What is a good, cheap handheld exposure meter ?

[MattKing]

The Gossen Digisix meter has a 25-degree incident reading plus the ambient reading. Didn't you want something more narrow?

I dont know what I want, im processing all of this and I appreciate yours and everyones input very much! Thank you.

If you haven't worked with a spot meter and something like the Zone system before, I'd suggest that something like the non-spot choices recommended are a better place to start.
I consider spot meters to be a specialized tool, and for most of my efforts prefer something less specialized.
I make a lot of use of the incident light metering capabilities of my hand held meters.

 

[GregY]

If you haven't worked with a spot meter and something like the Zone system before, I'd suggest that something like the non-spot choices recommended are a better place to start.
I consider spot meters to be a specialized tool, and for most of my efforts prefer something less specialized.
I make a lot of use of the incident light metering capabilities of my hand held meters.

Likewise. I used a spot meter almost exclusively with LF....... for most MF/35....incident metering has been equally successful.

 

[Bill Burk]

Except for sunsets. Spotmeter is good for them.

 

[Chan Tran]

I like the Minolta line of meters but if you need a meter that does both incident and reflected light then the Minolta is cumbersome because you have to change the diffuser to the reflected light attachment and where would you put these things when you are not using them?

 

[grain elevator]

Gossen Variosix F and F2 are rarely mentioned and pretty affordable used. There is a 5 degrees spot attachment.

 

[GregY]

Gossen Variosix F and F2 are rarely mentioned and pretty affordable used. There is a 5 degrees spot attachment.

By modern standards they're pretty bulky, unless you're working with a lot of gear and one more piece doesn't make any difference.

 

[grain elevator]

By modern standards they're pretty bulky, unless you're working with a lot of gear and one more piece doesn't make any difference.

Yes, they're not among the smaller meters here mentioned, about the same size as the luna pro sbc (but thinner and more ergonomic to use in incident mode) and the Minoltas Autometers.

 

[photogear]

Just acquired a Lunasix 3 Gossen and then realized it uses mercury batteries (1,35V). I put PX 625 (1,5V) in the battery chamber. I could compare the reading with another lightmeter but I would like to have your opinion on this. Is the difference in voltage significant?

 

[petrk]

Yes, it is significant. Try this and you will be fine

BATTERY ADAPTER SET | Gossen

gossen-photo.de

 

[Bill Burk]

Get the converter - readily available for example about $30 on BH photovideo

Gossen V207A​

 

[photogear]

Thank you Bill and petrk

 

[blee1996]

I have too many meters, and my most used is Sekonic L-308B both outdoors and indoors (flash). It is just the right size, function and ergonomics for me. I have smaller ones (Gossen Digisix), more low-light sensitive ones (Gossen LunaPro SBC), and more versatile ones (Sekonic L-558R), but none of them gets more use than the L-308.

 

[Sirius Glass]

I have too many meters, and my most used is Sekonic L-308B both outdoors and indoors (flash). It is just the right size, function and ergonomics for me. I have smaller ones (Gossen Digisix), more low-light sensitive ones (Gossen LunaPro SBC), and more versatile ones (Sekonic L-558R), but none of them gets more use than the L-308.

I too enjoyed using the Gossen LunaPro SBC and Sekonic L-308S and would recommend either of both.

 

[Subversive Mk II]

I also have two defunct Gossen Luna Pro SBCs. Therein lies the problem - no one in N. Am. or elsewhere will repair "legacy" Gossens,

The last one I bought, I discovered the front circuit board detaches from the rear via two (or three) connector pins internally. Quite large gold-plated pins, not silly fiddly tiny things. A squirt of contact cleaner and a rub-a-dub and things were working fine again.
My other one has never given a second of trouble, they're fantastic devices.

 

[Sanug]

I can recommend the Gossen Lunasix 3. A battery adapter to replace the mercury cells is available from Gossen directly.

Small, lightweight and even cheaper is the Gossen Sixtino (Selen cell). My go-to meter for outdor use with the Canon 7, Rolleicord or Adox Golf.

 

[hardly any color]

I want the kind that i point at the subject. A spot meter would be great.

You can get a gossen or minolta with a 5° adapter, but not sure if they will fit your definition of cheap.

 

[Sanug]

You can get a cheap tele adapter for the Gossen Lunasix 3. It fits for Profisix, Polysix, F and some more as well.

