Light Meter advice needed.

[KerrKid]

I need some advice on light meters.

I have the myLightMeter app for my iPhone but don’t know if that’s any good. I’ve used it with my Wards am 551 and the other day with my SRT 101 when its battery died on me. Haven’t developed any film from those cameras, yet, so I don’t know how accurate the app was.

I have 4 Konica Auto S2’s with dead meters so having a good quality light meter
is important now.

What should I get if the iPhone app isn’t that good?

 

[petrk]

The app is good for reflective metering. The only reason why I use the lightmeter (Gossen Sixtomat for its small size) is when I need the incident metering.

 

[madNbad]

myLightmeter is a very good app. It consistently meters within a half stop of meters like the Sekonic 308. I’ve had it on my phone for years but hardly ever use it because I prefer meters smaller than my phone. If you want a small, accurate meter that will do both incident and reflective, get a Gossen Digisix. I just bought a used one for a hundred usd. Having owned a lot of different meters, I can highly recommend the Digisix. I put it off for years but it became a favorite in a very short time.

 

[KerrKid]

myLightmeter is a very good app. It consistently meters within a half stop of meters like the Sekonic 308. I’ve had it on my phone for years but hardly ever use it because I prefer meters smaller than my phone. If you want a small, accurate meter that will do both incident and reflective, get a Gossen Digisix. I just bought a used one for a hundred usd. Having owned a lot of different meters, I can highly recommend the Digisix. I put it off for years but it became a favorite in a very short time.

I’m happy to hear that myLightMeter is a good app.

The Digisix sounds like a great alternative and $100 isn’t too bad if I can find one for that.

Thanks for your input!

 

[guangong]

Digisix or slightly larger Sekonic Twinmate. Both are my favorites. Digisix does eat batteries.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

I often use my micro 4/3 digital zoom camera as a director's viewfinder as well as an exposure meter. Then after I find the shot composition I want by zooming in and out, I setup my film camera where all four lenses are primes to match the zoom selection.

The digital camera has spot metering. So if you zoom in, you can get about a 3-degree spot exposure reading. Of course, it has matrix and center-weighted as well.

 

[xkaes]

There are a ton of great meters out there to choose from -- Gossen, Sekonic, Minolta, Pentax, Vivitar, Wein, etc., etc. Don't simply take what one guy says works great for him. Do some research and figure out which meter -- NOT THE BRAND NAME -- works best for you and your wallet.

For example, here are just Minolta's meter with specs:

http://www.subclub.org/minman/meters.htm

 

[Paul Howell]

Over the years I've gathered a lot of meters, spot meter, reflective, and incident meters. I don't have app on my phone, never felt the need. My general propose light meter is a Weston Master VI with the inverse cone. Easy to use with one hand, in most lighting just as accurate as my other meters. It has a selenium cell for metering, don't need to worry about batteries. I also have a Weston Ranger 9 that I need to work on, the needle is a little bent and hangs up against the plastic window on the readout scale, it is a CCD cell, does better in low light, meters about 30% of a scene. For really low light I use Gossen Luna Lux, with silicon blue cell. Shooting LF using the zone system I use a spot meter. Other times I use a digital SLR as my meter. I normally carry a digital cameras when shooting landscapes with M or LF, with a longish telephoto in spot mode can get to 1%. Lots of choices, hard to say which one best fits your needs.

 

[RalphLambrecht]

myLightmeter is a very good app. It consistently meters within a half stop of meters like the Sekonic 308. I’ve had it on my phone for years but hardly ever use it because I prefer meters smaller than my phone. If you want a small, accurate meter that will do both incident and reflective, get a Gossen Digisix. I just bought a used one for a hundred usd. Having owned a lot of different meters, I can highly recommend the Digisix. I put it off for years but it became a favorite in a very short time.

I second the Digisix recommendation but my favorite meter is the Gossen Lunastar- F2

 

[blee1996]

I agree with the saying that "the best lightmeter is the one you carry with you". Thus I have been using Android Lightmeter app as well as Sunny 16 for most part (B&W, color negatives outdoors), but also carry a Sekonic L-308B to do incident metering for slides and critical exposure. The Sekonic is reasonably small, the battery lasts forever, and reasonably rugged. Plus it measures flash, which I do use in studio.

 

[MattKing]

Digisix does eat batteries.

But at least they are cheap and readily available - CR3032 batteries.
If you use flash, the Digiflash adds flash metering, in the same size package.
On the subject of cel phone meter apps, if you like how one is working on your current phone, you may not want to get rid of the phone. My perception is that the quality of the results depends on how well the app and the phone work together.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

But at least they are cheap and readily available - CR3032 batteries.
If you use flash, the Digiflash adds flash metering, in the same size package.
On the subject of cel phone meter apps, if you like how one is working on your current phone, you may not want to get rid of the phone. My perception is that the quality of the results depends on how well the app and the phone work together.

Does the app have a calibration adjustment?

