How come they don't make selenium meters anymore?

Ken Nadvornick · Nov 21, 2014

benjiboy said:
I wonder how many of the members who have posted on this thread advocating selenium cell meters have ever used a modern digital Silicon Blue Cell meter like the Gossen Starlite, Kenko KFM-2100 (Minolta Auto-meter V1) or Sekonic L-758.

Ben,

From my (there was a url link here which no longer exists):

"Edit: For the record, I also own a very nice Konica Minolta Auto Meter VF, similar to Chris' but with the ability to choose shutter speeds down to a 1/3-stop resolution. This means I can directly compare with the L-398. And in those situations where both meters work equally well (i.e., they are both the appropriate tool), I still prefer the analog needle L-398."

The Konica Minolta Auto Meter VF is now the Kenko KFM-1100...

Ken

blockend · Nov 21, 2014

British WW2 bombers always carried a pigeon. Sadly, quite a few expired in the flames when the crew left hurriedly.

I receive the radio in analogue form, and will do until the day the blighters turn the transmitters off. Which can't be too far away.

Classic music only of course, none of this chattering nonsense.

E. von Hoegh · Nov 21, 2014

blockend said:
British WW2 bombers always carried a pigeon. Sadly, quite a few expired in the flames when the crew left hurriedly.

I receive the radio in analogue form, and will do until the day the blighters turn the transmitters off. Which can't be too far away.

Ditto. Unless there is a transmitter and receiver involved, it is not radio. "Internet radio" is nothing of the sort, it's a digital audio feed.

Sirius Glass · Nov 21, 2014

BrianShaw said:
Seriously! (not Siriusly, for sure).

My cell phone is just a cell phone. What a concept! It does not accept text messages, take photographs nor connect to the internet. I am free, free at last, thank G-d Almighty free at last!!

TheToadMen · Nov 21, 2014

benjiboy said:
I wonder how many of the members who have posted on this thread advocating selenium cell meters have ever used a modern digital Silicon Blue Cell meter like the Gossen Starlite, Kenko KFM-2100 (Minolta Auto-meter V1) or Sekonic L-758
I sold my Western meter years ago and never regretted it I find the digital ones are much better.

I have a Gossen Starlite, a Gossen Digisix and a a Gossen Sixtomat Flash. I use the Sixtomat most often (compact & easy), the Digisix hardly. I've never metered for flash at all - but then I tend not to flash either.

But if I can get my hands on a Sekonic L398a for $40 or less I'll get it as well since it's analogue (just silly, not?)

Mainecoonmaniac · Nov 21, 2014

Use you selenium cell meter on this.
http://petapixel.com/2014/11/21/com...technology-old-school-magnesium-flash-powder/

Why use new technology?

BrianShaw · Nov 21, 2014

Me, for one. I'm not very parochial about meters. They all have plusses + minusses.

benjiboy said:
I wonder how many of the members who have posted on this thread advocating selenium cell meters have ever used a modern digital Silicon Blue Cell meter like the Gossen Starlite, Kenko KFM-2100 (Minolta Auto-meter V1) or Sekonic L-758
I sold my Western meter years ago and never regretted it I find the digital ones are much better.

Les Sarile · Nov 21, 2014

My 1959 Baldamatic 1 is fully functional and the meter is still accurate!

Dan Fromm · Nov 21, 2014

E. von Hoegh said:
Ditto. Unless there is a transmitter and receiver involved, it is not radio. "Internet radio" is nothing of the sort, it's a digital audio feed.

Hmm. Streaming audio differs from radio in a major fundamental way. Radio is broadcast, streaming audio is point-to-point. Another listener who tunes into a broadcast costs the world nothing, another audio stream costs the world something. In addition, broadcast can't be rationed, streams can.

In my area broadcasts of the music I like are scarce and getting scarcer. Classical music. When I moved here there were two and a fraction classical broadcasters, WFLN, WHYY and WRTI half the day. Went away for a few weeks and when I came back WFLN had been sold and broadcast something obnoxious. WHYY reviewed its audience and where the money came from, went all talk. WRTI somehow acquired 'FLN's music library and some of its announcers, but goes over to what they call jazz daily at 1800. We're at the fringe for WWFM, don't always receive them well. Their announcers talk, badly, too much.

So for me its streaming audio or feed the CD player. I greatly miss France Vivace, a service of Radio France that played interesting music without, as they said, useless babble. Its gone but there's still France Musique. A little heavy on French composers, but that's ok. France Musique is slowly getting US-ified, strings of excerpts instead of longer pieces and many repeated programs. And there's Český rozhlas D-Dur, Czech Radio's classical service. A little heavy on Czech composers but that's ok. Many repeated programs. I'm grateful to both countries' taxpayers who pay for my listening pleasure.

