Anyone else LOVE Minolta Light Meters?

spanishfly said:
My trusted Minolta F isn't powering up. I let the battery fester and leak. Cursed my stupidity changed for a fresh one powered up for a split second then died. Cursed some more!
Upon opening the case all is pristine and curiously with a good battery inserted there is a red LeD illuminated! Not visible from outside with the case closed can only imagine it is telling a service engineer something? Problem is Konica Minolta no longer service these meters and neither does Sony. Does anyone know of a service manual or the significance of the strange red LED glowing away to itself in a dark sealed case?
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Quality Light Metric still services Minolta meters. They recalibrated my Flash Meter IV last year. They're a company in Los Angeles that does nothing but service and calibrate light meters, and they are the BEST at what they do.
 
Spot F

Spot F

I am a meter hog - I freely confess. If it's a meter, at one time I had to have one. Skipping to the present, my first Minolta meter was a IIIF. I used it for a few years but found that incident metering was not my preference, and its reflection usage is clumsy. I replaced it with a Spot M, which used the silver oxide battery in this early version. That meter was burgled, so I replaced it with another early Spot M, which in turn I upgraded to a later Spot F. I bought an early View 9 (semi-spot meter) on a whim, but have yet to set it up for a non-mercury battery; a smaller and very useful meter if I get it going.
 
I had an Autometer IIIF for likely twenty years, changed it out for a Sekonic L-328 Flashmate somewhere in the 1990s. It was a fine meter, it worked brilliantly all those years.

The Sekonics (I have several now) have similarly done me great service. I mostly use an L358 now, but the L328 is still going strong. I have a new L478 that I haven't used much yet, with a ton more features.

G
 
Minolta is all i ever had. I would not dismiss a sekonic though cause a meter is a meter. Measures light. It does not need a quintessential design or quality.
 
I love exposure meters , had a Lunasix ( stolen ) in, the seventies . Then I still have a Sekonic L-398 and a Minolta IV F , which doesn't work properly anymore , hope it can be repaired , so nice in the hand and fast . The Sekonic isn't correct anymore , I think the seleniumcell has to be replaced . Once in Beijing the IV F didn't work due to the cold , but I had the small Sekonic wich kept metering fine . I need a new meter soon , only use invercone , advice welcome ... thank you !
 
Meter Repair

Meter Repair

My trusted Minolta F isn't powering up. I let the battery fester and leak. Cursed my stupidity changed for a fresh one powered up for a split second then died. Cursed some more!
Upon opening the case all is pristine and curiously with a good battery inserted there is a red LeD illuminated! Not visible from outside with the case closed can only imagine it is telling a service engineer something? Problem is Konica Minolta no longer service these meters and neither does Sony. Does anyone know of a service manual or the significance of the strange red LED glowing away to itself in a dark sealed case?

I bought a camera a few years ago with this symptom. Open up the meter again and look closely at the wires running power from the battery holder to the circuit. You may find that the corrosion got between the wire and its insulation and the wire has rotted enough to break the circuit when you put fresh power on it. To test, disconnect the power leads at the circuit board and jump the battery holder/new battery to the circuit with replacement leads. It may be no more than replacing one or both power wires.
 


I just purchased my first light meter, and largely as a result of this thread it's a Minolta!

I found a great deal on a Flash Meter IV and so far so good. Has a lot of buttons but I really like the design. Part of me thinks I should have splurged on the VI for the built in spot meter, but it's a big price difference. I'm watching eBay for a good price on the viewfinder accessory for the IV.

Ambient meter is great, but I'm trying to figure out the flash meter. Wondered if anyone here would have thoughts. I want to test it with my digital camera before trusting myself with film. My only option for that is a Fuji X-Pro 1 and some old Nikon speedlights (SB-20 or SB-9).

I think I have things set up correctly--same settings (iso/speed) on meter and camera, fire test flash, set the camera to the aperture produced on the meter by the test flash--but the results are very very very underexposed.

So, I'm not sure if I'm using the meter incorrectly, or if there is a problem between the old Nikon flash and the Xpro. The flash is definitely firing. And there is a clear difference between the image with no flash and what I'm getting. Any thoughts appreciated!
 
twvancamp said:
I just purchased my first light meter, and largely as a result of this thread it's a Minolta!

I found a great deal on a Flash Meter IV and so far so good. Has a lot of buttons but I really like the design. Part of me thinks I should have splurged on the VI for the built in spot meter, but it's a big price difference. I'm watching eBay for a good price on the viewfinder accessory for the IV.

