Gossen Luna Pro SBC or Weston Master V?

[paul ron]

sbc is unbeatable!

for the fire place mantel, westons are very popular and looks great.

 

[Paul Howell]

I have a Weston Master 5, a 2, a GE Model 80, all are still spot on, the most accurate is the GE with hood removed. I also have a Weston Master 9, and Soligar spot meter. I some times carry the GE with a fixed lens 35mm Kowa with 50mm, and the Weston Master 5 as a back up, but when shooting MF and LF I now use a Digital Camera as my light meter. Surprising as it seems best for the job is my old Sigma SD9, with either the 50 1.4 or 17 to 50 2.8.

 

[Kawaiithulhu]

Side note: the SBC takes standard batteries, not mercury like the earlier Luna Pro, and is exceptional in low light situations.
I still have the other Luna Pro that I got from my dad in 1980, prefer the SBC for the low light, you just can't kill those bricks.

 

[John51]

An 8 year thread bump.

I've had a couple of Westons. Light, small and ooze quality. If a newbie thinks it might be the meter for them, broken ones are dirt cheap, the postage will probably cost more. If you play with it for week or two doing pretend readings and get to like owning it, then send it to a pro for a full repair and service. You'll have old style quality working as good as new.

I use a Gossen sbc now because the numbers on the Weston are too small for my older eyes. I can (just) read the ev number on the Gossen without glasses so bye bye Weston. The Gossen is big though. Same length and height as an Olympus XA but a bit thicker.

 

[Ian Grant]

I picked out a Weston V for a new film user at a recent camera fair, I see few these days that have good selenium cells, this one was great however no Invercone but I had a spare.

My first Luna Pro (Lunasix) SBC went into a creek in Alberta when out with Eric Rose and Craig, we dried it out in Eric's toaster Worked fine for another 12 months then went haywire. I'd already picked up a second dirt cheap, and then the same day an even cheaper Lunasix (Luna Pro) F - £30 (just under $42 US) for both plus a 7º/15º spot attachment (2 different sellers).

The Lunasix/Luna Pro SBC or F might be bigger than the Weston meters I loved and used for many years but the Luna Pro/six meters are more accurate in low light levels and also more versatile, the F of course is a flash meter as well.

Ian

 

[tessar]

It comes down to personal preference of course, but for decades now I've never been disappointed with the Gossen Lunasix (Lunapro in the US I think). I was lucky to find the official battery adapter. I find the 5- and 10-degree spotmeter attachment very useful.
It does measure light under a full moon, as the name suggests!

 

[Ian Grant]

It comes down to personal preference of course, but for decades now I've never been disappointed with the Gossen Lunasix (Lunapro in the US I think). I was lucky to find the official battery adapter. I find the 5- and 10-degree spotmeter attachment very useful.
It does measure light under a full moon, as the name suggests!

The earlier Lunasix/Luna Pro's are different to the SBC and F models, I have both. The later SBC and F use 9v PP3 batteries so there's no issues with them.

Ian

 

[paul ron]

the sbc luna pro uses a regular 9v battery... no adapters needed.

 

[jgoody]

The SBC is an excellent meter - but it is as large as a compact digital camera! After you set the exposure on the needle to null you can meter other areas of the frame and see plus or minus stops (+1, +2 etc) which is very useful. It takes a 9V commonly available battery. It is also good in low light and can meter incident or reflected. So if the size is not a deal killer it's an excellent choice.

 

[LouisGR]

There is nothing to beat a well-functioning Weston Master V [or Euromaster] with an Invercone for accurate incident light metering. The downsides are that it will only read down to an EV of 3 with ISO at 100, and the slight hassle of having to open the flap when the light level is below a reading of 10. .

The selenium cell is ok if (a) the zero point is set accurately [ie the adjucting screw is set so the reading is zero with no light hitting the cell] and (b) the meter reading is around 13 or 13.5 with the meter pointed toward a clear blue sky between about 10 am and 2 pm with your back to the sun [assuming you're not at an extreme lattitude]. This gives an EV of around 15 with the ISO at 100.

A good selenium cell should last at least 15 years if you look after it. Let the needle move freely when the meter is not being used.

Cheers

Louis

 

[AgX]

I own and like using my Gossen Luna Pro SBC. I also have the so called spot meter attachment - so called because it is for 15 degrees and 7.5 degrees, not 1 degree.

Actually that is not called "spot" attachment, but "Tele" attachment.
("Profi-Spot" is that huge, spot attachment.)

 

[Fin]

+1 for a Gossen. I have a Lunasix F or an (I believe a) Luna-Pro F for the US market. I cannot fault this meter at all. It has been totally and utterly reliable and accurate whatever I've done with it. And comparing it with the couple of old Westons I have, the Gossen has always been totally accurate

 

[Jim Jones]

Aside from selenium cell failure, a problem I've often encountered with the Weston Master series is an armature out-of-balance. This can easily happen of the rather delicate meter is dropped. If the needle is correctly zeroed with no light on the cell and the cell pointing down, it can still read accurately in other positions if one covers the cell and rotates the meter until it reads zero while pointing at the subject. The old GE meters have vertical axis meter movements which are less affected by this problem.