Hand Held Meter Recommendations?

[AgX]

The same for Profisix and Lunasix F and other Gossen meters.

 

[runswithsizzers]

I've made my decision - I found a used Sekonic L-208 Twin Mate for $88(US), shipped.

I feel somewhat foolish getting the Twin Mate, when the Gossen Luna Pro SBC and it's varients offer more light meter for about the same (or less) money. But I know from experience that when the size and weight of my gear gets above a certain level, my photography is a lot less fun.

Thanks to all for helpful replies!

 

[Luckless]

On my Digiflash, you can only cycle up through the ISO readings. If one holds the button, it cycles quickly up through the maximum and then starts again at the minimum. If you are in normal reading mode, you don't have to change modes to change the ISO.
You quickly get quite good at releasing the button at the right time .
The updated version 2 series may change that. I believe that they changed one thing that is important - with the version 1 series it was fairly easy to push the reading button accidentally (e.g. in your camera bag) and thus drain the meter. The upside is that the lithium CR3032 batteries are three for $1.00 at our local Dollar stores, so it is easy to have enough for three battery changes in your camera bag.

I love my DigiFlash2, because of how compact and easy to use it is, but am mildly annoyed with the problems mentioned above.

Not sure if they really changed much between the DigiFlash and Digiflash2, as I have similar issues with mine. So for the sake of anyone with the older model I really hope what I have isn't an 'improvement'...

Battery life is rather hit and miss based on whether or not I leave it somewhere and the meter button gets 'sat on', so it tends to live on its lanyard around my neck these days.

Spare batteries are easy enough to carry, and I would want to have extras on hand 'just in case' even if there wasn't a risk of random battery drain, but changing them can make for a 'fun bonehead-surprise' if I'm using something other than an ISO-100 film... You would think that the big ISO display in the middle of the thing might be enough to clue someone into that it was reset to 100 rather than 400 or whatever I had been using, but apparently I can impress myself with how stupid of oversights I can make at times. [In my defence, I tend to set it and forget it for long periods of time, and don't think about fiddling with ISO values till I'm swapping to a different project that needs me to change film type.]

The secondary button has little left/right arrow icons molded into it, suggesting that it is a rocker-switch style button to go forwards or backwards through the modes, but mine is either broken or they signed off on the button design without finishing the forward/backwards logic/contacts.


But whatever specific model someone settles on, I would strongly suggest considering something with flash metering ability. I don't use it often, but it sure is handy on the times I do use it.

 

[Sirius Glass]

I am having trouble figuring trying to sort out all of the many models of Gossen meters. Apparently, there have been many variations of the 'Luna Pro' series over the years. The same product seems to have different names in different countries, and different products have similar names. So far, I am not finding a specific model called the "Gossen Luna Six Pro SBC" - do you have a link to a photo or website which describes that model? Is that model different from the Gossen Luna Pro SBC?

I probably should not have mentioned the Zone system, because I don't really use it that much (roll film shooter). I did happen to take a Zone 3 reading today, shooting b&w in a difficult sunlight-and-shadows scene. But 99 times out of a hundred I'll make my exposure decision based on an incident reading. And honestly, for me, the more basic the meter, the better.

This one with the LED lights, not the needle.
https://www.photrio.com/forum/threa...ter-with-7-5°-and-15°-tele-attachment.162974/
https://www.photrio.com/forum/threa...nt-and-a-gossen-luna-lux-sbc-question.108894/

 

[John51]

The scale is less for showing how much light has changed, but to "place" luminance values.
A meter is calibrated for 18% reflectivity and it only understands absolute luminance, but cannot distinguish between a white and a black wall, white or black skin etc. This scale makes it intuitive to tell the meter about it.

And before that for the user to understand and establish these deviations...


Strange enough many people praise a nulling meter display at cameras (where it typically makes little sense by lack of spot-metering), but reject it at handheld meters.

What we want from a light meter is consistency and convenience. If poor, a free or cheap meter is very convenient. If it's out, that's ok as long as we know by how much it is out. As long as it isn't erratic, it can do the job.

For me, convenience is avoiding the need to wear my reading glasses. The null setting on the Gossen plus the under/over scale is perfect for that.

 

[mshchem]

I've made my decision - I found a used Sekonic L-208 Twin Mate for $88(US), shipped.

I feel somewhat foolish getting the Twin Mate, when the Gossen Luna Pro SBC and it's varients offer more light meter for about the same (or less) money. But I know from experience that when the size and weight of my gear gets above a certain level, my photography is a lot less fun.

Thanks to all for helpful replies!

88 bucks! That's great.

