Help needed ! Decision on Light Meter purchase

[Sean Chan]

Dear everyone,

I have came down to 2 final choices:

1. Gossen Digisix (or Digiflash)

2. Sekonic L308S


Without considering the price which one will you guys recommend me to purchase?

The most important factor for me I think will be the ability to measure for night time landscape exposures but seems like the two meters have very similar range EV0 to EV18 @ISO100 or am I not understanding the techical data. Which figures really will tell me how low can a meter read?

I think I will mainly partner it with my Rollei 35 point and shoot for everyday use or with my Nikon FM system when doing more serious photography and all those Russian RF that i have without a light meter on it of course.

Is the 'flash' function really will be of any benefit if I do not plan to do any studio works?

If both are the same I think I will go for the smaller one which means the Gossen.

 

[richard_l]

They are both very accurate. The Gossen is considerably smaller, but the Sekonic is easier to read, feels a little more solid, and uses a cheaper battery (AA). I've used both and prefer the Sekonic, but this is subjective. Either meter will do the job admirably.

 

[Kyle]

I don't want to sidetrack the discussion, but I too am looking at a light meter (the L308s is at the top of my list). A guy at a camera shop told me that digital meters are far more accurate than equivalent analog meters. I'm just curious if that is true, or if going with a digital meter is really based on ease of use. Thanks.

 

[rover]

I have the Sekonic, the penultimate version, it is a very nice meter.

How dark are your landscapes going to be though? I have used it to meter night time street scenes, but being under a street light was the limit. Anything darker was outside of the meter's range.

 

[Skinny McGee]

I recently got a Digiflash... It is an incredible piece of equipment..I highly sugguest it. I am not a professional although I do play one TV....

 

[jlw]

I don't want to sidetrack the discussion, but I too am looking at a light meter (the L308s is at the top of my list). A guy at a camera shop told me that digital meters are far more accurate than equivalent analog meters. I'm just curious if that is true, or if going with a digital meter is really based on ease of use. Thanks.

All other things being equal, a digital meter is NOT more accurate than an analog meter, but it's more consistent because you get the reading as a discrete number, rather than having to interpret the markings on a meter dial.

That's a tiny difference, though. At most it couldn't amount to a difference of more than about 1/6 stop, and that's small enough to get absorbed into all the other variables of exposure (film speed variations, shutter speed accuracy, aperture calibration accuracy, etc.)

So if you prefer an analog meter or find one easier to read, don't let someone browbeat you into buying a digital meter based on the accuracy argument.

Digital meters do tend to be more compact and rugged because they don't require the somewhat fragile mechanism of a moving-needle meter movement, which involves tiny pivots, delicate wires and contacts, and magnets that can attract debris. So if you need a reason to choose a digital meter, there's one.

 

[GeneW]

It may seem an odd way to decide, but buy the one that's the smallest. My experience is that of my two good external meters, I always grab the smaller one because it's less bother to carry around.

Gene

 

[dcsang]

Lately I find myself agreeing with Gene 🙂

I've used the Sekonic L-308B (previous to the "S" version) and I can vouch for it - good, reasonably small (not as small as the L-208 or the Voigtlander VC Meter II), can do flash, incident and reflective and can be used with one hand.

Cheers
Dave

 

[peter_n]

Slightly OT: Interesting discussion on digital/analog between Kyle & JLW. I'm now using what I think is the best of both worlds, a no-moving-parts digital readout that is then transferred to an analog scale so I can see all the combinations at a clance. This paragon of virtue 😉 is a Quantum Calculight-XP.

 

[ray_g]

I have the Gossen and like it for the type of shooting I do. It is small and convenient. It gives EV readings, which you then need to transfer to the rotating bezel to get the f stop/speed combinations, not a direct readout if that is important to you.

Not that it is absolutely necessary, but if you will be doing mainly landscape photography, a spotmeter may be more helpful?

 

[Sean Chan]

oh well, I just took home with me a Gossen Digisix. It is so compact compare to the Sekonic and that's what made me made up my mind at hte shop just now.

 

[Nick R.]

I like the size of the Sekonic. It's small enough to fit in pants pockets but big enough to handle comfortably. You can easily change settings with cold fingers. A meter that's too small becomes just as cumbersome as one that's too large.