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  #1  
Old 15th December 2008, 02:46 PM
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Default Light meters

Having successfully dropped and seemingly killed my cheap and cheerful Soligor spotmeter, I'm faced with the prospect of having to replace it if I can't fix it. There seem to be two choices, another 'simple' spot meter of the Pentax-type (digital or analogue) or the more complicated all-singing, all-dancing style (e.g. one of the Sekonic spot/flash/incident meters).

Does anyone have a preference for their work, especially those using large format? If so, what do you like/dislike about your meter?

Thanks
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Old 15th December 2008, 03:15 PM
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Like you I use a Soligor. I did buy a Sekonic meter such as you describe from Ebay. However when checked alongside the Soligor the spot readings from the two meters were within a fraction of a stop of each other. So I sold the Sekonic as I found it's bulk, weight and compexity annoying, and I have little use for incident or flash metering.
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  #3  
Old 15th December 2008, 03:27 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave View Post
So I sold the Sekonic as I found it's bulk, weight and compexity annoying, and I have little use for incident or flash metering.
Thanks Dave

This sums up my quandary. I have not yet found the need for incident or flash metering, but there's always the nagging "well I might need it one day" thought to go with it. Perhaps simple is the way to go. If I find I need a flash meter, then perhaps that's the time to worry about it. Also, my old Gossen Lunasix can sort me out for incident metering if pushed.
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Old 15th December 2008, 03:39 PM
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If you are doing landscape work then I would have thought a spot meter is indespensible.
Which one depends on whether you are buying new or second hand.
I use a minolta spot meter F which is the Flash version. But because it is a the F version, when you meter the time remains constant and it gives the Fstop setting required. You can then press the up or down arrows to put the aperture where you want it and the time alters correspondingly.
Pressing the Average button once after the first reading allows you to take a second reading which gives a constant readout in the viewfinder of the SBR from the first reading as you scan the subject. This feature makes it one of the best meters for zone system working IMO. But each to his own. I'm sure all the other meters have things to reccommend them. Oh, and it is quite small and compact compared to others.
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Old 15th December 2008, 07:09 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Armadillo View Post
Having successfully dropped and seemingly killed my cheap and cheerful Soligor spotmeter, I'm faced with the prospect of having to replace it if I can't fix it. There seem to be two choices, another 'simple' spot meter of the Pentax-type (digital or analogue) or the more complicated all-singing, all-dancing style (e.g. one of the Sekonic spot/flash/incident meters).

Does anyone have a preference for their work, especially those using large format? If so, what do you like/dislike about your meter?

Thanks
My work horse meter for my LF work is the Pentax digital spotmeter. Accurate and reliable, it is also quite compact, much smaller then their analogue version which I also owned at one time. I've attached a zone scale (III-VIII) to it just to speed things up when considering important shadow and highlight detail.

I also use a Weston Euromaster when I'm doing general street photography when I just need a more average reading.
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  #6  
Old 15th December 2008, 08:26 PM
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Sekonic L-558 here.

I also used to have a Soligor spot but found that annoyingly bulky - odd that from such a small sample, so many have owned what I had always assumed to be a pretty obscure meter.

I often use an incident reading as a "sanity-check" if I don't believe what my spot-metering is telling me (and it's amazing how often an incident reading would have worked just as well as my carefully calculated shadow-reading placement - but likewise shows me when I added stops when I should have been subtracting them... ).

The L-558 bell-and-whistle I do like is the memory function coupled with the analogue exposure display scale along the bottom. Take a highlight reading, store it, and then a shadow reading and you can see the brightness range in stops on the scale.
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Old 16th December 2008, 10:19 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Armadillo View Post
Thanks Dave

This sums up my quandary. I have not yet found the need for incident or flash metering, but there's always the nagging "well I might need it one day" thought to go with it. Perhaps simple is the way to go. If I find I need a flash meter, then perhaps that's the time to worry about it. Also, my old Gossen Lunasix can sort me out for incident metering if pushed.
I have an old but very trusted Weston Master V with Invercone which I find really useful as a backup to the meter in my M6. It also means I can take readings without drawing attention to myself when I am in my H. Cartier Bresson mode
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Old 18th December 2008, 06:45 PM
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Like Trevor, my workhorse is a Digital Pentax Spotmeter together with a newly re-celled Weston Euromaster and Invercone for incident readings.

I also have a Gossen Profisix that I have used for years but never really got on with.

Before I got the Euromaster revitalised with a new Selenium Cell, I too considered a new meter but was put off rather by the shear number of functions that modern meters are equipped with.

I wasn't sure if they would be a "must have" after being used a couple times or an irritation that just gets in the way.

I am a strong believer in KISS – it works for me

Martin
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Old 18th December 2008, 09:20 PM
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Thanks all for your comments and suggestions. It's quite interesting to see what people think about their meters. Time (and budget) have meant plumping for an analogue Pentax spotmeter. Fingers crossed it arrives in time to shoot some more film over Christmas and New Year. I just have to make sure I don't drop this one!
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