How do I get this light meter to work with shutter speed dial?

[Forest_rain]

Vivitar 24 light meter. Bought a CDS meter instead of selenium and it's shoe mounted, which is nice, but it covers the shutter speed dial so I can't see/change the shutter speed. Solutions?


Maybe I just need to raise the cold shoe up a little bit with a cold shoe mount (male) with cold shoe bracket (female) on the top, so I can access the shutter speed dial? Any suggestions?


BTW this is a Canon III. Can the leicameter meters with the built in shutter speed dial work with the canon models?


Maybe I should have just gotten a L-208 instead of trying to save a few bucks buying a vintage meter :/

 

[dourbalistar]

You could try the Reveni Labs Double Shoe mount, and get it off to the side a bit more to clear the shutter speed dial. Alternatively, does the meter have a lanyard mount? I use my L-208 (which I think I suggested in another thread) with a Gordy's wrist strap, and just tuck it away in my pocket.

 

[Forest_rain]

Wow that's great! I was looking for a double shoe mount and all I could find were $100 voigtlander ones 🙁


Also it's good to know that reveni labs ships from Canada...I didn't really want to order one of those digital meters that take forever to arrive from China.

You could try the Reveni Labs Double Shoe mount, and get it off to the side a bit more to clear the shutter speed dial. Alternatively, does the meter have a lanyard mount? I use my L-208 (which I think I suggested in another thread) with a Gordy's wrist strap, and just tuck it away in my pocket.

 

[Johngwill]

...I didn't really want to order one of those digital meters that take forever to arrive from China.

This digital meter only took 3 weeks from China and solves the problem by having an offset hot shoe.

 

[Bob Michaels]

Or, you could just buy a low cost hand held meter and quickly learn the relationship of EV, shutter speed, and aperture when you set them manually.

Very often a simple solution proves to be better than a complicated one.

Bonus is you will learn how to gauge light intensity by eye in a short period of them. Then you will stop even pulling the meter out of your pocket because you have done it so many times in that same lighting that you already know the setting is 1/500th at f11 or whatever works for your particular film.

Double bonus is when your meter tells you 1/125th at f5.6 and you realize that every other time in similar light if told you 1/500th at f11, your brain will holler "Whoa, something is not right!" Almost everyone has metered a roll of Kodachrome at iso 400 or a roll of Tri-X at iso 64 early in their career.

Triple bonus is that you will learn how much your meter reading will vary when you point it at an area that is dominated by shadow vs. one dominated by highlights such as sky. Then you will learn that the meter reading will not tell you the best exposure but only a reading that you must interpret to set the exposure yourself.

 

[Forest_rain]

Can anyone recommend a good handheld meter I can get secondhand on ebay that can fit on a lanyard? I was looking at a Gossen Super Pilot - it's got "super" in the name! Other than that, luna six, luna pro look pretty common...obviously I'd probably want one that can do incident and reflected light.



Yeah I thought about getting a handheld meter but it seems like a hassle to carry around another thing. It's growing on me though, since it doesn't seem like too much to carry around with it on a lanyard around your neck. I'd lose it in my pocket for sure though.

Or, you could just buy a low cost hand held meter and quickly learn the relationship of EV, shutter speed, and aperture when you set them manually.

Very often a simple solution proves to be better than a complicated one.

Bonus is you will learn how to gauge light intensity by eye in a short period of them. Then you will stop even pulling the meter out of your pocket because you have done it so many times in that same lighting that you already know the setting is 1/500th at f11 or whatever works for your particular film.

Double bonus is when your meter tells you 1/125th at f5.6 and you realize that every other time in similar light if told you 1/500th at f11, your brain will holler "Whoa, something is not right!" Almost everyone has metered a roll of Kodachrome at iso 400 or a roll of Tri-X at iso 64 early in their career.

Triple bonus is that you will learn how much your meter reading will vary when you point it at an area that is dominated by shadow vs. one dominated by highlights such as sky. Then you will learn that the meter reading will not tell you the best exposure but only a reading that you must interpret to set the exposure yourself.

