Favorite light meter

[Steve B]

Hey everybody, I'm new here so I thought I start out with an easy one for all you gear hounds out there.
One of my favorite cameras is Contax IIa that my father in law gave me. It works wonderfully and I love using it. My only annoyance is the fact that my light meter which I got when I was shooting more medium format (a Sekonic L-508) is pretty much just as big as the camera. This, for me, almost negates the convenience of grabbing a small camera on the way out the door so I've been looking now and then for a smaller and handier meter in the hope that I'll use the camera more. I'm sure there are some classic RF shooters out there with a favorite small meter (or two) to recommend. I'm open to either a modern digital or a period piece as long as its reasonably reliable and accurate and, as I said, not too big. Affordable is good, too. I'm also happy using either an incident or reflected light meter but have somewhat of a bias towards ambient. Thanks all,,,,,,,,

 

[JoeFriday]

hey Steve.. welcome to RFF.. and nice choice in cameras.. what lens does your IIa have? I have two meters.. a tiny Digisix that sees a lot of use.. and a Luna Pro SBC that I actually prefer, but the size is a bit more than I care to have smacking me in the chest when I walk around with it around my neck

 

[back alley]

favourite small meter is the pilot/pilot 2 from gossen.
can be had oon ebay, used, from 20 bucks with some patience or up to 60 if you want one now.

favourite full size meter is luna pro.

joe

 

[VictorM.]

Calcu Light or Weston Master II. Neither is really small, but fit a pocket easily. Master II is better than I expected and suits my IIIf.

 

[Byuphoto]

Norwood Director Type C

 

[wlewisiii]

Depending on how you like to go, I have a VC Meter II. A bit expensive and reflective only, but it's accurate and looks kewl in the Contax shoe. The other meter I like best is a good old fashioned GE PR-1 selenium meter from the late '40s to the middle '50s. If you get one that's accurate it's a nice decent sized meter that will do incident as well if you have the clip on. Unfortunately for me, my little one got his hands on my good one... 🙁

William

 

[remrf]

I only have one but it does everything I need. Gossen Luna Star F. I have a "photo" vest I wear when I'm out shooting and the meter fits in one of the top pockets easily and is handy when I need it and doesn't flop around on the end of the cord around my neck.

 

[peter_n]

Welcome Steve! 🙂 Calculight XP if you shoot in very low light, Megatron EuroMaster 2 if you don't like batteries, Minolta Autoflash III or IV if you use flash 😱. My favorite is the Calculight. Small & light, incident & reflected, about $60.

 

[ErnestoJL]

Welcome to the Forum!!
If you look for something that can be mounted in the accesory shoe of your Contax IIa, IMO you may look for either a VC II, or a Metraphot II (selenium cell).
The Voigtländer is better in terms of wider exposure range, but the Metraphot is close to a collector´s item as the Contax, and fits perfectly the accesory shoe and Contax appeal.
I´m currently using a Gossen Luna Pro (handheld and my favourite), a Gossen PIlot, and the Metraphot allways placed in the acces. shoe of my Contax II.

Ernesto

 

[RayPA]

Calculight is about the size of a deck of cards. It's my favorite. Like Peter stated, great low light meter.

 

[Steve B]

Thanks!!!!!

Thanks!!!!!

Well, thats a ton of good info to digest/research. I'll be taking a look at all the suggestions online soon. I have looked at the VC hotshoe jobs and thought it might be a good solution but I also like the small handheld ambient guy, too.
Joe, the camera came with a 5cm Tessar f3.5 but I picked up a Sonnar 50mm f2 for a reasonable (I think) price as I wanted a faster lens.
I really like the look and feel of the camera inspite of the tunnel-like viewfinder. I had been researching rangefinders for the year previous and really wanted to try shooting with one. I had (and still have) Leica lust pretty bad but when a box of old cameras showed up and one of them was the IIa you can imagine my delight. Especially when I found that it worked flawlessly. Since then I've purchased a Bessa R2 with Konica 35mm f2 that I also love but I want to use them both. Looking forward to taping into the wealth of RF knowledge here. Other questions to follow, who knows maybe someone will even post a question that I have some input on. Stranger things have happened.

 

[popitz]

This is my favorite lightmeter. I always have it in my pocket.

 

[SolaresLarrave]

Mine is the Leica MR4 I use on my M3. Not my only meter, but I find it even more reliable than my Sekonic L-208, even though it's a lot older.

