Light meter

[Raffay]

Is there a difference between ambient and incident metering?


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[Raffay]

Also, I have read online that incident meters use the dome which is already 18% calibrated so you don't need to use a grey card as u would in reflective. Is that true, if that is true then don't you guys think it would be better to get incident or ambient if they are the same. So what are the options in that?


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[Jaf-Photo]

I use a Minolta IIIf with my RB67. It broke recently after 20+ years so I replaced it with another IIIf from ebay for around US$85. I also have a ten degree spot attachment for it. (There is also a 5 degree spot attachment availavle.) As you probably know its both incident and reflective and the f stand for flash readings. So you can use it in a sudio. It averages too. The only problem is there is no on off switch so the battery will drain if you leave it in for too many weeks. I believe the IVf has a power on-off switch. Verify that on-line. Here are pictures I've taken using that meter. But I must confess I also bracket my landscape shots. http://www.flickr.com/photos/alanklein2000/tags/rb67/

Alan, you've got outstanding results with both positive and negative film. I'm using the same scanner but my results are nowhere near, at least not for negative film.

It would be great to hear something about your workflow sometime?

 

[andrew.roos]

Ambient means the light meter is designed to meter light from a continuous source like the sun. The alternative to ambient metering is flash metering, which measures the short bright pulse of light from a flash (strobe). Most flash meters will also measure ambient.

Incident metering means you measure the light falling on you subject, rather than the light reflected by your subject. In order to do this, you need to be able to meter where your subject is - easy enough for most portraits, but not so easy if you are shooting a distant mountain.

The alternative to incident metering is reflected light metering, which measures the light reflected by your subject. This is convenient for distant subjects, but can be tricky with high contrast subjects as the reading depends on how much of the bright areas and how much of the dark areas the meter sees. A spot meter solves this problem by metering from a very small area of the subject.

Personally I prefer incident metering for nearby subjects, unless they are especially tricky, in which case I may use spot metering. I generally use spot metering for landscapes.

An 18% gray card allows you to measure incident light with a reflected light meter. I think it's easier just to use an incident meter (with the dome).

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[John Koehrer]

Incident can be used for landscape as long as you're in the same light. IE: you won't get proper exposure if you're in the shade and the subject's in the sun or vice versa.

Distance has no effect.

 

[elekm]

You couldn't use a gray card with an incident meter, because ... well, you just can't. Because you are measuring the light falling on the subject, you are measuring the amount of light and not anything or any object in your scene.

 

[fretlessdavis]

Incident works well for landscape, actually. Just take meter readings in similar light to your subject. Tricky if you have varying cloud cover, but I've been accurate enough, even with Provia.

I had an old Weston Master III that worked great. More accurate in everything but night scenes than the built in meters in most of my old cameras. Sadly, I misplaced it, but have a like-new Euro-Master II on the way.

Essentially, any accurate meter will do a good job for you. Get one that covers all your bases. If you are planning on doing any kind of flash work, get one with flash capabilities, if you're doing landscapes from a tripod, and want ultimate control, get a spot meter. For all purpose metering, any accurate reflected/incident meter will work. Just find one that's easy to use, durable, and accurate.

 

[Alan Klein]

Alan, you've got outstanding results with both positive and negative film. I'm using the same scanner but my results are nowhere near, at least not for negative film.

It would be great to hear something about your workflow sometime?

Thanks for your comments. I find that I sometimes get unreliable results with negative color photos too. Such as with Ektar 100 when I scan them although Portra seems to work better. I've reverted to mainly shooting Velvia 50 positives although I just started to shoot Tmax 100. I haven't posted anything yet. But it seems to scan pretty well too.

A lot of my early scans burned the highlights as I used auto during the Epson program scan. You can see that in my scuba pictures of 35mm Ektachromes. So now the easliet way is to scan flat. No adjustments at all during the scan and do everything in post. The first thing I do I adjust levels. Once I get that done 90% is OK so then I just tweak. You got to work at it a lot until you get a flow working for yourself. Good luck. LAan.

 

[Raffay]

I think for the time I have decided to go for Sekonic L398, which is around 60 Dollars, and maybe in future I would go for Pentax Digital Spotmeter with zone VI modification quote expensive at 400+. Thank you everyone for the comments and really helpful advice as usual.

Cheers
Raffay.


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[Bill Burk]

Hi Raffay,

If you go for the L398, try to get the set of slides that go with it. They are fun to use because after you pick the right slide for your ASA and "preset" your shutter speed... You get to read the f/stop right from the needle.

 

[Raffay]

Thank you Bill, I am getting them as well.


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[jwatts]

I think for the time I have decided to go for Sekonic L398, which is around 60 Dollars, and maybe in future I would go for Pentax Digital Spotmeter with zone VI modification quote expensive at 400+. Thank you everyone for the comments and really helpful advice as usual.

Cheers
Raffay.


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I poured through a ton of info recently trying to decide between a modified and non-modifed Pentax Digital Spotmeter. This article led me to save a few hundred and get an unmodified version. Worth a read if you are in the market for one.

http://www.butzi.net/articles/zone VI worth it.htm

 

[SpicySaffron]

For any of my meter-less camera's I use a Sekonic L-208 twinmate. Not an advanced little bugger, but it's tiny and accurate, and hasn't failed me yet. And if I don't have that, well Sunny 16 is my meter of choice (And pray for decent exposure latitude on the film I'm using)