I bought the L-758DR a little over a year ago and wish I'd been able to afford one earlier. The best meter I've ever owned in the 30+ years of doing outdoor landscape photography now. Admittedly I do not use all the features by far, but the reliability & accuracy is stellar.
What transparency film are you using? I only shoot Velvia 50. Along with the meter I also I became more attentive towards reciprocity too. Both that and the meter usage eliminated my trashing images. A couple years back all of a sudden I was struggling with exposure issues. It had to be me losing sight of things and I just needed to refocus my attention to detail. For me, it was about the incident and spot metering all in one that was the selling point. I had both processes in two separate older meters prior. Same procedure now all in one.I am throwing away so much transparency film that this needs to be addressed. I need to get a lot better at this and hopefully this will be the answer.
What transparency film are you using? I only shoot Velvia 50. Along with the meter I also I became more attentive towards reciprocity too. Both that and the meter usage eliminated my trashing images. A couple years back all of a sudden I was struggling with exposure issues. It had to be me losing sight of things and I just needed to refocus my attention to detail. For me, it was about the incident and spot metering all in one that was the selling point. I had both processes in two separate older meters prior. Same procedure now all in one.
I am trying to conquer Velvia 50 but I keep getting underexposures.
In my experience Velvia 50 is much better rated at 40 or even 32 I.S.O., ( I assume David you know that know that reversal film is the opposite to neg. film the more exposure you give it the lighter the image gets and you can save yourself a lot of money buying a new meter by experimenting with a personal film speed for your Velvia until you get the image density you require)I am trying to conquer Velvia 50 but I keep getting underexposures. 80-90% of the film goes in the bin. I might get 3 well exposed images for every 18 on 6x12 format, and these are usually the underexposed brackets I make as a failsafe. Saying that, often the bracket doesn't work at all and i end up with all three under.
What is your process for Velvia 50?
Which eye did you use to look through the Minolta VI spot meter window? I have a Kenko KFM 2100 and use my right eye I have never had this problem , although I can see for a left eyed person it could be, but if it is a problem it's easy to turn the the incidental receptor head round out of the way.I used to have a Minolta Flash Meter VI, which is what the Kenko actually is (Kenko bought the design from Minolta after Minolta quit making photo gear). I currently have the Sekonic L-758DR.
The Sekonic would be my choice. The spotmeter in the Minolta is very unergonomic. When you put the finder to your eye, the incident dome stabs you in the forehead. That is not a problem with the Sekonic. Also, the spotmeter in the Sekonic has better low-light sensitivity.
If you want just a spotmeter, and dont need incident metering, then how about buying a used spotmeter like the Minolta Spotmeter F or the Sekonic L778? Those are available pretty cheaply now.
Which eye did you use to look through the Minolta VI spot meter window? I have a Kenko KFM 2100 and use my right eye I have never had this problem , although I can see for a left eyed person it could be, but if it is a problem it's easy to turn the the incidental receptor head round out of the way.
In my experience Velvia 50 is much better rated at 40 or even 32 I.S.O., ( I assume David you know that know that reversal film is the opposite to neg. film the more exposure you give it the lighter the image gets and you can save yourself a lot of money buying a new meter by experimenting with a personal film speed for your Velvia until you get the image density you require)
I think i must use my Sekonic for film then, i bought it only as fun or show off, as i see some videos BTS of studio shooting using that light meter, so i bought one when i got studio lights.
Not sure if the digital cameras metering is nearly as good as those light meters, at the end aren't we set the camera according the light meter reading?
The L758D is useful sometimes for profiling of colour spaces on digital cameras, but it is fiddly, involved and rather over the top (nerdy!) given the quality that is on tap from today's onboard metering systems and floating colour profiles.
The majority of evaluative/matrix/3D onboard camera meters are calibrated along a modified Zone System matrice. The Sekonic takes you to bare-bones metering methodology and puts the onus on you to read and interpret the scene correctly, all things being equal.
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