 

[madNbad]

Does the app have a calibration adjustment?

You can use the EV slider to match the app to a trusted meter. I just checked it against the Digisix and with no adjustment, the reflective readings were within 1/3 stop. For ISO 200, the Digigisix gave me 5.6 @ 1/125th and the app was 5.6 @ 1/100th.

 

[MattKing]

Does the app have a calibration adjustment?

Calibration adjustments are only useful if the response is linear. Most problems are likely to relate to the fact that the "sensor" on the phone is designed to work with the camera function built into the phone, which may or may not respond the same way as film or other digital cameras.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

You can use the EV slider to match the app to a trusted meter. I just checked it against the Digisix and with no adjustment, the reflective readings were within 1/3 stop. For ISO 200, the Digigisix gave me 5.6 @ 1/125th and the app was 5.6 @ 1/100th.

Calibration adjustments are only useful if the response is linear. Most problems are likely to relate to the fact that the "sensor" on the phone is designed to work with the camera function built into the phone, which may or may not respond the same way as film or other digital cameras.

I don't understand. If the Android app is off let's say 1/2 stop, how do you adjust for that?

 

[MattKing]

I don't understand. If the Android app is off let's say 1/2 stop, how do you adjust for that?

The problem is when the app is off different amounts for different levels of light - i.e. the response isn't linear (most likely because the app and the phone aren't well suited to each other).
If the app and the phone together do respond with linearity, you just need to use an EI that is suitable for that cel phone meter and film and shutter combination - same as any other meter really.

 

[madNbad]

I don't understand. If the Android app is off let's say 1/2 stop, how do you adjust for that?

The app has a calibration settings that allows for adjustments of plus or minus 1 stop in 1/3 stop increments.

 

[madNbad]

The problem is when the app is off different amounts for different levels of light - i.e. the response isn't linear (most likely because the app and the phone aren't well suited to each other).
If the app and the phone together do respond with linearity, you just need to use an EI that is suitable for that cel phone meter and film and shutter combination - same as any other meter really.

That is the problem when trying to design an app which will be used across a variety of phone cameras. Higher end phones with more light sensitive cameras will give more accurate readings.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

The problem is when the app is off different amounts for different levels of light - i.e. the response isn't linear (most likely because the app and the phone aren't well suited to each other).
If the app and the phone together do respond with linearity, you just need to use an EI that is suitable for that cel phone meter and film and shutter combination - same as any other meter really.

Then how can you depend on it? How much off is the non-linearity?

 

[Huss]

I really like the Voigtlander VC II meter. Tiny, very nicely made, fits onto the hot shoe. I like it so much I have two! One black, one chrome.
Uses normal LR44 batteries.

 

[madNbad]

Then how can you depend on it? How much off is the non-linearity?

The app is accurate enough to meter a scene and get a decent exposure with todays negative films. It's a something is better than nothing meter. It's not going to replace a hand held or a spot meter and can be used with a wide variety of phones.
I spent a pleasant summer afternoon with a grey card and a variety of meters, a Gossen Pilot, a Reveni cube, a Sekonic L-398A, a Sekonic L-308X and my iPhone 11 with the myLightmeter Pro app. What I found was, under almost all lighting conditions, the meters matched with occasional variances that were within a half stop.

 

[madNbad]

I really like the Voigtlander VC II meter. Tiny, very nicely made, fits onto the hot shoe. I like it so much I have two! One black, one chrome.
Uses normal LR44 batteries.

But they can't take a selfie!

 

[Sharktooth]

It's kinda silly to get all hyped up about light meters when the OP is using 50 to 60 year old cameras. The shutter speeds are very likely to be all over the place, and will certainly be more of a concern than a decent light meter.

 

[Huss]

It's kinda silly to get all hyped up about light meters when the OP is using 50 to 60 year old cameras. The shutter speeds are very likely to be all over the place, and will certainly be more of a concern than a decent light meter.

Not sure what is silly about answering his question and trying to help him out. What is your advice? Don't bother?

He can decide what to do once he gets his results back from his now correctly metered scenes. If they look bad, suggesting the camera is not working properly, then he can take it from there.

 

[Sharktooth]

Here's my advice: If you're concerned about light meter accuracy, you should also be concerned about shutter speed accuracy. Go get your camera checked for shutter accuracy. A repair place should be able to give you a sheet with the actual shutter speed values, and the shot to shot variability at each speed. They could also give you a similar measurement of true aperture at each setting (although this is less likely to be an issue).

Shutters on old cameras can be out as much as one to two stops, especially at the higher speed settings. Low speed settings on leaf shutter cameras like the S2 can be very bad, and often intermittently sticky (needing repair).

If you shoot negative film, and tilt towards overexposure (lower ISO rating for your film), then there is usually enough latitude in the film to allow for a stop or two of exposure error with insignificant affect. Any old light meter should be good enough for most things, so the one that you have with you is better than none at all (as previously noted)