Blockend, when the blighters turn the transmitters off come over to streaming audio. Try www.francemusique.fr and www.rozhlas.cz/d-dur Its that, make your own, or own a mountain of CDs and feed the player. Oh, and by the way, France Vivace in particular had very adventurous programming and introduced me to considerable good musique that I'd have ignored otherwise. Les aventures du roi Pausole, for example. Hilarious, and who'd have thought of it? Moskva Chernomuski. A musical comedy by Shostakovitch. Hilarious, and who'd have thought of it?

Xmas · Nov 21, 2014

benjiboy said:
I wonder how many of the members who have posted on this thread advocating selenium cell meters have ever used a modern digital Silicon Blue Cell meter like the Gossen Starlite, Kenko KFM-2100 (Minolta Auto-meter V1) or Sekonic L-758
I sold my Western meter years ago and never regretted it I find the digital ones are much better.

bull by product 1/3 of a stop from each of the half a dozen I own.

Don't need more sensitivity only a zone calculator.

This is Apug not DPUG.

Kirks518 · Nov 21, 2014

StoneNYC said:
Why did they die?

http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2014/02/billions-zero-50-years-extinction-passenger-pigeon/

elekm · Nov 21, 2014

Late to the discussion, but probably several reasons:

- Selenium meters have poor low-light sensitivity.
- I think selenium is toxic. Did the EU ban it for consumer products? I know the EU has banned certain types of paints.
- Some selenium cells remain active and viable for decades. Some do not.
- Meters simply got better.

Even so, I used selenium meters for many years and didn't have an issue. Weston made some excellent selenium meters, as did Zeiss Ikon, Gossen, Sekonic, Bewi and others. I had a Kodalux that worked fine, but the thing was so damn heavy and unnecessarily complicated that I gave up.

I loved the Westons, but the dials had too many tiny numbers for me to be able to read:

Bill Burk · Nov 21, 2014

benjiboy said:
I wonder how many of the members who have posted on this thread advocating selenium cell meters have ever used a modern digital Silicon Blue Cell meter like the Gossen Starlite, Kenko KFM-2100 (Minolta Auto-meter V1) or Sekonic L-758
I sold my Western meter years ago and never regretted it I find the digital ones are much better.

Without prejudice, I regularly use three meters: a Sekonic L-758DR, a modified Sekonic L-208 TwinMate and a Weston Master II.

I'll just grab which ever one is nearby when I am heading out, I trust them all.

Bill Burk · Nov 21, 2014

Actually, I was wondering why they don't make cell phones that are fashioned after the Weston Master II...

tkamiya · Nov 21, 2014

Bill Burk said:
Actually, I was wondering why they don't make cell phones that are fashioned after the Weston Master II...

They might.... it'll be called iWeston5S

Bill Burk · Nov 21, 2014

tkamiya said:
They might.... it'll be called iWeston5S

And when the battery dies... just open up the baffle and lay it face down for an hour in the sun...

StoneNYC · Nov 22, 2014

Bill Burk said:
Actually, I was wondering why they don't make cell phones that are fashioned after the Weston Master II...

They probably have a phone case like that, and an app to mimic the front meter ...

Xmas · Nov 22, 2014

Bill Burk said:
And when the battery dies... just open up the baffle and lay it face down for an hour in the sun...

naaa you flip open the baffle and say

" beam me up Scotti "

GarageBoy · Nov 24, 2014

Me an selenium meters have zero luck- Flash Meter IV it is...

benjiboy · Nov 24, 2014

If there was a sufficient market for Selenium cell meters manufacturers would be falling over themselves to make them, but there isn't.

Peltigera · Nov 24, 2014

The market for any meter outside of a camera is now rather small. Those of us who like to use selenium meters can buy all we want from those already made - no need to make any more.

jochen · Nov 25, 2014

Hello together,
another aspect which has not yet been mentioned is that selenium is very toxic and therefore working with this substance needs many precautions. In the past selenium was very important to produce selenium plate rectifiers (to convert AC to DC). Today silicon based electronics are much better and much smaller and the companies neither have the technology nor the need any longer to work with selenium.

jochen · Nov 25, 2014

Hello together,
another aspect which has not yet been mentioned is that selenium is very toxic and therefore working with this substance needs many precautions. In the past selenium was very important to produce selenium plate rectifiers (to convert AC to DC). Today silicon based electronics are much better and much smaller and the companies neither have the technology nor the need any longer to work with selenium.

MartinCrabtree · Nov 25, 2014

There's arsenic in my garden soil. Has been for thousands of years. Kind of alarming when the first test came back.

jochen · Nov 26, 2014

and even common table salt is said to contain chlorine which was used in WW I as poison gas.

How come they don't make selenium meters anymore?

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