Favorite Spot Meter

Joerg

Joerg

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May 18, 2005
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Hi,

I am considering acquiring a spormeter.:D
Which one do you have experience with?

Thanks

Joerg
 
A spor meter is a useful tool. I have experience with Gossen 7deg/15deg attachment for Luna Pro and Sekonic L-558R.
 
I have a Gossen Ultra Spot II and a Sekonic L-508. The Sekonic is an incident meter with a spotmeter built in. Really cool, has a zoom lens so you can do one degree or a larger spot. I usually carry this for day to day use, because its small and accurate, and water-sealed. I do a lot of shooting in the rain. The Gossen has a much better low-light capability though, so its really the better all round spotmeter, but it is huge and was extremely expensive. Both are equally accurate.
 
Soligor 1º Digital is what I have used, with Zone VI dial but not modified. I want to get Richard Ritter to do a CLA and Zone VI mod on it, but he hasn't answered my email. Prolly busy inventing something more important.

It has been very dependable and consistent.
 
I have been using the Pentax Digital Zone VI-modified for well over twenty years, and I've never had an underexposure. It's always been my reference meter.

Interestingly I recently picked up an old Minolta Auto-Spot 1-degree, and it seems to completely agree with my Pentax :)
 
I have been using a digital Pentax spotmeter for the past 15 years. It is not modified and it is perfect for my needs.
 
I've been using a Soligor Spot-Sensor II when shooting 6x6 and I'm very happy with the meter. Considering the meter price compared with the Pentax or Gossen I can't see no reason to spend those extra $!

Best regards all,
Joao
 
For less than the price of a spotmeter, you can get a Nikon N80 or similar with built in spot meter - very accurate I might add.
 
Well, I've tried both of the Pentaxes, Gossen, Minolta, Soligor and SEI.

I'd back Minolta as the easiest and quickest, but unfortunately mine broke and besides Minolta is no longer in the business.

The Pentax V is huge and heavy and takes hard-to-find batteries. But it's well made and easy to use. The Zone VI modification is great if you believe in fairies at the bottom of the garden. I have an unmodified one.

The digital-readout Pentax is a LOT smaller but still wants an odd battery. It's my wife's standard spot meter.

The Gossen is pretty good but the viewfinder is small, the controls are not intuitive and Zone provisions are downright weird. It's also bulky but at least it uses a readily obtainable 9v battery. I have one and can never decide between it and the big Pentax.

The Soligor is cheap and cheerful but not as well made as the others and it's worth checking (with a candle flame) that the one-degree spot actually coincides with the circle in the rangefinder. On the one I borrowed, as far as I recall, it was offset about 1/4 decree to the lower right -- but it was a long tine ago. Actually, this check is worth carrying out with any spot meter.

The SEI is a brilliant piece of engineering and can read 1/2 degree or less but you really need Huw's LED conversion, so it's a bloody expensive option. The upside-down viewfinder is hard to get used to, too. I have one.

Cameras with built in 'spotmeters' are no substitute. Quite apart from being bulky and inconvenient when used as meters for another camera, the spot size is normally too big to be really useful.

Nor can you substitute 'spot attachments' for other meters unless they give you true 1 degree metering. Yes, a 5 degree 'spot' is better than nothing (I have the attachment for my Gossens) but it's inconvenient and less informative.

Hope this helps

Cheers,

Roger
 
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I agree that the Soligor is not as ruggedly built as it could be. On mine I have to use tape to keep the battery compartment door in place. Not a big deal, but annoying.

Other than that, it has worked well and the display is easy to see. I know you don't believe in faeries, Roger, so we'll just agree to disagree. :D
 
I have used two Gossen adapters, one for an older analog, one for a newer
digital meter.

Nowadays I use a spot adapter on my Calculight XP which I love for its
sensitivity and LED readout (readable in the dark :) ). Even have a
yellow filter for it.

Roland.
 
I'd suggest the Pentax Digital or the V, both read in very low light, and depending on where you are batteries can be easy to come by- here in VT most drugstores have them. I got the Pentax V when working in a very dark grain elevator where my Sekonic wouldn't make a reading, and the Pentax performed flawlessly even in -20° F, when it was so dark it could be hard to read the dial. It was then I wished I'd sprung for the digital model with the red light-up reading!

I've not used another spot meter to compare, but these Pentaxes seem quite up to any task I've thrown at them.
 
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Another vote for the Gossen Luna Pro SBC with spot attachment. It is accurate and works in low light. It is a little large. It is also an expensive option since you first have to buy the meter then the spot attachment. I had to wait a long time to get mine on ebay at prices I could afford. The wait was worth it to me. I also have the 7/15 attachment but it isn't as useful. The flash attachment and microscope attachment are more useful to me. I am still waiting to the the large incident dome. I don't feel comfortable with the small dome for incident for some reason.
 
We bought a Pentax digital a couple decades back, when my wife was doing a lot of theatre photography, where it was pretty useful. She hasn't done that for a while, and the meter sits unused. We just don't have a need for it, so I'd have to say I don't have a favorite spot meter.
 
My all-time-favorite "spot" meter was the rectangular, hard-edge 12% "selective" metering in my original Canon F-1 SLR in 1975. Don't know how thay came up with the formula, and I'd never had experience with spot meters before then, but I'll be damned if most of my shots didn't come out bang-on for a still-green shooter.

Closest thing I have to spot-metering at the moment is the spot attachment for my Sekonic L-428. Haven't used it just yet, but I'm sure I'll have the opportunity before long (most likely stage-performance work). Otherwise, the meter in both my Hexar RFs haven't steered me too wrong yet in six years' working with them.


- Barrett
 
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