old light/enlarger meters

seanE · Feb 12, 2016

I'm looking to get an enlarger meter, And a light meter for my camera, Do any of you have recommendations?

R.Gould · Feb 12, 2016

As Far as Enlarger meter is concerned the best you can get is the RH Designs Anaslyser/pro. which as we;; as the best metering system has a built in Fstop timer, as for a camera meter, you won't go wrong with a Weston, Old I know but the Master 5 or Euromaster's are as good today as ever and will teach you a lot about exposure, I use them myself, I couldn't manage easily without the RH Analyser pro, and 99% of the time I get a fine print first time, no more teststrips, very little wasted paper, and I have both Master Pro and Euromaster, plu a sekonic for flash metering and tested against the sekonic the weston's are spot on, and easier to use as they give you a range of exposure settings with the dial system
Richard

pentaxuser · Feb 12, 2016

seanE said:
I'm looking to get an enlarger meter, And a light meter for my camera, Do any of you have recommendations?

It will help if you give us your expenditure limits, if any. There are many enlarger meters covering a large range of prices. The RH Designs Analyser Pro is one of the best but it costs a lot more than most. Same goes for camera meters to an extent

pentaxuser

ac12 · Feb 12, 2016

Also for the camera light meter, what type; general reflective, incident , spot, ability to do flash, etc?
Of course as RG said, what is your budget, as meters can get expensive, when you start adding more features to the meter.

As for enlarger meters, I've use a few, and have varying opinions of them. You can get really nuts with them, or very simple. All depends on what you are trying to do.
Of course I can't find mine now, but I think it is a Unicolor, simple on/off switch with a needle meter. The meter makes it good to determine contrast range of a negative.
And I have an Ilford meter that I want to try.
Both of these are battery powered, so I could easily take them to the local College, when I was taking a B&W class.

John Koehrer · Feb 12, 2016

Several Gossens did both. They used an accessory enlarging attachment.

mr rusty · Feb 12, 2016

Analyser pro. Excellent piece of kit. In a short while you'll forget the price and just enjoy using it.

Wayne · Feb 12, 2016

My philosophy is "nothing expensive is worth buying" and in that spirit I recommend the Ilford EM-10.

Bill Burk · Feb 12, 2016

Wayne said:
My philosophy is "nothing expensive is worth buying" and in that spirit I recommend the Ilford EM-10.

Good philosophy. In that spirit I recommend the Omega CS-10.

seanE · Feb 14, 2016

Thanks guys. The analyser pro dose seem nice, BUT HOLY MOLY, I dint know meter were subject to the same how much do you want to pay situation that the rest of photographic equipment is,
I think il go for one of the lifords or omegas,
Dose any one make a ''relatively cheap'' Hand held meter for carrying around, There all quite big and ugly.

Michael L. · Feb 14, 2016

If price is a consideration, a Weimarlux CDS meter might fit the bill. They are light and handy and can be had for very little money these days. I use one myself and find it dependable and quite sufficiently accurate.
The problem is that these meters were designed for mercury cells with a voltage of 1.35 volts. Mercury cells are now banned, of course, and substituting silver oxide cells of 1.55 volts will skew the calibration severely. With a Wein Cell PX625 (1.35V), however, the Weimarlux works perfectly.

Wayne · Feb 14, 2016

seanE said:
There all quite big and ugly

Huh? the Ilford is something like 2x6 inches. It's in another state right now so I can't measure it, but its anything but big and ugly. Its slim and tidy.

seanE · Feb 14, 2016

I meant the hand held ones for taking exposure readings for a camera, I thought they were pocket watch sizes, but they all seem like big bakelite time machines ''i havant seen one in person, so it was just my impression from browsing eBay''

seanE · Feb 14, 2016

And thanks Michael, Funny how they banned mercury cels, but over here when the green party got in the first thing they did was bring in mercury gas bulbs, If one of them burgers brake its time to bring out the gas mask.

Bill Burk · Feb 14, 2016

I have a variety of handheld meters and find that I often reach for the Sekonic L-208 Twin-mate. It's lightweight, uses a modern battery, it's new and while it is digital internally, it uses a needle to indicate readings. I've modified it for Zone System, which I find greatly improves its flexibility, but even off the shelf it's a good meter to go to.

MattKing · Feb 14, 2016

The Gossen Digisix or Digiflash meters are nice and tiny.

jvo · Feb 15, 2016

you can get a gossen luna pro or sbc - both great meters and versatile... and each have an enlarger meter attachment... can usually find them at a good price.

jvo

seanE · Feb 16, 2016

What do you guys think of light meter apps? ''i know the not the real thing'' but better than nothing when your out and about?. I don't imaging there all that accurate but old light meters probably ant ether.
I got a free one yesterday and it seems to do the job until i can afford a good hand held one.

jvo · Feb 16, 2016

i don't have a smart phone, but i've seen comments here that users have found some of the apps effective and useful!

jvo

MattKing · Feb 16, 2016

The smart phone apps are highly dependent on the qualities of the phones they are installed in. Better results with some phones than with others.

That being said, there certainly are a fair number of people who seem to be happy with them.

Before relying on one extensively, I would recommend performing a lot of comparison tests with a meter you do trust.

Considering how often some people seem to "upgrade" their phone, that might involve a lot of testing!

BobMarvin11225 · Feb 17, 2016

I installed a cell phone meter app after the battery on my Gossen LunaLux went while I was out. It seems accurate enough and I like knowing I have a back-up on a device I always carry. That being said I prefer the Gossen.

rpavich · Mar 13, 2016

mr rusty said:
Analyser pro. Excellent piece of kit. In a short while you'll forget the price and just enjoy using it.

I was wondering if you would still recommend it, I noticed your review in 2012, glad to hear that you do.

seanE · Mar 17, 2016

I got an iPhone app ''my light meter'' I prefer it to the first one I got, its a retro styled meter and seems to work quite well ''and its FREE!!

DREW WILEY · Mar 17, 2016

My philosophy is that nothing cheap is worth buying. Based on that, I try to find a good deal on a good product. Not too difficult nowadays, since darkroom gear is going for next to nothing. What is difficult is finding esoteric items still in good shape. I wanted a backup Gossen Labosix enlarging
meter. These were around $350 in the 1970's, quite a sum back then. I finally stumbled on a spare at a tenth that price. It's a dedicated easel meter,
so much better adapted to this kind of use than a multi-function light meter. What cell phones do best is skip across ponds when you can't find a real
pebble.

old light/enlarger meters

seanE

R.Gould

pentaxuser

ac12

John Koehrer

mr rusty

Wayne

Bill Burk

seanE

Michael L.

Wayne

seanE

seanE

Bill Burk

MattKing

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jvo

seanE

jvo

MattKing

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BobMarvin11225

rpavich

seanE

DREW WILEY

old light/enlarger meters

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