Weston Ranger 9 light meter

[MarkS]

I was looking through some technical information the other day, and ran across an photo showing a Weston Ranger 9 light meter. I've been around photography for 50 years now, and have never seen one, or known anyone who used one.
It seems like it might have been a useful tool, but is rather forgotten now.
If there are Photrio members who use one, or have used one in the past, please speak up!

 

[chriscrawfordphoto]

I've handled a few of them, and I have one now. None of them, including the one I have, were still accurate. The CdS cells in them wear out and need replaced, and they were designed for mercury batteries so they need to have a diode inserted into the circuit to make them accurate with modern batteries. There are a few people I've talked to online who had their Ranger 9 meters overhauled by Quality Light Metric before they closed. Those had the meter cells replaced and the circuits updated to work on modern batteries. Problem is that no one seems to work on vintage meters anymore now that QLM has closed.

You're better off with a modern meter. I think vintage meters are cool, and fun to collect; but they rarely work right anymore and as I said they're basically unrepairable now.

 

[Paul Howell]

I have 2, one is in pretty good shape, the other needs to be taken apart and the clear plastic readout cover reattached. The Ranger 9 uses 2 mercury batteries. Last time I used it I installed 2 winair as hearing aid batteries do not work well. The batteries go in + side down there is a large spring that fits over the negative side of the second battery and the cap. It is a limited view, around 30%, does a better job in low light than my Master VI. There was zone scale that could replace the standard scale. It is accurate, or was, have not used in to a few years.

Due to the high cost of batteries I would give it a pass. Or be willing to made a custom adaptor to take hearing aid batteries.

 

[Paul Howell]

BTW here is a link to the manual

https://www.cameramanuals.org/flashes_meters/weston_ranger_9-1.pdf

 

[bdial]

I guess the Ranger 9 was favored by Fred Picker before 1 degree spot meters were available. I have one that I had serviced by QLM, they adapted it to use silver oxide cells. I don’t use it much though.

 

[Paul Howell]

I have the box somewhere, the zone dial was made by the New York Industries for the Blind.