Weston Cine Exposure Meter Question

[noahsmith]

I was recently given a Weston Cine Exposure Meter (Model 819) by a relative. It doesn't seem to be reading light properly and I'm wondering if there is a battery that needs to be replaced? I've tried to take it apart but cant figure out how to. Does anyone have any suggestions for how to open these meters and if they actually take batteries?

I'm primarily a film photographer and I realize this meter was made for motion picture film. I've attached two photos below for reference. Just curious if I could use it in my workflow, any help is much appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Young He]

Seems like a selenium meter. I somewhat dislike the older selenium meters (at least the weston master IV or something like that) because they break rather easily. Selenium meters do not need a battery but they can give inaccurate readings if they are old. Could possibly be used for still photography, but if it is inaccurate you might as well buy another meter. I hear some phone light meters work quite well depending on how well your phone can expose. Just my 2 cents.

 

[bdial]

No batteries. As Young He mentioned, selenium meters don't age so well, old Westons that don't work are far, far more common than ones that do.
If it does react to light at all, you might be able to use it by compensating, but it's probably not worth the effort, especially since they continue to degrade, so you would need to calibrate your compensation factor regularly.
I have a Gossen selenium meter which was dead accurate when I loaned it to a friend a few years ago. I got it back recently, and it's a couple of stops off, and I expect that it spent most of that time in a drawer, away from light.

But, on the bright side (not an intentional pun), those old Westons are pretty to look at.

 

[paul ron]

if you search these forums, there were discussions on replacing the selenium cell.

 

[jim10219]

Both of my selenium meters are off by a stop. They're both perfectly usable and reliable so long as I remember to set the ISO one stop lower and then do everything else like normal. So if I have ISO 100 film, I set the dial to ISO 50, and read the meter as if it worked fine.

Test it against a meter that is known to give good readings and see if it's consistently off. If so, it may still be useful, provided you remember to make the necessary compensation.

 

[BAC1967]

That’s one of the very early Weston meters, it was also branded as a Leica meter. I have the same one but mine is dead, you’re lucky it’s reading light at all. Sometimes if the old cellenium meters are reading low you can “wake up” the cell by putting it in bright light for a day or two, I have revived a few that way. Most often that doesn’t work. That meter does not take batteries, you will probably break the brittle Bakelite if you try to open it.

Weston Cine Exposure Meter by Bryan Chernick, on Flickr

 

[Bill Burk]

Sorry you seem to have gotten a dud.

I would find this Cine model difficult to use for shooting film even if it worked.

 

[John Koehrer]

It appears to be dead. Never stopped me before though. You would have to convert fps to shutter speeds to get a useable exposure
combination not real convenient. The meter is still dead though.

 

[paul ron]

i have a few westons, all went blind.

but they are so beautiful to look at n display.