Spotmeters the good, the bad and the ugly.

[Ian]

I'm looking for a spotmeter for my up comming LF outfit. Any advice and coments would be welcome.

Ian.

 

[jovo]

The Adorama digital spot meter (which is a rebranded Soligor meter) has worked well for me for years. They're about $250 new, which is far less than the Pentax meter that it emulates. Certainly worth a look. Both the Soligor and the Pentax (especialy the older version) show up regularly on ebay too, btw. Definately consider the digi over the analog....they're much easier to see in low light. According to Richard Ritter, digital meters fare much better than analog when dropped or immersed. Good luck.

 

[Frank Petronio]

My Pentax Digital Spot has been going strong since 1984. That says it all.

 

[kaiyen]

Every so often a Soligor can be nabbed on ebay for about $50-75. They usually go for more than that (~$150). I just got one for $28 and it's dead accurate. This is the Spot Sensor II model. You have to be patient, though - I had snipes on over a dozen auctions until I finally won one at my desired price point.

Not sure if you're on a budget, but it's an option to consider.

allan

 

[Deniz]

I am very very happy with my Soligor Spot Sonsor II which i bought for $100.

If you have the funds, go for a Pentax digital meter, if not go for soligor(adorama)

 

[blanco_y_negro]

spotmeter

Gossen.

 

[Rlibersky]

I bought my Pentax in 1988. Never needed another one or fixing.

 

[Dug]

Big ol' clunky Pentax ANALOG spotmeter. Jeez - all this digital talk on APUG

Seriously, watching the needle move in the spotmeter allows my little brain to calculate the number of stops in a more efficient manner. YMMV

 

[gchpaco]

I use the Adorama analog spot meter (thought I was getting the digital). It's actually not bad; I presume the digital is similar save for a little LED number, but I don't photograph in low light with my 4x5 particularly often and so the visibility issue isn't a big deal to me.

 

[Loose Gravel]

Ian, you need to decide if you want new or is used okay. Pentax is a big favorite, both analog and digi. I don't know if they are still available new. You also need to know whether you'd like one that is spectrally corrected for BW, such as the Zone 6 modifieds or the Pocket Spot. Some folks don't like the Pentax and others, because they can look like a gun (how sick is this?) in this crazy society. Will you need flash metering? These decisions will narrow your choices.

Personally, I've used Pentax for years, but now use the Pocket Spot.

 

[donbga]

Ian, you need to decide if you want new or is used okay. Pentax is a big favorite, both analog and digi. I don't know if they are still available new. You also need to know whether you'd like one that is spectrally corrected for BW, such as the Zone 6 modifieds or the Pocket Spot. Some folks don't like the Pentax and others, because they can look like a gun (how sick is this?) in this crazy society. Will you need flash metering? These decisions will narrow your choices.

Personally, I've used Pentax for years, but now use the Pocket Spot.

One thing I might mention about the Soligor/Adorama Digital meter is that it is not as sensitive in dim light as the Pentax or Minolta F is. I own a Soligor and A Minolta but normally prefer to use the Soligor.


Don Bryant

 

[Mongo]

I use a Zone-VI modified Soligar analog meter. Never any trouble seeing the meter in the conditions in which I shoot...including some pre-dawn and post-dusk stuff. It's probably useless at night, but I've never tried it as I just rely on my incident meter at night.

If you go for a Soligar, make sure it's a model that takes a 9V battery. The older ones took mercury batteries that can be a real pain to locate.

 

[David Henderson]

I'm kind of surprised no-one's mentioned the Sekonic models yet since I'd imagine that they are amongst the most popular spot-meters. I'm certainly happy with my 508, which offers 1-4 degree spotmeter via a zoom, flash metering and incident in one package. This model is discontinued though available used alongside the similar 608 but the equally similar 558 is available new. The only downside I can see is that they aren't cheap.

 

[Ian Grant]

I have a Petax V Spotmeter superb, stil excellent after about 18 yrs service, I've just bought a Capitol II digital of Ebay (UK) for about $55 and it's superbjust as good, one has to be surrendered to my 19 yr old niece . . .

On loan !!!!!

Ian

 

[MurrayMinchin]

My Pentax Digital Spot has been going strong since 1984. That says it all.

1983. Ditto.

Murray

 

[John Kasaian]

Ahh, mine is a Weston Ranger Nine modified to use silver button batteries and calibrated by Quality Light Metric. A lovely meter---a delight to use!

