Light meter recommendations, please.

[Jesse3Names]

Hi all,

I have been trying to get an old Sekonic L-248 Multi-Lumi light meter working, but for some reason it's reading ~5 stops over in bright daylight with a fresh battery installed. Sometimes it clips the top of the EV scale (past 18 EV), so in certain scenes it's reasonable to assume that it's >5 EV wrong.

I'm looking for a dual meter with incident and 1 or 5 degree spot metering abilities. I shoot 75-80% landscapes but am shooting a wedding on my S3 in 1.5 months so I'll use the incident metering almost exclusively there. Current top contenders are the Sekonic L-558, Sekonic L-328 with 5 degree spot attachment, and the Gossen Starlite. I don't want to spend over $350, which is why I'm looking at meters at least a few years old and used, but my concern (especially with the L-328) is that they'll go the way of my 30-some years old L-248. Do these meters have issues of getting off on their readings or is that a unit-by-unit issue? Is it worth spending an extra $200ish on the L-558 or Starlite over the L-328 + 5 degree spot viewfinder to get more modern tech and sensors inside? Am I missing any obvious contenders? Thanks in advance.

Cheers,
Jesse

 

[Tijmendal]

I've got a 558 that is great! A 5 degree spot-meter is useless in my opinion - way too wide. I reckon a 559 is right in your price range. Also, the advantages of the newer 700 series is minimal. I did a side-by-side comparison with the 758 and they're practially the same meter.

 

[Godfrey]

I'm still using the Sekonic L-328 that I bought nearly 20 years ago. Seems to be in perfect shape, metering is right on the money. Far as I know, it's all solid state—I don't know what could go out of adjustment.

I've been thinking of selling it for an L-358. I've got the spot attachment too although I never use it.

G

 

[oftheherd]

You might want to consider what it would cost and how long that would take to get your L248 back in good working condition. Sekonic has made some very good meters that generally tend to work well. I have a Studio Delox L-28c2 that I have used for some 40 years. Works perfectly. It has even overcome my dropping it.

As you probably know, for a wedding, you need a meter that works well in subdued light, and if at all possible, you should attend the rehersaal not only so you know how the ceremony will go, but what the lighting conditions will be, and if the preacher/priest has any restrictions on when photos or flash can be used.

 

[judsonzhao]

Just bought a L-308S, quite basic and easy to use, maybe you want to check it out

 

[Jesse3Names]

I really do like the L-558 because it has a 1 degree spot feature built-in... no attachment to carry around and install/remove on the fly. Sekonic never made a spot attachment viewfinder (of any degree FoV) for the L-248, so if I'm going to put money into it I would rather just send that money towards a meter that does what I need it to off-the-bat. I won't be shooting a flash at the wedding mainly because I don't own an S3-compatible flash and I'm not very well trained on the operation of that with film - where you can't immediately view your results. The L-308s doesn't have a spot viewfinder attachment available, so I don't want to consider that one with the others.

I just found the Sekonic L-508 meter with 1-4 degree zoom spot optics. I would imagine this would go for a little less than the L-558 and I see no significant difference for my purposes - I won't be using this meter with a flash, so I ignore those features. Has anyone used the Gossen Starlite meter? There's one on KEH for roughly the price of an L-558 and it seems that they're well-loved through time as accurate meters.

 

[semilog]

http://ww.lu.mu/index.html

 

[Jesse3Names]

http://ww.lu.mu/index.html

I'm not too keen on the Lumu. It's definitely in my price range, but it doesn't do spot metering at all. And no I don't trust the light meter apps to spot meter in low light. It's not a bad idea, but I wish they would've developed a true iPhone case with a spot and incident features to turn the iPhone into a portable light meter. But then, you might as well buy the Sekonic L-758D/DR if you want a touch screen meter.

Edit: Sorry, I meant L-478D/DR if you want a touch screen meter.

 

[Spanik]

Got myself an L-758D years ago and that was the best photo-related thing I ever spend money on. It has paid itself already more than back in not-missed-shots.

 

[hausen]

+1 on the L-558. Spot meter is a must for me.

 

[ottluuk]

If your usage is along the lines of "incident for casual, spot for serious work" then you might actually be better off with two separate meters – a small, simple, inexpensive incident meter (Gossen Digisix, Sekonic L-208?) and a dedicated spot meter (Pentax V, Minolta F, Gossen Spotmaster …). Just a thought.

 

[Jesse3Names]

Here's another thought I want to run by you guys - my good friend just picked up a Canon PowerShot SX700 HS camera that has 30x zoom. It has a effective focal length range of 25-750 mm (4.5-135 mm * 5.556 crop factor). He bought it for the long zoom range that's able to take pictures of avalanches from far, far away when we're backcountry skiing (he runs a local blog on snow conditions in our area). Since it has that ridiculously big zoom range and is the same price as a L-558 (and $70 cheaper than a used L-758 without the module I found at a shop back home), do you guys think I could get away with using it as an incident and spot meter? I feel like it's a great thing to have, because then I always have a nice point and shoot with me to take all the pics I want digitally. I want to put this thing to the test and see if its DIGIC 6 processor can hang in low light, but what are your guys' thoughts? I do a lot of hiking, long mountain bike rides, and backcountry ski days and currently only have my GoPro as a camera for those - if I picked up a waterproof case this could double as a backcountry camera for all the things I do, which is a huge plus.

Edit - I just went into the menu in Av mode and you can change it to meter as Evaluative, Center-weighted average, or Spot. If I chose Spot and zoomed in, I could probably get a pretty tight field of view at 750 mm. How accurate that would be, I am not sure, but film has about 2 stops of forgiveness vs. digital so I don't feel too worried currently.

 

[filmtwit]

Ya might look at the Gossen Digi Pro or Luna Pro

 

[Jesse3Names]

Just did a quick calculation. Zoomed in to 750 mm focal length with the camera 140 cm away from a whiteboard. Measured the horizontal (longest) component of the center rectangle in Spot meter mode (so it's only going to be metering inside that area) to be 1.6 cm. Did some simple geometry (pictured) and calculated the horizontal FoV of this camera at this focal length to be 0.66 degrees. Impressive! Of course it won't be quite as accurate of a reading as a light meter and if I'm shooting at a different aperture than the camera likes I'd have to do some math to adjust my settings, but that doesn't seem too unreasonable to then also have a point and shoot camera with me for quick digital shots. Problem is that this p&s doesn't shoot RAW, but hey - simple is good sometimes and I'm impressed with picture quality so far on this camera.

Here's the math: https://flic.kr/p/nbcvHx