Sekonic L398 Direct Reading Slides

[madNbad]

Recently I bought a unused Sekonic L398A Studio Deluxe III and decided to add a direct reading slide kit. The kit cost about as much as I paid for the meter and thought it would be fun to try. When the kit arrived today, it's a look into the recent past of photography. In a time when digital cameras have ISO in the 100k range it's quaint to see numbers such as 12 and 16 listed, realizing not so long ago a film rated at 800 was considered extraordinary fast. Unless there is a drive to bring back Panatomic X most of the slides will go unused but for currently available films rated up to 400, with the proper slide the meter is incredibly fast to use. It won't replace my 308s but it never needs a battery.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

The slides were designed decades ago and never updated, which is why they don't have them for high ISO speeds. Another thing is that they were primarily designed for use in cinematography. Movie cameras shoot at a single shutter speed, so exposure is controlled by either changing the aperture or changing the brightness of the light (which is easy to do on an indoor movie set). So, a meter that simply points to the aperture to use is very convenient for movie work.

 

[madNbad]

Since the meter was originaly developed for cinematography (Norwood Director) the slides make sense. It is an easy meter to use, even if it lacks many of the features of the digital meters.