Sekonic L608 help

razocaine_07 · Apr 19, 2018

Hi,

I'm after some advice, I've been offered a sekonic L608 And was just needing to confirm if I can spot meter with it? , particularly in low light. Many thanks

chriscrawfordphoto · Apr 19, 2018

The L-608 has a one degree spotmeter built in, as well as incident metering. Its not good for low light, though. The spotmeter only measures down to EV 3, while ordinary spot-only meters like the Pentax Digital and the Minolta Spotmeter F go down to EV 1. Sekonic's later incident+spot combo meters, like the L-558 and L-758 do spot readings down to EV 1 as well, so they're the better choice. The new L-858 is even better, it meters in spot mode down to EV -1, two stops lower! Its $600 new, but if you need very lowlight capability and can afford it (wish I could, I'm still using my L-758) then it is the one to buy.

razocaine_07 · Apr 19, 2018

Thank you for this, thats very helpful

razocaine_07 · Apr 19, 2018

I've seen a spotmeter F for sale, I have little knowledge so was wondering if this would be a worthwhile investment? I wish I could stretch to the new sekonic but my other half would kill me

chriscrawfordphoto said:
The L-608 has a one degree spotmeter built in, as well as incident metering. Its not good for low light, though. The spotmeter only measures down to EV 3, while ordinary spot-only meters like the Pentax Digital and the Minolta Spotmeter F go down to EV 1. Sekonic's later incident+spot combo meters, like the L-558 and L-758 do spot readings down to EV 1 as well, so they're the better choice. The new L-858 is even better, it meters in spot mode down to EV -1, two stops lower! Its $600 new, but if you need very lowlight capability and can afford it (wish I could, I'm still using my L-758) then it is the one to buy.

tezzasmall · Apr 19, 2018

Googling it brought up loads of reviews. Maybe use this as a starting point?

Terry

razocaine_07 · Apr 19, 2018

Will do, thank you Terry

chriscrawfordphoto · Apr 19, 2018

The Spotmeter F is a great spotmeter, one of the best ever made.

jim10219 · Apr 19, 2018

If you need just a spot meter and price is a concern, check out the Soligor Digital Spot Sensor. It's a 1 degree spot meter that measures from 1 EV to 19.9 EV. It also runs on standard 9v batteries. I've owned two and never had an issue with either one (I got a Zone VI modified one so sold off the other). They're as accurate as you'll ever need as a reliable as anything else out there. However, it's just a spot meter, no incident or flash readings, but it's cheap enough that you can buy one of them, and an incident flash meter like one of the Minolta Flash Meters and save a bunch of money off of an all in one. Though, the downside with that is you have to carry two meters.

Dennis-B · Apr 19, 2018

I have the Sekonic L508, and it's a very accurate meter. However, it's a bit clumsy, in that you have to remove the viewfinder from your eye to read the output.

I'm with the others. For pure spot readings, you can't beat the Pentax Spotmeter F. I used to own an analog, but sold it to fund a newer digital model that had been converted to Zone VI. I also have a couple of Soligor digital spot meters, one of which is Zone VI converted. The Soligor Zone VI is also very accurate, right there with the Pentax. The great thing about them is the readout in the viewfinder. However in low light, the scales are a bit difficult to read.

Poisson Du Jour · Apr 19, 2018

See this comprehensive review in Luminous Landscape:
https://luminous-landscape.com/sekonic-l-608-review/

If you have never used a spot/incident meter before you will have to start from the ground and work your way up through trial and error and take notes of what you are doing to refer back. ISO2 and meter baseline calibration are two areas to get a handle on as they provide for instant reference for filter factors and exposure compensation, but both assume you know what the effect will look like on film (especially slide film which will have at least two variations of filter factor depending on light). This meter, like the higher specified L758D (also a 1° spot meter), can be set in 0.5 or 0.3 stops (e.g. 0.5 for negative film, 0.3 for slide film). Lots of things to learn and experiment with so take your time and be prepared for mistakes in the early days.

razocaine_07 · Apr 20, 2018

Thanks all for the help, you've helped make a difficult decision much easier

ic-racer · Apr 20, 2018

I searched through the entire Sekonic catalog of meters and came up with an L-558. Used ones are available and, for film photographers, the essential specifications are similar to the latest $600 L-858 model. (L-558 1° spot viewfinder EV 1 to EV 24.4 vs. L-858 1° spot viewfinder EV -1 to EV 24.4)

Sekonic L608 help

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