Dead Light Meter?!?

[fmajor]

I bought a Sekonic 'Studio Deluxe' II L-398M and it's cosmetically in new condition. It looks amazing.

However, i am concerned the selenium cell is DOA......

I metered my office wall (sorta dimly lit) w/ISO set for 800. The meter suggested, if i read/used it correctly, an exposure using f2.8 @ 1/25th sec shutter speed. BTW - i did zero the Sekonic before all the testing.....

OK, sounds reasonable - sorta....?!? So then i check it against my Minolta XD-11's and the recommendation is f2.8 @ 1/125 for 1st of the XD-11's. The other suggested f2.8 @ between 1/60 & 1/125. Both have been CLA'ed recently.... I used the exact lens for both camera bodies.

So, i think thats wayyyy wierd. I looked up what a f5.6 aperture needed and the Sekonic pointed to slightly under 1/8 sec. while the XD-11s read a shutter speed of 1/30 sec.....again things are not looking good.

My dSLR agreed with my XD-11's at f5.6 and 1/25 sec....

Where do these things get repaired? I pd about $100 for it initially so am hugely disappointed right now. Plus i'm in Bosnia and bought it a few months ago on *Bay with no way to return it to the e-Bay Seller.... I just got it TODAY - it takes awhile for me to get stuff over here.

HELP!!!!

 

[Anscojohn]

That's a Norwood Director, right? If so, is there, perhaps, one of the light baffle slides in place when it should not be there?

 

[fmajor]

THanks John, but i'd removed the slide thing as well.

Good to see you're tipping past the 2,000 mark!! Congrats on your dedication and participation!!!

 

[Rol_Lei Nut]

The Studio Deluxe is an incident meter while your SLRs are reflective meters.

If your'e metering a white wall with a reflective meter, you can expect about 2 stops or more difference compared to an incident reading.
Again, an accurate incident meter will only perfectly agree with a reflective meter when the metered area has a reflectivity close to 18% grey.

BTW; I still have my Studio Deluxe. Even though I rarely use it now, I can't bear to get rid of it...

 

[fmajor]

1,000,000 thx Rol Lei Nut!!!!

OK, so i've come to the conclusion i don't know what the heck i'm doing. I went outside and checked incident readings and my meter matched the findings of both my XD-11's - HALLEJUAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!