With 7.5° / 15° it is not really spot, but useful in the most cases. A real 1° spotmeter is much more expensive and must be used very carefully to avoid mismeasurement.

 

[Kodachromeguy]

I can recommend the Gossen Lunasix 3. A battery adapter to replace the mercury cells is available from Gossen directly.

Small, lightweight and even cheaper is the Gossen Sixtino (Selen cell). My go-to meter for outdor use with the Canon 7, Rolleicord or Adox Golf.

View attachment 394913

View attachment 394916

In the USA market, this was sold as the Gossen Pilot. There are 10s or 100s for sale on the big auction site. The newest Pilot 2 versions are likely pretty good meters if the limited low light capacity of the selenium is adequate for your work.

 

[Chan Tran]

I would recommend to stay away from both Cds and Selenium meters.

 

[snusmumriken]

I did not realize they sold a shoe adapter for the Digisix. I found this picture on the internet. Looks nice, I might have to get one to add to my collection of small meters.

I had one. It drove me nuts. Infuriating thing.

 

[callsign_BULL]

You want REAL cheap? A "D-3B 2K" CdS meter made by Capital (JA) and sold as Tundra (US), Bower (US), Jessop (UK), HAMA (DE), and likely many others. It is a dual scale (HI/LO) transfer setup, measuring EV then transferring that number to the exposure calculator. It has a wide range of sensitivity, is accurate and includes an incident lumisphere. And, it uses a silver-oxide SR44 battery, no a defunct mercury battery. They are all over eBay and dirt cheap - I got my "out-of-box," new, never used meter for ten bucks, many are less than that. It's my backup and works perfectly with my Kodak Retina IIc which sets up using EV.

BULL sends.

 

[336v]

The forward voltage drop of a small signal shottky like the BAT85 is around 0.21V at the very low current drain of an exposure metre, and a silver oxide cell yields 1.55V, thus the resulting voltage of the concoction is 1.34V. I compared the readings with that of my minolta spotmeter F and they match well beyond my ability to proper aim the arrow on the lunasix dial.
The zinc-air cells provide 1.35V and, again, when checking against my minolta I couldn't find reading differences.

The CdS remark is solid though, silicon cells are more durable. The lunasix sell for quite lower prices wrt other metres though, possibly because of the pesky power supply.

 

[336v]

Zinc air or Silver Oxide can't hold the output voltage to within 1% for 95% of their useful life like Mercury Oxide.

They don't need to - between ~2.45V and 3V the readout of Luna Pro is within half EV step, and "batt check" function
still lands the pointer within the "Batt Good" red swatch. You will likely get more than half-stop exposure difference by pointing
the meter at the subject at slightly wrong angle, so this is somewhat moot point...

 

[336v]

I should mention that this is not quite accurate statement - the forward voltage drop on any diode, Schottky or plain, is not fixed - it can be 0.21V only for certain current flowing through it (let alone only at certain temperature), e.g. this voltage is highly current dependent. In case of usage in Luna Pro - meaning this drop will be different depending on which scale you're taking the reading at: the meter draws ~10...300uA on low scale, ~50...500uA on high scale and ~200uA during "Batt Check". So the diode voltage drop will vary depending on what you're doing; the diode will not only introduce non-linearity, but inconsistent one. Small, but noticeable. For most users it's just small enough not to matter, but it's there. The right way to deal with this is to make a proper voltage regulator with fixed 2.7V output.

 

[Chan Tran]

I should mention that this is not quite accurate statement - the forward voltage drop on any diode, Schottky or plain, is not fixed - it can be 0.21V only for certain current flowing through it (let alone only at certain temperature), e.g. this voltage is highly current dependent. In case of usage in Luna Pro - meaning this drop will be different depending on which scale you're taking the reading at: the meter draws ~10...300uA on low scale, ~50...500uA on high scale and ~200uA during "Batt Check". So the diode voltage drop will vary depending on what you're doing; the diode will not only introduce non-linearity, but inconsistent one. Small, but noticeable. For most users it's just small enough not to matter, but it's there. The right way to deal with this is to make a proper voltage regulator with fixed 2.7V output.

Yes it's true that voltage accross a zener is current dependent mostly due to its bulk resistance. So no for accurate voltage regulation I wouldn't use the zener.