 

[dourbalistar]

Can anyone recommend a good handheld meter I can get secondhand on ebay that can fit on a lanyard? I was looking at a Gossen Super Pilot - it's got "super" in the name! Other than that, luna six, luna pro look pretty common...obviously I'd probably want one that can do incident and reflected light.

Yeah I thought about getting a handheld meter but it seems like a hassle to carry around another thing. It's growing on me though, since it doesn't seem like too much to carry around with it on a lanyard around your neck. I'd lose it in my pocket for sure though.

Seriously, the Sekonic L-208. 😉

FYI, there are two Super Pilot models. Both take the old mercury batteries.

 

[charjohncarter]

Can anyone recommend a good handheld meter I can get secondhand on ebay that can fit on a lanyard? I was looking at a Gossen Super Pilot - it's got "super" in the name! Other than that, luna six, luna pro look pretty common...obviously I'd probably want one that can do incident and reflected light.



Yeah I thought about getting a handheld meter but it seems like a hassle to carry around another thing. It's growing on me though, since it doesn't seem like too much to carry around with it on a lanyard around your neck. I'd lose it in my pocket for sure though.

Some very nice RFF member years ago when I ask the lanyard question sent me a beauty. I have my VCII meter on it, and it slips off to fit on my IIIf cold shoe, my cold shoe adapter on my Pentax Spotmatic that doesn't have a meter right now, I even use it on my Olympus 35RC when I don't trust that on board meter, but the best is on the shoe of my Diacord G, and the cold shoe on my Mamiya Super 23. I hope that little meter never fails: I would be lost without it. The Reveni looks like it would be the same.

Don't mind the DIY lens:

Disposable Camera Lens on LeicaIIIf by John Carter, on Flickr

 

[Phil_F_NM]

Gossen Luna Pro or Gossen LunaSix. They can be adjusted to handle silver batteries or you can get the Gossen diode battery insert which accurately reduces voltage. They are incredible meters, everything is right there in front of you, so you don't have to do any mental math. Used prices are usually about $25-60. Make sure you get a working one and don't drop it in water. Even right now I have a backup Luna Pro just in case, but seriously they are amazing meters.
Phil Forrest

 

[dourbalistar]

Gossen Luna Pro or Gossen LunaSix. They can be adjusted to handle silver batteries or you can get the Gossen diode battery insert which accurately reduces voltage. They are incredible meters, everything is right there in front of you, so you don't have to do any mental math. Used prices are usually about $25-60. Make sure you get a working one and don't drop it in water. Even right now I have a backup Luna Pro just in case, but seriously they are amazing meters.
Phil Forrest

Are the Gossen diode battery inserts still available? B&H shows it as "no longer available" and Gossen's website also says it's no longer available.

 

[madNbad]

The Sekonic L-208 also comes with an accessory shoe adapter.

 

[retinax]

Gossen Luna Pro or Gossen LunaSix. They can be adjusted to handle silver batteries or you can get the Gossen diode battery insert which accurately reduces voltage. They are incredible meters, everything is right there in front of you, so you don't have to do any mental math. Used prices are usually about $25-60. Make sure you get a working one and don't drop it in water. Even right now I have a backup Luna Pro just in case, but seriously they are amazing meters.
Phil Forrest

I agree these are the best bang for the buck. However calibrating one requires a reliable reference and a lot of patience, the controls are interdependent. You could use one with hearing aid batteries that have the same voltage as the mercury cells the meters were designed for.

 

[David Hughes]

A simple solution is to look for a hot shoe adapter. They look like this and are very common and usually dirt cheap. You often find them as bunce when buying old cameras:-

They are designed to convert the hot shoe to work with 3mm coaxial plugs on old flash guns. They also raise the meter by enough to get at the shutter dial and so on...


Regards, David



PS This is just one picture from a spiel I did about old flash guns. You can find it here:-

https://idrh.smugmug.com/Photography/Flash/Flash/