Sekonic L-208 Problems

[mvierow]

I'm having some problems with my Sekonic L-208 light meter, and I feel like I'm losing my mind.

For some reason, whenever I take a reflected or incident reading, the meter is giving me an exposure that is 2-3 stops overexposed from what is adequate. I tried replacing the battery and it's still acting up. For example, I just went outside and pointed the dome towards the sun, and it gave me a reading of EV 13. I know that sunny conditions usually yield an exposure value of 15, and it's a very bright day outside today.

Can anybody assist me as to what is going on here?

 

[pmargolis]

That seems to be a problem inherent in those meters. Both of mine do the same thing as yours, so I primarily use them for reflected light readings, or I use the old trick of taking a reading off the back of my hand and overexposing by 1-1 1/2 stops. The big advantage of the 208s is that they are tiny and work well with my meter-less camera; however, they're not perfect.

I'm having some problems with my Sekonic L-208 light meter, and I feel like I'm losing my mind.

For some reason, whenever I take a reflected or incident reading, the meter is giving me an exposure that is 2-3 stops overexposed from what is adequate. I tried replacing the battery and it's still acting up. For example, I just went outside and pointed the dome towards the sun, and it gave me a reading of EV 13. I know that sunny conditions usually yield an exposure value of 15, and it's a very bright day outside today.

Can anybody assist me as to what is going on here?

 

[mvierow]

So is the only solution to buy a new light meter? I don't want to use this one if I can't trust it.

That seems to be a problem inherent in those meters. Both of mine do the same thing as yours, so I primarily use them for reflected light readings, or I use the old trick of taking a reading off the back of my hand and overexposing by 1-1 1/2 stops. The big advantage of the 208s is that they are tiny and work well with my meter-less camera; however, they're not perfect.

 

[trondsi]

You could shoot one experimental film, taking careful notes about every shot. Write down if it was dim light or sharp light etc, and try using the meter in different ways while writing this down too (incident, reflected). I found a way of using my batteryless Seconic meter this way (in dim or average light I use it normally, but in contrasty sharp light I found the best way was to turn the dome in the light so that shade covers 2/3 of the dome, otherwise it will be underexposed).

 

[Cloudy 8]

Maybe this obvious to most, but it initially confused me when I got my Sekonic L-208: The EV it displays depends on the ISO setting.

The exposure values given in tables for common lighting situations are usually for ISO 100, i.e. full sunlight has EV100 = 15.
When the L-208 is set to a different ISO, then it will show a different EV. Setting the meter to ISO 25 would yield the apparent 2 stop overexposure that the OP mentioned.