How often do you use a light meter

How often do you use a light meter

  • All/most of the time

    Votes: 162 44.5%

  • more than half of the time

    Votes: 68 18.7%

  • half of the time

    Votes: 34 9.3%

  • less than half of the time

    Votes: 47 12.9%

  • almost never

    Votes: 53 14.6%
  • Total voters
    364
seakayaker1 said:
I use the meter in the M9, M6TTL, and MP, so it would be all/most of the time.

I am picking up a Rolliflex and do plan on purchasing a light meter. Was thinking about a Sekonic L-398A Studio Deluxe III, any thoughts?
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I love my Studio Deluxe - paired with my M2 I am totally battery free - quite liberating when travelling to remote areas. (I have been caught out a few times with unavailability of batteries or spares that are dead when using a metered camera)

As regards low light - yes have to agree with Chris, it's not so good. I tend to increase the exposure by a stop or two indoors when it's very dark, depending upon the light, this usually works out OK.

When I had my IIIf a few years back I used to use sunny 16 all the time with fairly good results, however I now feel more comfortable using a hand held meter to check the exposure every now and then, or for difficult lighting conditions.
 
About half the time.

When shooting with my M6 outdoor I mostly use sunny 16, and when indoors I do one or two readings and shoot all frames accordingly, compensating if I feel it requires.
I use an external light-meter.

On digital, this is a different story, since the metering is there all the time.
 
I use the meter in my camera to give me an idea of exposure but never trust the thing.

I use a handheld meter whenever I use flash.
 
I wished I were more hardcore, but I'm also insecure. So out there with my M4-P I usually use my meter to check my guestimates...
 
Well I'm mostly using my eyes and brain.
I use a meter for inside shots with continuous light or flashes, or when I really need some precise info (nightshots, churches...)
 
Generally, I meter all the time, but not necessarily for each and every shot. If I'm shooting under unvarying lighting conditions, I meter then shoot until conditions change. If I'm shooting large format or portraits in any format, I'll meter every shot just because the results need to be spot on.
 
I usually meter - why waste precious film and/or ruin a good picture? ;) to be honest, i don't trust my guesstimates. Maybe if I stayed with one film only, i could learn to know it well enough, but I like to switch between various films/ISOs, and/or use filters.

Depending on the camera, I use the inbuilt meter or my handheld. I love old, mechanical cameras, many of which don't have a meter. Then I use either my Weimarlux Nova (old, simple, reliable and without battery) or my sekonic L 758 (reflective, incident and spot). Sometimes, I still manage to screw it up, though :D
 
I shoot with an M5. 'Nuff said.
When I'm not shooting with the M5, I use a Gossen Luna-Pro sbc. 'Nuff said.
Poor exposures are always operator error. In my case.

Wayne
 
If you mean a hand-held light meter then about 90%, if you include build-in light meters then 100%. Why guess if you can measure 100% accurate? And those that say "sunny 16" I'd like to see them shoot slides without bracketing.
 
Spanik said:
those that say "sunny 16" I'd like to see them shoot slides without bracketing.
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My father did it for decades, shooting Kodachrome in a IIIf/Summitar. His GE meter died before I was born, and he never fixed or replaced. Sometimes a little overexposed, sometimes a little underexposed (especially late evening light), but he mostly nailed 'em.

I use a hand-held incident meter nearly all the time, reflective mode when called for, and usually in-camera meter for SLR tele work.
 
I first guess the exposure, then I use a spotmeter to confirm. I am getting really good at guessing the exposure that I need. This is especially good for indoors since the light levels do not change much inside a building. Outdoors, I start thinking of the Sunny 16 Rule, and then I adjust. Then I meter to confirm. When there is no time to meter, I do not meter.
 
I only use a meter on cloudy days and with studio lighting. I use my ZoneSimple system, described on my web site, for sunny days. I like the way highlights and shadows create another layer of interaction over the forms I photograph and shoot mostly black and white in sun for this reason. I use digital mostly these days on cloudy days and find no real advantage to using film anymore under compressed scale conditions. I usually convert to black and white. When I shoot color, I almost always use digital these days, When using digital, I almost always set the camera to apperture priority. When I shoot with studio lighting, film or digital, I meter with a Luna Pro F.
 
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8021/7633827486_f584d9f2d9_z.jpg

I use the meters in tricky light - extreme low light, macro work etc and the times when I use non 400 iso film. This is my "collection" of Gossen Luna Pro's - they are big and a bit clumsy to carry around - but the work well in low light.
I am trying out a new (to me) developer - Crawley's FX 10 which contains Kodak CD 2 (a color developing compound). First attempt was OK - except that it kept depositing "blobs" on the film. It is supposedly the finest grain you can get without a loss of speed.
Acros 100 @ 125, FX 10 for 8 min. Nikon F3HP and Micro Nikkor 105mm f4.0
 
I just shot a 120 roll of Velvia without a light meter and i have no idea what it will turn out like, I know it's not going to be forgiving though :)

R
 
Nearly always take a first reading to put me on the right track but after that only if there is a marked change of light.

The only exception is if I am shooting APX 400S ,which is unforgiving of exposure errors, and then I use a metered body.
 
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