Stradibarrius
Established
For those who shoot with modern cameras that has some type meter built in, do you also use a hand held meter?
Do you use a hand held meter?
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Roger Hicks
Veteran
Comparatively rarely. ANY metering technique can be made to work, with a bit of experience. Some have theoretical advantages over others, and even real advantages in tricky lighting with specific materials (e.g. an unbiased incident is brilliant for slide and digi, but a lot less use with neg materials if the subject has a very long tonal range and you want shadow detail) but (1) there's a lot of latitude (which is what saves many people who think they're being precise) and (2) comparatively few people care anyway and (3) if you understand what you're doing you can fudge it.
Cheers,
R.
Cheers,
R.
tlitody
Well-known
Yes I use a spot meter for landscape and any other B+W white work. But I have very carefully calibrated development so I'm certain exactly what applying a spot meter reading is going to do. Without that very careful calibration a spot meter is no better than an incident meter or your in camera meter and probably worse. Modern matrix metering is pretty good (most of the time).
dave lackey
Veteran
Nah...the Nikon SLR and DSLR meter work great. Now, with a camera that has NO meter, sometimes and sometimes I preview with the D40.
That said, if I were doing studio work again, absolutely would use a new digital light meter. 🙂
That said, if I were doing studio work again, absolutely would use a new digital light meter. 🙂
furcafe
Veteran
No, unless, as others have written, I have some technical need for a separate handheld.
Chriscrawfordphoto
Real Men Shoot Film.
I use a handheld most of the time. Some of my cameras do not have meters. The Olympus OM-4T built in spotmeter is so good i never use a separate meter with those cameras, but I almost always do with my Leica M6 bodies even though their meter is accurate.
John Lawrence
Well-known
Generally no. However, there are times when I will use a handheld meter with my M6 TTL such as when shooting in the studio.
I mainly use a handheld meter with my M2.
John
I mainly use a handheld meter with my M2.
John
maddoc
... likes film again.
No, never. I don't see the point in using a hand held meter if my camera has a build-in meter and even more if it has AE (Leica M7, F3HP) 🙂
RayPA
Ignore It (It'll go away)
I prefer to carry a light meter with all my cameras, and only because I like to have an incident metering option. But for me, it depends on the kit I'm carrying, and often it comes down to the amount of space in my bag, especially for my 35mm RF cameras, which have very good meters. For some cameras such as the Mamiya M7, I always try to use a hand-held meter, because it and I have yet to develop a relationship based on trust. 😉
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ray*j*gun
Veteran
My preferred carry cameras are Leica LTM's and Barnack types (Canon II etc)..... so I always carry a hand held out of habit. Although being older and having done this for over 40 years I usually don't need to use it anyway.
Juan Valdenebro
Truth is beauty
Yes. I prefer incident light metering. Reflected light has a much lower degree of precision even knowing how to use any camera's meter and even using a gray card or own skin metering... I know how to use those well too, by the way... But both the angle of light hitting the metered surface and the angle the surface is placed in front of camera can produce -apart from scene's own average evaluated reflected light- different readings, and they don't really speak of required exposure, while an incident metering is a lot more efficient. A lot.
If I'm with B&W and a short development and will get normal to soft negatives, things are cool, and I have space for being from -1 to +1 and yet get decent negatives for wet printing. That's not the case if I'm doing slide film. And if I'm doing color negative I prefer incident metering too if it's possible, because the sky or light sources in the background or sides can fool my meter and give me muddy and grainy shadows and not the cleanest colors... And then there's the situation I hate the most for fast in camera metering and AE: pushed film... I know, if I go to +1 or -1 if I'm really pushing film, I'll miss the image forever... In general, when I'm shooting I carry my incident meter even if my plan is fast street shooting with AE only... I prefer to know in advance about different lights I find while I walk and go from place to place... I try to keep my cameras manually set and as ready as possible... So it's like this: if I can, I know well about incident light before any subject catches my eye, everywhere, all the time... If I have no time, I shoot first (preset settings or AE), and only after getting the shot, I think, to see if I need another one or I trust what I just did... I don't shoot many frames with different compositions of the same subject: usually one... Sometimes two, so I try to get a good exposure the first time. So yes, I carry my incident meter always, and use it all the time, and keep it somewhere I can reach it real quickly, and carry it with its hemisphere out, and turned on all the time... Using it takes me two seconds more or less. It's not big or thick, so I see no reason to leave it home.
Cheers,
Juan
If I'm with B&W and a short development and will get normal to soft negatives, things are cool, and I have space for being from -1 to +1 and yet get decent negatives for wet printing. That's not the case if I'm doing slide film. And if I'm doing color negative I prefer incident metering too if it's possible, because the sky or light sources in the background or sides can fool my meter and give me muddy and grainy shadows and not the cleanest colors... And then there's the situation I hate the most for fast in camera metering and AE: pushed film... I know, if I go to +1 or -1 if I'm really pushing film, I'll miss the image forever... In general, when I'm shooting I carry my incident meter even if my plan is fast street shooting with AE only... I prefer to know in advance about different lights I find while I walk and go from place to place... I try to keep my cameras manually set and as ready as possible... So it's like this: if I can, I know well about incident light before any subject catches my eye, everywhere, all the time... If I have no time, I shoot first (preset settings or AE), and only after getting the shot, I think, to see if I need another one or I trust what I just did... I don't shoot many frames with different compositions of the same subject: usually one... Sometimes two, so I try to get a good exposure the first time. So yes, I carry my incident meter always, and use it all the time, and keep it somewhere I can reach it real quickly, and carry it with its hemisphere out, and turned on all the time... Using it takes me two seconds more or less. It's not big or thick, so I see no reason to leave it home.
Cheers,
Juan
Ronny
Well-known
Most the Sunny 16 but sometimes a hand held meter.
oftheherd
Veteran
I may carry one when using a camera with built in meter, but only if it works even if the meter dies. Otherwise, I know how to use the meter in the camera. If a camera without a meter, always.
GSNfan
Well-known
Using a incident meter is a must for me when shooting b&w. In case of color i don't really care, I use digital cameras and shoot RAW.
Landscape b&w, which I shoot extremely rarely, I'll use digi p&s meter as a guide.
Landscape b&w, which I shoot extremely rarely, I'll use digi p&s meter as a guide.
Stradibarrius
Established
Thanks for some good responses!
RollingBall
Established
Its pretty hard using the Sunny 16 rule in a country with little sun(UK), so I take my Dad's Weston Mater V with me. It also helps me understand different lighting without taking my camera out. Hopefully, after long enough It'll become second nature as to judging correct exposures.
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MPerson
Established
I use incident metering for everything. Weston, Gossen and a Sekonic. I still haven't put the batteries in my seven year old MP.
brandonmsweet
Member
I use sunny 16 and base my exposures off of that depending on the lighting situation. Backlit usually open up 3 stops, hazy bright sun, open up one, overcast 2, heavy overcast 3, or open shade... That said if its paid work i'll usually bust out the sekonic incident
dave lackey
Veteran
🙂Using my M3 with the old Soligor meter with a very challenging lighting situation and I am happy:
