Question about VC-II meter

[wilonstott]

I recently saw a thread about a guy whose M6 meter gets hard to read when it's really bright outside, and that got me thinking about a problem I have with my VC-II meter.

When it's really sunny outside, I have a really hard time seeing the LEDs without shielding it from the sun.

Small thing, I know, but it does slow me down somewhat. I think I've missed a few shots because it's taken me too long to read the exposure and then set it.

I was wondering if anyone has quick DIY fix for this.

Thanks in advance.

 

[thegman]

I guess you could glue on a little hood or something, a 1cm high ring of plastic around the LEDs would probably make them more readable in bright sun.

 

[FrankS]

You can make the led's brighter by hooking up a car's 12v battery to the meter. It becomes somewhat less portable though.
😉

Really, just shade it with your hand.

 

[MartinP]

It's a limitation of the LED. Try to find a meter with illuminated LCD instead, or use one with a mechanical needle (though that option would be tricky at night for an in-camera meter).

For the Leica M's there is the very excellent option of the Leicameter, MR or MR4, which also has the benefit of direct coupling to the shutter-speed dial. They work fine with hearing-aid batteries or silver-oxide cells - not with Alkaline cells though.

 

[wilonstott]

So, purchase a car battery and a completely different light meter.


(...quickly scribbles items into 'To-Do List'....underlines them....places a question mark after 'car battery'...pauses for a moment, then erases aforementioned question mark, remembering that people on the internet never lie...)

I knew I was asking the right people.

 

[MartinP]

As I said, the bright-light problem is a consequence of the design of the meter. Nothing to be done.

 

[FrankS]

Did you actually think there was some kind of fix for this situation when full sunlight is stronger than an LED?

 

[thegman]

Did you actually think there was some kind of fix for this situation when full sunlight is stronger than an LED?

I just cover mine with my hand, but there is no reason you couldn't just glue on a light shield. Sunlight is obviously stronger than the image on a TLR waist level finder, which is why they have the popup hoods, no reason the LEDs couldn't have a tiny little hood.

 

[FrankS]

As I said in post #3, shade it with your hand.
Light shields are going to make the meter more bulky and will likely get knocked off going into and out of a camera bag.

 

[Monochrom]

Hi, in deed i remember the m6 tends to flare a lot...but on a sunny day you don´t need to much of a meter...sunny 16 will do!

As someone said earlier make a shade with your hands and try to avoid using the built in meter for everything...use it only when a fine reading must be used...

After all film has a wide dynamic range so you can shoot easily!

Cheers!

 

[wilonstott]

Don't take my sarcasm the wrong way. Occasionally guys will have little workarounds that I've never heard of (...little piece of polarized somethingorother, etc.)

My point in asking was to try and avoid having to use a shade (first world problem, I know).

If that's simply the nature of the beast, cool, I'll deal with it.

Just thought I'd probe them that would know.

 

[Godfrey]

Haven't run into the problem, really, but I'd just shade it with my hand temporarily. I don't find myself using the Voigtländer meter much, tho: I tend to prefer an incident meter.

In any event, I am rarely in a rush or miss shots because I didn't get a chance to meter. I always pre-set my exposure settings, and keep tweaking the preset settings as the light changes.

G