40 year old CL - is your meter still accurate

I Don't know how off mine is as I really never get to use it much and only taken a few photos with it.

Had it adjusted for 1.5v

DON
 
Mine is also 2 stops off (with a Wein cell installed). Set to ASA100 gives the exact same reading as my Sekonic 308 does when set to iso400.

I have noticed that sometimes the 'air cell' will seem OK when checked with the battery test button but, if it isn't fresh, it will give the wrong exposure.
 
mine took a trip to Sherry Krauter's spa about a year ago, had the voltage adjusted for a modern battery and general tune up, now working like new
 
Mine seems to be actually quite accurate. I use it with LR44 and a Skotchy (spell?) diode adapter and I had the meter fixed once some 12 years ago so maybe it shouldn't be regarded as a "40 years old meter" but still. I remember that at the time I used the camera in very cold temperature (below -40 C) and apparently the cable in the harm would not flex enough. Whether this is what really happened or not eventually the meter stopped working completely but just before that happened I actually had readings several stops away as you are reporting. Maybe I had all the process happening very quickly thanks to the -40 C but at any temperature the cable eventually get altered by the flexing in a way that gives that bad reading...I don't know. Whatever the reason if eventually the meter stops working and it is not worth fixing I would be almost happier to have the harm removed and be able to use collapsible lenses as I seem to be able to guess exposition most of the time and despite this I am paranoid enough to carry a light meter with me most of the times anyway...

GLF
 
newspaperguy said:
Mine is fine with the last of my mercury cells...

then we'll have to see what happens.

Rick
Click to expand...

Hi,

Mine works fine with Wein cells but I get annoyed with them as they have a shortish life once started and I throw mine away because they've died rather than been used up.

I am seriously thinking of one of those expensive adapters that takes the cheapo hearing aid batteries. But would I get through a packet of say six before their shelf life was reached? OTOH, they are dirt cheap.

Regards, David
 
Mine seems to work fine with an LR44 cell, though it's not been adjusted. I generally under- or overexpose depending on the brightness of the scene metered, and generally my pictures come out pretty well. Never shot slide film with it, though.
 
Mine is like 15 stops off! It functions, and senses light more or less, but it'll center the needle in an extremely low light situation... at 125/f16! :bang:

In the meantime, my L-358 will read the same situation at ~15/f2 😛

This is with a functioning, brand new mercury cell. I guess I'm due for a new CDS cell... or a spot meter.
 
The link on how to do the light meter adjustment has pretty detailed instructions except for one thing. How do you get the cover over the screws off? The cover on my CL is recessed, with no easy way to get to it without causing paint loss or worse.

If anyone finds a way to do it without damage, I would like to know.

Thanks.
 
One caveat.
There are two different versions of the CL electronics and they have different adjustment potentiometers (screws). I do not have the full information at hand, but don't be surprised if your camera does not coincide with the procedure above.

BTW, In my camera, the cover over the adjustment holes is just a metal adhesive foil, virtually impossible to remove without some damage.
 
My meter was 2 stops off, causing underexposure. So, I decided to adjust it, using the directions at the link given above. My CL matches the camera described at the link.

With the back of the camera taken off, you can see three screws on the bottom plate. Two are near the battery, and the other near the film canister side. Removing the screw on the film canister side allows the bottom plate to lift up (mine sprung up a little ways). That opening created by the plate lifting gave me room to get a thin blade (X-Acto knife) under the edge of the bottom end of the cover-plate. The cover-plate is held in place with contact cement. Carefully working the blade inward and toward the top of the camera, I separated the cover-plate from the body without any damage to either. The cover-plate that I took off is made of thin aluminum, thicker than foil, but pretty thin.

I used cotton swabs, denatured alcohol, and elbow grease to clean off the old contact cement from both the removed cover-plate and the camera body.

I followed the directions given at the link above, and brought the meter into pretty good adjustment. It's not perfect, as the tiniest adjustment to each screw can make a bigger than expected difference, but after about two hours, I had the meter in fairly good agreement with another meter at 1/2 second, 1/60 second, and 1/1000 second.

Then I adjusted the battery check screw, so that the needle centered when checking the battery.

Now I need to buy some contact cement and put the cover-plate back on. EDIT: Done. The cement is drying now.
 
Last edited:
My CL meters correctly at f:2, giving me 1/125th in the current light - just compared with my iPhone lightmeter app, but here it comes:

When I stop down the lens (Jupiter 8 with clean aperture blades.....), the meter gets out of sync. For 1/60th I have to stop down to nearly f:4, for 1/30th I'm between f:5.6 and 8....

Why this? If the meter is fine at one setting it should continue consistently, or not????
 
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