 

[rbarker]

My suggestion would be to think about what and how you meter under whatever situations you shoot, and then about how many meters you want to carry around. If your work is varied, you may find a "Swiss-Army" meter, like the Sekonic L-558 et seq, that essentially does it all, may be more convenient.

I used a Pentax pistol-grip spot meter years ago, but it jumped into a ravine (that lanyard is really there for a purpose ). Before the L-558 combination meter came out, I bought a Sekonic L-778 pistol-grip spot that did both ambient and flash. I used it in conjunction with another meter that did incident readings. Nifty spot meter, but sadly discontinued. But since buying the L-558, the L-778 does only backup duty.

 

[Graeme Hird]

You're going to get as many recommendations as there are meters, which tells you two things:

• That all the meters around do the job they were designed for.
• That you will be no closer to choosing a meter after you have read all the posts in this thread!

So, here's my plug for the Gossen Starlite: one of those "Swiss Army" meters Ralph mentioned. It is very accurate, easy to use, has excellent low light capability, includes a Zone system function in its electronics (and on and on and on ....)

I'm just like all the other happy meter owners - I love my meter and its functionality. I'll buy another one of these if I ever lose mine.

Cheers,

 

[photobackpacker]

Own a Zone VI modified Pentax. Paid extra to give away 1 stop of metering at the low-light end. I will buy a back-up meter soon. It will be a Pentax digital untouched by Zone VI.

 

[TheMissingLink]

Soligor Spot Meter II, bought round about 1987 ... and still works perfectly. The dgits van be read easily, low battery sonsumption and: it's able to save one value to memory as long a knob is pressed


Horst

 

[Baxter Bradford]

You don't say what sort of shooting you prefer tranny/ B+W or colour neg or whether you use flash etc. Don't go entirely by technical specs. It is a bit of kit that gets used frequently, so the display and buttons/triggers need to feel right to your preferences/reckoning. As it gets used for every shot, it is worth investing sensibly for this vital piece of kit. As others have indicated, they provide many good years of service.

I bought a Sekonic 508 5 years ago and have been very happy with it. Only used the incident metering to measure filter factors, liked the readout to show exposure range. Liked the AA battery too, cheaper and easier to find than a CR-123.

Recently bought a Pentax Digital Spot. First thing I noticed was that read 1/2 stop differently (this coinciding with large proportion of film which needed pushing 1/2 to 1 stop for second sheet), also that reads in far lower light than the Sekonic - about 3 stops lower. I recently made a dawn shot where the mid-tone was 0.3 EV! Still honeymoon period, but soon found I prefer the EV way of working. Coloured sticky tape provided me with my exposure latitude guide! Results from recent trip to Tuscany (120 sheets of 5x4) did contain a couple of nightmares, but essentially far closer than I would have achieved with the Sekonic.

The sad reality is that your choices are dwindling, not just in terms of makes, but the range of models is rapidly becoming one-stop shopping. Minolta, Sekonic, Gossen and Pentax

 

[argentic]

I have been using a Pentax digital spotmeter since 1996, and I'm very pleased with it. But I can recommend the Pentax analog spotmeter too, because it's the same quality, a lot cheaper, and the needle is actually more accurate than the digital indication of in 1/3 rds of a stop.

 

[Ruvy]

Sekonic?

I had a soligor, was please with it but left it for two minutes on the ground in a field where I was shooting. Someone (didn't carry a camera so I assume not a photographer but who knows) noticed a gun and stoled it... Now I am using Sekonic 508. It has many advantages it has zoom spot (i.e. you can look at a spot in 1-4 degree view) it is not "just"spot meter, it measure also ambient and it has a flash function - very important if you plan touse flash.
I am not sure if there is something wrong with mine or all meters are like this but it will not measure very low light scenes (like moonlight reflections) other than that it works fine - nearly best of all worlds

 

[David Henderson]

Ruvy. I think the Sekonic 508 goes down to EV3 in spot mode, but considerably further in Incident made. I don't think the Sekonic is by any means the only meter to display the issue you mention, but there's no doubt that if you want to use the spot in very low light conditions then its going to be a struggle with this meter.

 

[Frank Petronio]

It'd be awesome if "they" could make a professional photographer's tricoder - 1. zooming spot meter (in RGB and Grayscale values); 2. large LCD with historogram 3. color temperature meter. And maybe a GPS with sunset and sunrise times. And a link to weather forecasting.

The thing about it is that it's all been invented and simply needs a nice package. And enough customers to bring price down to $500 or so.