Etalon Expotel-64 light meter- How to?

[unicycletim]

Hi, I just got one of these second hand for not much, but I can't work out how it works. Any advice would be appreciated. It's got a selenium cell, so (I think) it doesn't need batteries.

I couldn't find much information on a google search

I tried to post an image, but I can't since I've got less than five posts here.

Thanks in advance

 

[Diapositivo]

You use it just like any other external meter. You should search "external light meter" on APUG and find plenty of information or go to the "Exposure Discussion" section of the Forum and walk through.

As this is a selenium meter my advice is to pay attention to lateral light. When you meter something in shade in front of you, and you have the sun laterally, you must shade the light meter with your hand as the small lenses in front of the selenium will catch lateral light and you will end up with the typical back light underexposure.

Modern light meters with a silicon cell have the cell "recessed" in some sort of a funnel so that the light can be read from a narrower angle (such as 20° or 30°) without being fooled by a lateral sun.

Fabrizio

 

[unicycletim]

Ok, thanks for the useful information.

I took the meter apart and had a look and figured out how it works, but it's not working properly. When you have your hand blocking the cell it reads zero, but when you put it right in front of a bright light it only goes up a tiny bit. So I guess there's some electrical fault in the meter.

 

[John Koehrer]

Selenium cells do die =( Some times the contact between the frame will corrode.
If you can find a similar sized cell you might be able to jerry rig it to fit.