Choosing a Handheld Light Meter

I've a number of meters both purchased and inherited. Here's what I use them for.

Sekonic L-508 - My best all around meter, spot, incident, and flash, but not small. I use it when I shoot large format or posed portraits under my Alien Bees.

An old Sekonic L-398-something - My Dad's old meter, a battery-less classic. Brings a smile to the face of photog's from a previous generation but frankly, I prefer other meters. Looks right with a chrome Leica or Speed Graphic.

Twin-Mate L-208 - a nicely small meter that I find works best in reflected mode in outdoor situations. I use it with my meter-less RF's, ie. Leica M2 and FSU RF's. Using it is reminiscent of the old Gossen Pilot that didn't take a battery.

Sekonic L-308s - the meter I use for "everything" when I don't want to carry the L-508 as it handles incident, reflected and flash. I also use this one more and more in place of the L-208 as I'm more confident with it as an incident meter. Bigger than the L-208 but still a nice size to carry.

Gossen Luna Pro-S - has the operating modes of the L-308s and handles really low-light well. Kinda of a brick to carry, but just the thing if you know you'll need fast glass.

If I could only keep one meter for all situations, it probably would be the L-308s as it isn't too big and handles most of what I need a meter for.
 
Twin-Mate L-208 - a nicely small meter that I find works best in reflected mode in outdoor situations. I use it with my meter-less RF's, ie. Leica M2 and FSU RF's. Using it is reminiscent of the old Gossen Pilot that didn't take a battery.
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I never use the reflective mode of my 208 as I have no clue what it is actually metering. I use it only for the incident mode, which I find gives me generally excellent exposures.
 
Gossen Digisix or Digiflash. You'll get all aperture & shutter priority plus EV measurement all in one go. Very pocketable. Don't remember whether it was backlit, though.
 
On the L-308s, you set the desired shutter speed and it tells you the aperture when you meter.

It would bother me it if it were the other way, but as with many things, mileage varies.
 
With the L-308s, I just take a reading and quickly click the up/down buttons until I get either the shutter or aperature I want. I'm so used to just clicking the buttons that I probably couldn't tell you what priority it is set up for.

I have the L-208 as well, but barely use it now. Never could get consistent ambient performance from it. My chromes exposures became much better when I started using the 308.
 
bean_counter said:
With the L-308s, I just take a reading and quickly click the up/down buttons until I get either the shutter or aperature I want. I'm so used to just clicking the buttons that I probably couldn't tell you what priority it is set up for.

I have the L-208 as well, but barely use it now. Never could get consistent ambient performance from it. My chromes exposures became much better when I started using the 308.
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It seems like with my Minolta I'm almost always shooting wide open with the fastest shutter speed possible which would make aperture preferred metering pretty handy. I usually don't care what my shutter speed is, as long as it's fast enough not to get motion blur.
 
I picked up a Gossen Luna Pro SBC today from craigslist for $40. It's in perfect condition and as I'm learning how to use it right now, it seems perfect for me.

How many other Luna Pro models were there? Is mine one of the better ones or one of the worse ones?
 
I searched for the right light meter myself for a while. I started with a sekonic studio deluxe. These things are only good for outdoors really, and then I can just use sunny 16, so what's the point. It is nice that they don't need a battery, but they're terrible in low light. After reading about the extremely low light capability of the calculights, I got a couple of those. The first was d.o.a. so I took it apart to see if I could fix it. I think they were poorly made, just basically a light cell and circuit board in a plastic box. I got another that was accurate, but had a short and went through (expensive batteries) in about a week or two. However I had a Calculight and Calculight X (both LED models), so maybe the XP is more reliable. Now I have a Gossen Luna Pro F, which I like and is good in low light, but is pretty large. What's nice about it, is that it doesn't take the mercury batteries like some of the other Luna Pros, it takes a 9v. I am tempted to get a VC II which seem to be well regarded and I've read are good in low light, but a little pricey.
 
lisa said:
I think they were poorly made, just basically a light cell and circuit board in a plastic box.
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That's all that any modern lightmeter is. Most modern meters have digital readout, which allows some of them to display some cool stuff like averages, and flash to ambient light ratios. All that such a meter needs is a silicon cell and a circuit board in a plastic case....they're EXTREMELY simple inside. The prices are outrageous when you consider that the cost of making them is literally pocket change, yet they cost hundreds.
 