Ambient meter is great, but I'm trying to figure out the flash meter. Wondered if anyone here would have thoughts. I want to test it with my digital camera before trusting myself with film. My only option for that is a Fuji X-Pro 1 and some old Nikon speedlights (SB-20 or SB-9).

I think I have things set up correctly--same settings (iso/speed) on meter and camera, fire test flash, set the camera to the aperture produced on the meter by the test flash--but the results are very very very underexposed.

So, I'm not sure if I'm using the meter incorrectly, or if there is a problem between the old Nikon flash and the Xpro. The flash is definitely firing. And there is a clear difference between the image with no flash and what I'm getting. Any thoughts appreciated!
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It is an incident light meter, so be sure when you take the reading that you are standing where the subject is, pointing the white dome directly at the camera lens. You can have someone else stand at the camera and trigger the flash.

The flash itself should be set to manual, not one of its auto modes. If you have things set correctly and you're metering the right way, and the photos are still underexposed the meter needs serviced. Are ambient light exposures accurate?
 
Thanks for the response, Chris!

I've been propping up the meter in a subject position, keeping the dome on and the flash is set to manual.

I did a very rudimentary test for the ambient meter: putting the meter in even lighting and comparing the results to my phone meter app and an in-camera meter that has been trustworthy. Maybe not a perfect test, but it confirms the meter is at the very least close to on target, much closer than the results of the flash test suggest.

Is it possible the ambient metering works, but the flash metering doesn't?

Or maybe the problem is the compatibility between camera and flash.
 
twvancamp said:
Thanks for the response, Chris!

I've been propping up the meter in a subject position, keeping the dome on and the flash is set to manual.

I did a very rudimentary test for the ambient meter: putting the meter in even lighting and comparing the results to my phone meter app and an in-camera meter that has been trustworthy. Maybe not a perfect test, but it confirms the meter is at the very least close to on target, much closer than the results of the flash test suggest.

Is it possible the ambient metering works, but the flash metering doesn't?

Or maybe the problem is the compatibility between camera and flash.
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Its possible for the flash metering to be out of calibration when the ambient light metering is good.
 
I was looking into sekonics with the spot meters when I remembered that the flashmeter vi exists. (More affordable and I was always more of a Minolta fan anyways)

Just curious, has anyone worn out any switches on these meters? Is the build on the kenkos just as good, or is it like when the vivitar flashes that went downhill after they got bought out?
 
Two of my best meters over the years have been my Gossen Digital F and my Minolta digital Autometer. Last week when I wanted to add a spot meter I bought a used Sekonic L-408 off of ebay. I thought I'd like the combination spot and incident metering. I probably would have, except it wouldn't stay powered up. I got a couple of readings with it, and then it started shutting down. I checked the battery, which read 1.59 volts no-load. But it was only a heavy duty battery, not alkaline, so I put in a fresh Energizer alkaline. There was no difference. It still shut down. In fact, in incident mode, it would shut down the moment I pressed the button to take a reading.

So I sent it back. Now I'm looking at the Minolta Spot Meter M. I think I would like its ability to give a direct exposure readout off of a choice of shadow, average, or highlight (though I'm not sure just how much correction it applies). I don't know if it treats a shadow as zone III, or some other value, for instance. It lacks the incident light function, though. Still, I have that with all my other meters.

So I'm just not sure if i should try again with another Sekonic L-408, or give up on Sekonic and try the Minolta. Any thoughts?
 
I bought a Minolta Spotmeter new when it was introduced and still have it. It works perfectly after 40 years.
For me it is an amazing photographic tool. It is fun and instructive to check exposure of each detail in a composition. One can also take averages or expose for the highlights or for the shadows.
I don't use it much for flash because I have a RTSIII, which has the flash meter built in.
I didn't buy other Minolta meters because I had a Lunasix, but I was tempted by the Minolta Color Meter. Back then it was expensive so I gave up.
 
Having returned a non-working Sekonic L-408, I was going to try for a used Minolta Spotmeter F or M. But now, I've received my Spectra Combi-2 back from calibration by Spectra-Cine, and I'm questioning whether I should still look for a spotmeter just now. I'm thinking that too many meters might be as bad as too few! I'm thinking mostly about whether I'm likely to need a spotmeter for Colorado later this summer. I can remember some exposures I've missed there where a spot reading would have gotten me the best exposure. But the error was underexposure caused by an overly bright white sky inflating a reflected reading. And I am supposed to know better. An incident reading would have avoided the error.

So maybe I will let my new-to-me Spectra be sufficient for this year, and leave the spot meter to look forward to another year!
 
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