'on' position, with the reading displayed as a simple 3 digit EV number (eg 12.3) on the face of the incident dome.

Oh well, we can all dream..

 

[Ljós]

Ok, one more thing: when you press the battery test button, needle shoots to the right... and is LOCKED! 🙂 So it would have been possible to keep the needle stay put for a while. Possibly this takes more power, and Sekonic decided against it. Oh well. Battery life is supposed to be very good with the Sekonic, so I guess the tradeoff is justified. My Digisix was a joke when it came to battery life.

 

[CSG123]

I recently got one and it operates the same way. While I think they should be cheaper than $105 (Amazon) I think they certainly are built decently enough for most circumstances. I use mine to check my guess on exposures with my M4 and see if we agree. I don't rely on it by itself.