R
ruben
Guest
I am not sure if to laugh or to cry.
Long time ago I purchased a cheapy Gossen Pilot, which can be seen as the sellenium version of the actual Digisix, although if I am not wrong it is even smaller. Not to speak that it is less than half size of the Sekonic L-308.
Within the limitations of Gossen design, regarding making the dials as hard as possible to read, the Pilot enjoys a bit more of simpliciy. Not that Gossen designers took care to make either the f/stops or the speeds scale against a black background, as they apparently had no time for miscellaneous details. But at least they took care not to mess the basic numbers too much, perhaps for the same reason, this time favouring the users. Fine, let's move on.
At one corner of the pointer field there is a white dot. What the hell is this white dot for ? The best my mind could imagine, is that when the meter is not working it should rest at that extreme white point, which is partly true provided the meter has been propperly calibrated. But my meter never did.
So I calibrated it against my Sekonic and the readings went not bad for a narrow spectrum of light. I can fairly assume previous users of this meter did the same.
But lately, upon reading, fixing and trying the meter at the Kievs, I came to learn that to calibrate a Kiev meter you should close the meter door, bring the lights of the room low and then, using the screw bring the pointer to the black dot. That black dot over the mark "4".
Thus some minutes ago, it crossed my mind that perhaps the white dot of the Pilot serves for the same purpose. So I turned the screw not to match another meter reading but to reach that white dot, and, Bingo !
Now my Pilot can read incident readings of a very well lighted room at night, very close to the Sekonic. And this is very much that f/2 at 1/30 capability that I need for my Kievs.
Now, before you run desperately to the Bay, kindly take care of pushing the sellers against the wall, with questions concerning the well being of the meter, and re-fund policies. Sellers themselves may have no idea about what the white dot is for, and I advise not to tell them in order to keep prices low. But you can ask if meter responds to light, etc. (*)
A fair price for a Bay working meter should be between 20 and 40 dollars. A seller out there selling for a hundred and over, may be either crazy, or testing if you are.
The Pilot is a shoe mount meter, with dismountable shoe, and comes with an armour like case, which most of the chances you will not like to bear. But finding a Pilot with a shoe, or a shoe alone, is rather challenging. The Pilot comes in three versions: 1) lacking the white dot for calibration, 2) with the white dot, 3) with the white dot, but called "Pilot 2". In Europe the Pilot was sold as "Sixtino". The "Gossen Super Pilot" is a totally different and bigger beast.
Cheers,
Ruben
(*) And don't forget that Aussie sellers at eBay are the best of the Planet !
=========
Dear Noel,
If you manage to show self restrain and not punnishing me here, I promise you an even better mea culpa tomorrow, regarding some spring at the Kiev 4AM winding spool.
Long time ago I purchased a cheapy Gossen Pilot, which can be seen as the sellenium version of the actual Digisix, although if I am not wrong it is even smaller. Not to speak that it is less than half size of the Sekonic L-308.
Within the limitations of Gossen design, regarding making the dials as hard as possible to read, the Pilot enjoys a bit more of simpliciy. Not that Gossen designers took care to make either the f/stops or the speeds scale against a black background, as they apparently had no time for miscellaneous details. But at least they took care not to mess the basic numbers too much, perhaps for the same reason, this time favouring the users. Fine, let's move on.
At one corner of the pointer field there is a white dot. What the hell is this white dot for ? The best my mind could imagine, is that when the meter is not working it should rest at that extreme white point, which is partly true provided the meter has been propperly calibrated. But my meter never did.
So I calibrated it against my Sekonic and the readings went not bad for a narrow spectrum of light. I can fairly assume previous users of this meter did the same.
But lately, upon reading, fixing and trying the meter at the Kievs, I came to learn that to calibrate a Kiev meter you should close the meter door, bring the lights of the room low and then, using the screw bring the pointer to the black dot. That black dot over the mark "4".
Thus some minutes ago, it crossed my mind that perhaps the white dot of the Pilot serves for the same purpose. So I turned the screw not to match another meter reading but to reach that white dot, and, Bingo !
Now my Pilot can read incident readings of a very well lighted room at night, very close to the Sekonic. And this is very much that f/2 at 1/30 capability that I need for my Kievs.
Now, before you run desperately to the Bay, kindly take care of pushing the sellers against the wall, with questions concerning the well being of the meter, and re-fund policies. Sellers themselves may have no idea about what the white dot is for, and I advise not to tell them in order to keep prices low. But you can ask if meter responds to light, etc. (*)
A fair price for a Bay working meter should be between 20 and 40 dollars. A seller out there selling for a hundred and over, may be either crazy, or testing if you are.
The Pilot is a shoe mount meter, with dismountable shoe, and comes with an armour like case, which most of the chances you will not like to bear. But finding a Pilot with a shoe, or a shoe alone, is rather challenging. The Pilot comes in three versions: 1) lacking the white dot for calibration, 2) with the white dot, 3) with the white dot, but called "Pilot 2". In Europe the Pilot was sold as "Sixtino". The "Gossen Super Pilot" is a totally different and bigger beast.
Cheers,
Ruben
(*) And don't forget that Aussie sellers at eBay are the best of the Planet !
=========
Dear Noel,
If you manage to show self restrain and not punnishing me here, I promise you an even better mea culpa tomorrow, regarding some spring at the Kiev 4AM winding spool.
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