JeremyLangford said:
I picked up a Gossen Luna Pro SBC today from craigslist for $40. It's in perfect condition and as I'm learning how to use it right now, it seems perfect for me.

How many other Luna Pro models were there? Is mine one of the better ones or one of the worse ones?
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The original Luna Pro used a CdS cell and mercury batteries.

The Luna Pro SBC replaces the CdS cell with a modern Silicon Cell and uses easily obtained 9V batteries. Has the same EV -4 low light capability as the original.

Luna Pro F looks like the SBC but adds flash metering capability, but loses low light ability. It cannot read as low of light as the SBC and Original Luna Pro meters.

There's a digital Luna Pro too which uses a modern digital readout. I know its low light capability isn't near as good as the older SBC and Original Luna Pro Models.
 
JeremyLangford said:
I picked up a Gossen Luna Pro SBC today from craigslist for $40. It's in perfect condition and as I'm learning how to use it right now, it seems perfect for me.

How many other Luna Pro models were there? Is mine one of the better ones or one of the worse ones?
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Hard to better than this, if you don't mind the weight and size. It's an excellent meter; now you need to expose a few rolls of film with it to test. Once you get the hang of it and gain confidence with your film and developing, never compare it with another meter. That only causes existential doubt, and pushes you into buying another meter, then another. 🙂
 
ChrisN said:
Once you get the hang of it and gain confidence with your film and developing, never compare it with another meter. That only causes existential doubt, and pushes you into buying another meter, then another. 🙂
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I laugh only because it's soooo true...:bang:😀:bang:
 
ChrisN said:
Hard to better than this, if you don't mind the weight and size. It's an excellent meter; now you need to expose a few rolls of film with it to test. Once you get the hang of it and gain confidence with your film and developing, never compare it with another meter. That only causes existential doubt, and pushes you into buying another meter, then another. 🙂
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I have a Gossen Ultra Spot II, A Sekonic L-508, a Nikon F4 (built in spotmeter) and Olympus OM-4T (spotmeter) and the spotmeter modes of all these handhelds and camera bodies agree 100%! I do have two more OM-4T bodies that both overexpose 1/3 stop compared to my other meters and it does drive me crazy. When I have some money to blow, I'm going to pay John Hermanson to adjust them to match all my other meters.
 
JeremyLangford said:
Sweet. Seems like I got lucky with getting the model I would have preferred the most anyways.
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Yeah, I think you got a good deal. The SBC is the best of the luna pro's in my opinion. Very low light capability, modern silicon cell, modern batteries, very accurate. If you need flash metering, a more modern digital-readout meter is better so I think the F-version isn't worth having since its low light capability isn't as good as the SBC
 
Chriscrawfordphoto said:
Yeah, I think you got a good deal. The SBC is the best of the luna pro's in my opinion. Very low light capability, modern silicon cell, modern batteries, very accurate. If you need flash metering, a more modern digital-readout meter is better so I think the F-version isn't worth having since its low light capability isn't as good as the SBC
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Yea I agree. I just now got finished reading about all the things this meter can do. Heres what I love about it.

1) Incident/Reflective.
2) Exposure range is 1/4000 to 8 hours!
3) You can lock the current metered exposure reading in for a minute which would let you look at the meter with a flashlight in extremely low light conditions.
4) You can easily meter with the exposure correction dial for filter factors (No more taking my dark red filter on and off my Minolta SRT-101 every time I meter).
5) How the meter looks and how its just small enough to fit into pants pockets.
 
I think Frank Petronio's comment about using a Nikon 35 mm for a meter isn't being given thought. I regularly use an R3a and an Industar 50mm that cost $10 for a light meter. If I have camera issues the R3a defaults into a back up camera. I use it for MF and LF work. I've other stuff too but this works very well except in lowlight.

I shoot a lot of low light work and I could care less about low light readings. That's another topic and it's voodoo not light meters or science.
 
That's all that any modern lightmeter is. Most modern meters have digital readout, which allows some of them to display some cool stuff like averages, and flash to ambient light ratios. All that such a meter needs is a silicon cell and a circuit board in a plastic case....they're EXTREMELY simple inside. The prices are outrageous when you consider that the cost of making them is literally pocket change, yet they cost hundreds.
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Yeah I get this. I guess my point was that they are much more poorly made than the other light meters I have. There's a huge difference between my luna pro and calculights as far as the build quality goes.
 
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