Light meter questions

[cp_ste.croix]

I was wondering if you folk use light meters on your old RF's?

I'm not interesting in studio flash photography or anything like that...I'm mainly a street shooter and candid photog. In my head, the light meter is used right next to the subject, is this the case? If it is it's not really practical for my type of shooting. Would it make that much of a difference? I have an EOS 1v and i think the internal meter is great on that (though carrying it around sort of defeats the RF obsession).

I am also on a budget, so any suggestions or opinions would be great. Thanks in advance, I really love all of the knowledge floating around this site.

Chris

 

[chug]

My mate uses a Voigtlander VC Meter II on his M3. Seems to do the trick. http://www.cameraquest.com/voivcmet2.htm

Cheers

 

[nwcanonman]

It all depends of what kind of light meter you get. With an "Incident" meter, you do want to measure the same light hitting the subject.
With a "spot" meter, you point it at the subject and measure a small portion of the reflective light coming from the subject.
A reflective readng, measures a more general (larger area) amount of light reflecting from the subject.
My Sekonic L316B incident meter only cost me $50 used from Ebay, it uses one AA battery and is about the size of a cigarette pack.
Enjoy researching.

 

[Honu-Hugger]

I'm a dedicated incident light meter user, but whatever you decide to use will perform satisfactorily if you use it properly. The important thing to remember with reflected light meters is that they are calibrated to read 18% grey, and this is true whether using a general reflected light meter or a spot meter. To read surfaces reflecting more or less light requires compensation for a proper exposure. I use a Minolta FlashMeter which accurately reads incident light as well as flash, and a Minolta SpotMeter -- both read out digitally as well as an analog scale.

 

[richard_l]

If a handheld meter is inconvenient, use the Ultimate Exposure Computer
However, if you don't feel up to that, an incident meter reading can be taken very discreetly.

 

[Jeroen]

I just bought a (second hand) Gossen Digisix. Seems like a neat and small meter. And remember that metering before every shot is not necessary: just remember what speed you get in open light and in the shade and you'll be fine shooting on the street.

 

[peter_n]

I have a meter in one of my cams and two externals. I like taking incident readings when I can but I also often depend on the sunny 16 rule. I use film that has decent latitude so in general my exposures are there or thereabouts.

 

[Heath]

I have a few vintage meters that read reflected and ambient light. Werk great too.

The best ones I have ar my Kalimar Auto-Dial, Etalon Special and Palec PE-1. I also have a Seconic L-458 Digiflash for my studio stuff.

Check out EBay and you may get a great bargain.

Heath

 

[stephen_lumsden]

I treated myself to the new sekonic 308s (seems good) as a birthday present, but I think they are discounting the older 308 BII now, which is also quite useful.

 

[Doug]

Yes, I've "always" had an external meter, since I've pretty much always had cameras without meters... or with unreliable meters. Even when your main camera has a built-in meter, a good accurate external meter is useful for backup and as a check on the function of the camera meter. And you can learn a lot about exposure by just studying the meter and what it does.

As long as you're getting an external meter, it might as well have an incident reading function as well as reflective. I find the incident method most useful. And whatever you choose it might as well be a good reliable meter, and one you find convenient to use.

Some meters read out in EV numbers which you then transfer to the calculator dial to choose a shutter speed/lens opening combination. Some older cameras have EV numbers on the lens, so for them this kind of meter would be handier, but I think it's unnecessarily clumsy otherwise. I like a "null-reading meter" where you rotate the calculator dial to zero the indicator needle. This is pretty quick. Just about as good I think is one where the calculator dial moves its own needle that you then match with the indicator needle.

For the incident reading feature, you should be able to simply slide the white plastic dome over the cell window. Some meters may have the white diffuser a separate piece to attach when needed, but it can be mislaid or left at home.

Selenium cell meters are nice in that they don't need a battery, but the sensitivity probably won't be adequate in low light. A CdS (Cadmium Sulfide) cell has good sensitivity, needs a battery, but has a short-term "memory" for the previous light condition, influencing the reading until it stabilizes. Best I think is a Silicon cell, with good sensitivity, no memory, but still taking a battery.

For size, some excellent meters like the Gossen Luna series are inconveniently large. I like one somewhat smaller, but it doesn't need to be tiny. The Gossen digital meters are fine in size, about as large as I'd want, easily fits a shirt pocket. Still, I prefer an analog meter. Can't have everything, but you can try for the best mix! 🙂

 

[pshinkaw]

I generally don't rely too much on built-in lightmeters except for when I'm doing something that only a TTL meter can do well. or if it is the only way to operate the camera. That usually means using a zoom lens. macro work or slide copying. Even then I bracket.

I like hand-held meters, but I sometimes get confused over hwere to point an incident versus reflected meter. So I bought the following instruction book:

"Hand Exposure Meter Book", Martin S. Silverman, Jim Zuckerman and Bob Shell ($20 US). I highly recommend it.

-Paul Shinkawa

 

[Kin Lau]

I leave an old Western selenium meter in the car, no good in low light such as indoors, but it's okay after sunrise & before sunset.

I also have a Gossen Luna Six w/ a spot meter attachment, being my most reliable and sensitive meter before being given a Sekonic 308B 😀

 

[RObert Budding]

For B&W:

I like spot meters. For portraits, I just meter the skin. If shaded, I just use the meter reading (zone V). For fully illluminated skin, I open up two stops (zone VII) and use my normal development time.

I'll meter bioth shadows and highlights for other shots. Expose for the shadows and adjust development for the highlights. Not too complicated.

Robert

 

[RubenBlaedel]

use sekonic 508 for almost everything but sometimes a weston II in order to be retro trendy with my rolleiflex automat or my old IIIf leica 🙂 have a small gossen i keep for backup do not trust the build in or build on meters that much though - I am impressed by the yashica meters on the electro and the lynx - good reults for something 35 years old.