 

[MattKing]

The more I think about the Gossen Digisix, the less I like the idea of its menus. Navigating menus is an unavoidable necessity with my digital cameras, but when shooting film, maybe I would prefer to avoid menus altogether?

Well, you have already decided, but just in case.
With the Digiflash there are no menus to scroll through. There is just a mode button, which allows you to switch to the mode you want, in case you want to switch to use of the stop watch or the watch or the alarm clock or thermometer or back to exposure readings. One push for changing to the next mode. Or hold the mode button down, and it will run through the settings appropriate to the mode - the ISO in the case of exposure readings.

 

[StepheKoontz]

As others have said, test the meter when you get it against an in camera meter you trust or "sunny 16" and make sure it seems accurate. Like anything, there are ;emons, and it's much easier to just return it rather than trying to get a new item like this fixed.

 

[runswithsizzers]

As others have said, test the meter when you get it against an in camera meter you trust or "sunny 16" and make sure it seems accurate. Like anything, there are ;emons, and it's much easier to just return it rather than trying to get a new item like this fixed.

I bought a used one from an eBay seller, so no factory warranty. Hopefully, it will be OK. The seller is actually a camera shop in Michigan with an excellent eBay rating, and and they do offer "30 day returns" if it comes to that.

When I was trying to determine if my old Gossen Pilot 2 was loosing accuracy, I did check it against the meters in three film cameras and two digital cameras and the results were not as easy to intrepret as I would like. Using the same ISO and shutter speed under standardized metering conditions, one camera meter said f/8, another f/11, and the rest were in between. I will repeat the test when I get the Sekonic Twin Mate.

 

[StepheKoontz]

Find something like a blank, evenly lit concrete wall to meter. You then are measuring a big "gray card", which they all should meter close to each other.

 

[Stephen Prunier]

I bought a used one from an eBay seller, so no factory warranty. Hopefully, it will be OK. The seller is actually a camera shop in Michigan with an excellent eBay rating, and and they do offer "30 day returns" if it comes to that.

When I was trying to determine if my old Gossen Pilot 2 was loosing accuracy, I did check it against the meters in three film cameras and two digital cameras and the results were not as easy to intrepret as I would like. Using the same ISO and shutter speed under standardized metering conditions, one camera meter said f/8, another f/11, and the rest were in between. I will repeat the test when I get the Sekonic Twin Mate.

Was the camera shop Westborn Camera Co.? I've purchased a couple of film backs from them on their eBay store and I was very pleased. I check their eBay store every week now. They have a lot of vintage film gear. Another member on here lives near the shop and said good things about them.

 

[runswithsizzers]

After I got the new (used) Sekonic Twinmate L-208, I did some correlation testing to check for accuracy.
Test conditions
mid afternoon, clear blue sky
gray card (Delta) horizontal, outdoors in full sunlight.
Set all cameras to ISO = 200 and shutter speed = 1/500 sec
Mounted cameras on tripod above gray card so the card fills the camera's viewfinder

Results
Canon A-E1 - f/11 (a little under)
Pentax MX #1 - f/8, or f/8-11 (the green LED was lit at both f/8 and 1/2-stop more)
Pentax MX #2 - f/8, or f/8-11
Fuji X-E2 - f/7.1-f/8 (set for 1/3rd stops, so 1/3rd less than f/8)
Fuji X-T1 - f/7.1
Gossen Pilot 2, reflected - f/5.6
Gossen Pilot 2, incident - f/5.6
Sekonic Twinmate L-208, reflected - f/11-16 (1/2 stop over f/11)
Sekonic Twinmate L-208, incident - f/11-16

At my ISO of 200, Sunny 16 predicts f/16 (or a little less) @ 1/250 or f/11 at my chosen shutter speed of 1/500. Actually, it would be f/11 at 1/400 sec, so the correct aperture would be a little less than f/11 at 1/500 sec. - right?

The three film cameras and the Sekonic Twinmate are all within about 1/2 f-stop of f/11. But the Sekonic is - possibly - reading about 1/2 f-stop high. Is that enough to worry about?

The old Gossen is definitely reading more than one f-stop low. Not sure what's up with the Fujis. Some say Fuji uses a variation of the ISO standard which is why their ISO numbers sometimes don't compare to other brands. I don't understand it, and I don't care, because I get great exposures from those cameras. But I am going to ignore the Fuji (digital) meter readings for this comparison.

 

[AgX]

The old Gossen is definitely reading more than one f-stop low.

Have you zero-calibrated the meter before your test?

 

[runswithsizzers]

Have you zero-calibrated the meter before your test?

yes