And welcome to RFF! 🙂

 

[Steve B]

A little research

A little research

Well, I took a look at all the meters recommended, at least what eBay had to offer. I find that eBay is a great place to look at stuff and find what things are selling for, at least there. The Digisix looks super cute and does both ambient and incident. Turns out I already have a Weston Master II and a GE PR-1 "For film and plates", I love it, but I didn't feel like their readings were that consistent. I actually forgot I had them in the box of old stuff. I think I'll experiment with them more. Maybe I was trying them in too low light situations or something.
Once you get known as the "camera guy" in the family you wind up being given all sorts of stuff. In my case this is a good thing as I like old cameras, have a lot of them and have shot a bit with most of them. Great fun.

 

[djon]

My ultimate meter has been a Minolta Flashmeter IV, but I'm learning to trust a Digisix totally as well. Prior to the Minolta, my favorite was a big traditional Sekonic studio thing, don't remember the model..358? I much prefer incident to reflective readings, probably because I think first in color.

 

[Graham Line]

Sekonic's 308BII has been pretty reliable and accurate for me, though the 318 that preceded it died of dampness -- a hard condition to avoid west of the Cascades. Occasionally I use a Gossen Super-Pilot that I've had for 30 years. It's still very accurate within its range but not much use in lower light.

 

[Steve B]

lower light

lower light

Hey again all, more great input! I've just gone outside with grey card, modern meter (Sekonic L-508) and my 2 older meters inherited from my father in law (a Weston Master II and a GE PR-1). My previous tests of these meters were pretty lazy and always were in low light conditions and the results were pretty inaccurate. After reading some of your posts I realized that I was asking too much of the things and that they're just not sensitive enough to give good readings in the ev 2 range. Under full dayllight conditions they behave much more accurately giving results pretty close to each other and my modern meter. I think I'm still going to go for a Digisix as soon as the checkbook recovers from xmas I think as the thing is just too cute and handy looking.
One of the things I like about rangefinders is that they force you to think more in advance of raising the camera to your eye about what you are doing, what the light is like, your distance to subject, desired depth of field, etc, and using an ambient meter really seems to complement this style of shooting. I know I'm preaching to the choir on this one. At the other end of the spectrum I was laughing at myself this summer as I was using my DSLR to shoot some macro of the flowers in the backyard. I was using an old Nikkor 55 micro f2.8 AI that doesn't talk to the camera at all as it doesn't have a chip in it so in spite of taking some handheld readings I still found myself just taking the picture and then reviewing the histogram to see if I needed to open up or stop down. Kind of the opposite of using the rangefinder in that I was just taking the pic first and then checking to see of I was close instead of deciding on a reading before even composing the pic.
Please don't read this as a bash of digital photography, just a comment on the different approaches that each seems to lend itself to. The one with the dellight of absolutely instant feedback, the other encouraging a more thoughtful and deliberate approach. Have a great xmas everybody.

 

[Steve B]

More thanks

More thanks

Hey all, thanks again for the advice on a meter. I've just ordered a Digisix to use with the IIa as you will remember that my Sekonic is almost bigger than the camera and just isn't as handy as I like an RF to be. I'm looking forward as well to checking out the aesthetically odd combination of the modern looking meter mounted on the hotshoe of the classic looking IIa. I hope this convenience leads me to use the camera more as I really like the feel of it and the Sonnar 50 f2 seems like a pretty nice lens as well. Here's a pic I shot of my nephew with it that I rather like. Now I'm hoping to shoot more with it. Cheers,,,,,,,,

 

[wlewisiii]

Interesting that this thread should resurface today. I got a Sekonic L-28c Studio Deluxe in the mail today. That's a really nice selenium meter that does incident and reflective metering. I'm still playing with it but I like how it handles and it agrees with the Canon 7's selenium meter so things are looking good that way. EV4 is it's bottom limit, but that's actually pretty good for a selenium meter.

Hope that the Digisix works well for you. I've used that meter and it does do a good job, I'm just have a touch of masocism and like using the old selenium meters.

William

 

[SteveM(PA)]

Hey all, thanks again for the advice on a meter. I've just ordered a Digisix to use with the IIa as you will remember that my Sekonic is almost bigger than the camera and just isn't as handy as I like an RF to be. I'm looking forward as well to checking out the aesthetically odd combination of the modern looking meter mounted on the hotshoe of the classic looking IIa. I hope this convenience leads me to use the camera more as I really like the feel of it and the Sonnar 50 f2 seems like a pretty nice lens as well. Here's a pic I shot of my nephew with it that I rather like. Now I'm hoping to shoot more with it. Cheers,,,,,,,,

I like the juxtaposition idea, old and spanking new...like a Tolomeo lamp atop a shaker table...or something cool and juxtapositiony like that blaah blaah...both the pinnacle of their domain.