Reveni Light Meter

[ic-racer]

In the photo you can see the fifty-five year old Gossen and the year old Sekonic both show the same reading. The Reveni was off by about half a stop.

Did you adjust the Reveni so it matches the other two?

 

[madNbad]

Yes. I used the EV setting and a grey card to match it to the 308. Mostly I just adjusted the EV and tried to leave the calibration alone. In actual use, about +0.33 works well for me but I'm only using TMax 100 right now. Having two meters is like having two clocks and trying to figure out which one is correct. Often they match exactly, other times they differ by about a half stop but close enough for B&W film. I think it depends on the difference of the angle of acceptance between the two meters. The Reveni meters a much larger area than the Sekonic and I have found if I want a more accurate reading, I will get the Reveni as close to the subject as I can. Even a few feet can change the reading by as much as a stop.

 

[Huss]

I have a Gossen Pilot, the original one with the selenium cell. Can't get much more period correct to go along with a M4.


View attachment 257586

Well, you could have got the Leica MR meter that slides onto the hotshoe and locks into the shutter speed dial.

 

[madNbad]

Well, you could have got the Leica MR meter that slides onto the hotshoe and locks into the shutter speed dial.

There’s one at a local shop. It’s been there for a year and I came close to buying it a few times. The Reveni is smaller, lighter, easier to read, takes a modern battery and won’t scratch the top plate.

 

[Huss]

There’s one at a local shop. It’s been there for a year and I came close to buying it a few times. The Reveni is smaller, lighter, easier to read, takes a modern battery and won’t scratch the top plate.

Not disputing those facts, just the one about being period correct!
I had my MR meter calibrated to take modern batteries - pretty much any repair shop can do that. The way to avoid scratching is to be careful attaching it to the camera! I sometimes wonder what people are doing.
What is great about the meter is that it syncs with the camera's shutter speed dial, so the only thing you have to touch off meter is the aperture dial on the lens.
With every other meter you need to take a reading, then make sure to adjust the shutter and aperture on the camera. I have, embarrassingly, forgotten to do that a few times.

 

[madNbad]

The meter is at Advance Camera. They are mainly a repair shop and the meter has been cleaned and tested. It’s easy enough to find voltage converters, like the MR9 clones that work with a common battery. Mostly I use the 308 in incident mode. I picked up the Reveni for a good price from a seller on a different forum and have been impressed with its ability and sometimes frustrated by its operation. If I ever buy an M3, I’ll get an MR meter. I like how that combination looks.

 

[Huss]

The meter is at Advance Camera. They are mainly a repair shop and the meter has been cleaned and tested. It’s easy enough to find voltage converters, like the MR9 clones that work with a common battery. Mostly I use the 308 in incident mode. I picked up the Reveni for a good price from a seller on a different forum and have been impressed with its ability and sometimes frustrated by its operation. If I ever buy an M3, I’ll get an MR meter. I like how that combination looks.

Seeing that they are a repair shop I'm surprised that they didn't convert it to run on modern batteries. Perhaps they did?

 

[madNbad]

They checked it out but it’s a consignment piece.

 

[ic-racer]

I see Reveni has an updated meter. I see two changes. 1) Holding the meter button gives a continuous reading and 2) there is an indicator for intermediate exposure values.

 

[madNbad]

They also added a accessory shoe offset for Barnack cameras so the meter won't interfere with changing shutter speeds.

 

[thuggins]

This is an update to my previous post.

After initially testing the meter and running across the shortcomings previously described, I communicated with Matt at Reveni Labs. Long story short... He did some upgrades to the software and the meter will now dynamically read the light as you point it around a scene. Best of all, he added a fractional stop display in the form of a bouncing dot that moves up or down with relation to a center line. It works great and makes the aperture setting very intuitive. These changes have greatly improved the utility of the meter.

He has indicated that these upgrades will be shipping as a standard part of the meter.

 

[ic-racer]

This is an update to my previous post.

After initially testing the meter and running across the shortcomings previously described, I communicated with Matt at Reveni Labs. Long story short... He did some upgrades to the software and the meter will now dynamically read the light as you point it around a scene. Best of all, he added a fractional stop display in the form of a bouncing dot that moves up or down with relation to a center line. It works great and makes the aperture setting very intuitive. These changes have greatly improved the utility of the meter.

He has indicated that these upgrades will be shipping as a standard part of the meter.

Do you have to send the meter back to get the upgrades?

 

[madNbad]

Do you have to send the meter back to get the upgrades?

It looks like the changes are only available on recent issue meters. The site doesn't mention any upgrades.

 

[thuggins]

Do you have to send the meter back to get the upgrades?

I had already returned the meter as it was not usable for me in its original state. So he had the meter and made the upgrades directly.

It looks like the changes are only available on recent issue meters. The site doesn't mention any upgrades.

His email indicated that he was trying to determine a good way to make the upgrade available to existing meters. But these changes are brand new and the process is evolving. You can always email him and inquire if you find the meter too limited in its current state.

 

[ic-racer]

Thank you for the update.

 

[Kodachromeguy]

Well, you could have got the Leica MR meter that slides onto the hotshoe and locks into the shutter speed dial.

Unfortunately, from what I have seen on the 'Bay and other places, many of these nice little MR and MR-4 meters have failed. The worst culprit was, of course, leaking batteries (even though consumers were told for decades to remove batteries from non-used devices, many did not). The CDS cells also seem to have problems. Is there a repair service other than DAG camera or Quality Light metric? I bet there is a market for these meters. I stupidly sold mine about 15 years ago.