Gossen Pilot adjustment?

[alanrockwood]

Does anyone know if it is possible to adjust a Gossen Pilot light meter? I have in mind the regular Pilot, not the Pilot II or Super Pilot.

Thanks.

 

[Nicholas Lindan]

Does anyone know if it is possible to adjust a Gossen Pilot light meter? I have in mind the regular Pilot, not the Pilot II or Super Pilot.

What are you trying to adjust?

There should be a screw for adjusting the needle zero. There usually aren't any other user adjustments on a lightmeter. CDS meters often have internal adjustments, selenium meters - like the Pilot - usually have no internal adjustment. If the meter is reading 1/3 stop low (as a for-instance) then set the ASA speed a 1/3 stop lower to compensate.

 

[alanrockwood]

What are you trying to adjust?

There should be a screw for adjusting the needle zero. There usually aren't any other user adjustments on a lightmeter. CDS meters often have internal adjustments, selenium meters - like the Pilot - usually have no internal adjustment. If the meter is reading 1/3 stop low (as a for-instance) then set the ASA speed a 1/3 stop lower to compensate.

Thanks for the reply.

I have several light meters, and no two of them read the same... not even close in some cases, and generally they don't match the through the lens meter(s) on my SLRs either. This is true even when reading a blank wall. It even seems that some of them will match at some illumination levels, but not at other illumination levels.

I have four gossen meters (if you count one that belongs to my daughter) and some other meters as well. Two gossens are pilots, one is a super pilot, and one is a later model lunapro that uses 9V batteries. The two pilots don't even agree with each other.

I would like to have them all match if possible, and be correct, e.g. at least matching the sunny 16 rule. Otherwise it seem to me that there's really not much point in using a meter.

I suppose one could dial in a different iso setting into each meter as you suggest, but given the poor standardization of the meters, including the incompatibilities at different illumination levels, one might almost be better off using an exposure table most of the time... like the tables they used to include in the film boxes back in the old days.