spot metering on a budget

[Michael I.]

I have a gossen lunapro(recalibrated for silver batteries oleg) which is very good and classic - but i would like something with a spot option. What are my options on a shoestring budget(selling the lunapro + 50$ or so-what the going price for the lunapro anyway)?

 

[Mark Wood]

Polaris with 10° spot attachment? (About £130 in the UK.)

 

[Michael I.]

how comfortable is it in use?

 

[Nikon Bob]

This might work for you http://cgi.ebay.com/Gossen-Luna-Pro...607431479QQcategoryZ88670QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem .

Nikon Bob

 

[Michael I.]

thanks - I prefer buying stuff from forum members. Will post in the classified section.

 

[ruben]

...

Three dogs, a cat, two horses, two rabbits and a ferret - oh an M3 and an MP, and a Bessa R2S, Bronica RF645, Mamiya Press, Mamiya 645, and Nikon Fs & F3s - just to prove I'm not Leicacentric

Any companion ?

 

[back alley]

There's a spot attachment for the Luna Pro - well, semi-spot. It gives 7.5 and 15 deg readings. It's commonly available by auction, and is reasonably inexpensive.

Jenni

jenni,
i have one of these but never have used it.

last night i tried it out at home.

i pointed my luna pro at the refrigerator and took a reading.
i then put the spot attachment on and took another reading, pointing at the same place on the fridge.
i used both 7.5 and 15 degree.
the reading was very different with & without the attachment in place.

it seemed the variance was too great to be accurate.

does this sound about right or is there something i might be doing (wrong) that is causing the difference?

joe

 

[kaiyen]

What I did was low-ball prices for the soligor spot meter on ebay. The digital version is the same as the Adorama digital one. I ended up with an analog model for $26. They are usually closer to $100, which is still pretty affordable.

allan

 

[BrianShaw]

jenni,
i have one of these but never have used it.
...
does this sound about right or is there something i might be doing (wrong) that is causing the difference?

joe

I use the luna-pro 7.5/15 degree adapter occasionally and sometimes suspect a difference like Joe mentions. I haven't done a whole lot of experiementation, but one day I did a clear-blue sky test: measured the clear-blue sky at 30 deg, then at 15 and 7.5. There were no significant differences. Measuring real scenes seems to have differences, however, but never enough to make a major difference... to me, at least. For me a .5 stop difference is inconsequential. For others, this is totally unaceptable. My suggestion is to consider this device if your tolerances are fairly loose, but get a real spot meter if your tolerances are small.

The biggest problem I've had (begin confession) is making mistakes when transfering readings from the meter to the calculator when using the 7.5/15 attachment. The 7.5/15 adapter has a color-coded slider to select the angle-of-view. More than once, I've taken a "green" (15deg.) or "red" (7.5deg.) value and entered it on the luna-pro claculator as if it were a 'yellow' (30 deg.)value. This results in exposure settings that are 1 to 2 stops wrong. (end confession)

Another thing I've noticed is that there is sometimes a memory effect in the CDS cell. After metering a very bright scene, any measurements following are inflated. I seem to recall that this is an inherent characteristic of CDS, but is seen more often when "scanning" a scene with the spot attachment. When using the spot attenchment I try not to quickly scan a scene... which somewhat limits the utility of this system.

 

[BrianShaw]

Hi Joe,

You have to transfer the reading to the computer dial using the red registration mark for 15 deg and the green mark for 7.5 deg.

Jennie is absolutely correct... I was assuming that Joe meant the EV was different.

 

[back alley]

i did the transfer.

i need to try some outdoor outdoor scenes and experiment some more.

joe

 

[Nikon Bob]

thanks - I prefer buying stuff from forum members. Will post in the classified section.

I did not mean for you to buy it but thought you might like to see what one looked like. Sorry if you misunderstood. I have one of those spot meter attachments and rarely use it. I also have an old Soligor spot meter that is very large, similar to a small blow dryer, that works very well but is a pain in the backside to carry.

Nikon Bob

 

[rpinchbeck]

I use the Luna-Pro 7.5/15 attachment all the time and have been for 15 years. It is very accurate but you have to compensate by +3EV when using the 7.5 setting. It's pretty easy with a Luna-Pro as you read the EV number at the little green mark for 7.5 and the red mark for 15. Straight up with no spot attachment is the usual yellow triangle.

My only beef is the size of this when it is on the meter.

Cheers,

Russ Pinchbeck

 

[Nikon Bob]

Lovely dog portrait there, Nikon Bob 🙂

Thanks. My wifes handy work with our digital and some cropping in PS.

Nikon Bob

 

[JeffGreene]

Lunapro SBC w/ Spot

Lunapro SBC w/ Spot

The lunapro SBC has a variable angle attachment mentioned earlier and a multibeam spot attachment with 1, 5 and 10 degree options. It attaches directly to the SBC meter. I have seen them on the bay for as little as $50 to $75. I have one, and it works beautifully.

 

[Kin Lau]

I've got the LunaPro + spot meter attachment as well, and the last time I used it, it was fairly accurate. I'll have to check again when I get home.

 

[dll927]

If the meter needs a +3 EV compensation, I'd say the meter is a little screwy. What's the point in that situation? No one has brought this up, and I don't mean it to be redundant, but remember that a 'spot' reading is very probably going to be different from when the meter is reading the whole scene. THAT'S when you would have to make decisions about any form of comprensation. In other words, what is important to you in the scene? And you always have the option of taking the shot at different settings (bracketing) - in which case, depending on the emphasis involved, any of the shots could be a 'correct' exposure.

 

[BrianShaw]

It's not a 3EV compensation -- the scale on Luna Pro does not measure EV directly. The *measured value* ranges three scale digits depending on the angle of view. 30 degree uses the entire CDS cell; 15 degree uses about half of the cell; 7.5 uses one-quarter of the cell... the slider on the variable attachment being the controller of how much of cell sees the scene. When the scale value is correctly entered into the calculator, the EV window displays a constant (correct) EV. This, ov course, depends on a consistent "single zone" subject like the open sky or a single-colored wall... as dll927 mentions.

 

[back alley]

geez, i just hate when i get dopey...and i must have been dopey last night when i was playing with my meters.

i took both lunas outside today, took a reading of a grey wall in bright shade - the readings were the same.
then, i put the spot attachment on each meter and took readings at both 15 and 7.5 degrees. at 15 the readings were basically the same as with no attachment but at 7.5 they both read about 3/4 of a stop less light.

this time i moved the dial and adjusted for the red and green settings and i'm thinking maybe i didn't do that last night...hence the dopey.

and i want to thank my saturday shooting buddy russ for pointing out that the meters can be zero'd. this ended the discrepancy problem between the meters i thought i had.

i feel so much better now...

joe

 

[BrianShaw]

geez, i just hate when i get dopey...and i must have been dopey last night when i was playing with my meters.

(snip)

i feel so much better now...

joe

I'm glad you feel better. Being dopey on occassion is one of the pitfalls of being human!

hey, I just had a great idea... would you like to discuss spot metering of incident light measurement?