Q-dog
Established
Hi,
Welcome to another meter thread!
I am thinking of buying a compact meter for incident and reflected metering. The most interesting candidates seems to be Sekonic L-208 and Gossen Digisix. Does anyone have experience from both of these?
I also wonder if anyone could suggest where to get a good price? Preferably in europe.
/Ola
Welcome to another meter thread!
I am thinking of buying a compact meter for incident and reflected metering. The most interesting candidates seems to be Sekonic L-208 and Gossen Digisix. Does anyone have experience from both of these?
I also wonder if anyone could suggest where to get a good price? Preferably in europe.
/Ola
bmattock
Veteran
I have the Digisix. I like it a lot, but it has some quirks you should know about.
It is small, light, and seems durable. Has a white dome so it does both reflective and incident metering. I paid extra to get an accessory shoe mount kit - hardly worth the extra money, but nice to have.
It reads out in EV - you then apply that to the spinning dial to get your shutter-speed and aperture settings. This can be a bother to some. I like it because it matches my old fixed-lens rangefinders that lack a meter and have the dreaded LVS shutter-speed / aperture locking mechanism. I just transfer the EV reading to the LVS and I'm set no matter what - no need to twirl the dial on the Digisix. Ideal.
It does not have an off switch. Idiotic design. The battery is hard to get to and fiddly. Also idiotic. It has a very dumb method of setting the ISO - you have to click (beep) click (beep) one ISO value at time until you get to the one you want. Go past it accidentally and you have to step through them all again. Dumb. Plus, it makes noise while you're doing it - I hate that. I want quiet.
It also has a built-in temperature gauge that records the highest and lowest (as I recall) temps it has been exposed to since the stupid thing was turned on. What the heck is that good for? I really don't need it to tell me what the temperature is.
However, as a pocketable meter which I can trust for semi-accurate meter readings while perched on an ancient Agfa Karat IV, I like it very much.
I won mine as second place in a photo contest, else I would not have it - seems a bit pricey for what it is to me. But I'm glad I have it.
It is small, light, and seems durable. Has a white dome so it does both reflective and incident metering. I paid extra to get an accessory shoe mount kit - hardly worth the extra money, but nice to have.
It reads out in EV - you then apply that to the spinning dial to get your shutter-speed and aperture settings. This can be a bother to some. I like it because it matches my old fixed-lens rangefinders that lack a meter and have the dreaded LVS shutter-speed / aperture locking mechanism. I just transfer the EV reading to the LVS and I'm set no matter what - no need to twirl the dial on the Digisix. Ideal.
It does not have an off switch. Idiotic design. The battery is hard to get to and fiddly. Also idiotic. It has a very dumb method of setting the ISO - you have to click (beep) click (beep) one ISO value at time until you get to the one you want. Go past it accidentally and you have to step through them all again. Dumb. Plus, it makes noise while you're doing it - I hate that. I want quiet.
It also has a built-in temperature gauge that records the highest and lowest (as I recall) temps it has been exposed to since the stupid thing was turned on. What the heck is that good for? I really don't need it to tell me what the temperature is.
However, as a pocketable meter which I can trust for semi-accurate meter readings while perched on an ancient Agfa Karat IV, I like it very much.
I won mine as second place in a photo contest, else I would not have it - seems a bit pricey for what it is to me. But I'm glad I have it.
tripod
Well-known
Just judge exposure by eye and the sunny-16 rules.
(ducks and runs away)
(ducks and runs away)
bmattock
Veteran
Why, I oughta....
Gumby
Veteran
bmattock said:
This would be useful for shooting Polaroid and Fuji instant film materials where temp is a variable in teh development time.
wintoid
Back to film
LOL.... I'm not gonna say "you don't need one" 
BillP
Rangefinder General
Gumby said:
I think you'll find that the manual suggests it is useful for telling how hot your film stock has got. You leave it with your film and...
Regards,
Bill
Gumby
Veteran
BillP said:
That is interesting, but wouldn't be the first thing I'd think temperature knowlege is good for.
bmattock
Veteran
BillP said:
a) You're probably right.
b) You read manuals? Icky!
c) Not sure what good that information does me, other than to make me sad that I let my film get so hot. I'm still going to use it!
BillP
Rangefinder General
bmattock said:
...it was a slow day...
Regards,
Bill
mr_phillip
Well-known
I use the Sekonic and really like it. It's tiny, light but very nicely made. It's also analog which I find much faster than digital meters. I've used a Digisix once and, while I normally really like Gossen meters (my 'big' meter is a Gossen Lunisix F), the Digisix felt like something that fell out of a cracker – it worked ok but I wouldn't want to rely on its longevity.
Graham Line
Well-known
The different Sekonic 308 meters are all lightweight, read incident and reflected and take a AA cell. They're aren't particularly small -- which is why I haven't lost mine -- but slide into a shirt pocket. I'll trade easy-to-read scales for tiny.
Q-dog
Established
tripod said:
I knew this was coming!
Actually, I read in Montefiores Stalin biography that he was playing a game with his friends were they had to guess the temperature outside. Then they had to drink as many glasses of vodka as they were off. I plan to play this with EV.
For my shooting I rely on "another grey day 5.6".
/Ola