What is a Good handheld spot meter

Shaggysk8 · Feb 28, 2009

Wow that is small.

(please excuse my ignorance in any of what I might say and please correct me)
What I think I am after is something with a needle so I can gauge the difference in light during the day, also I don't really need lots of fancy stuff I was just gonna get my Zone V reading and move things around to where I need them and also make development adjustment, not sure how that will work with roll film but I will try

I guess the thing is I want to make as many of the decisions as I can so if it goes wrong I can blame myself

BobNewYork · Feb 28, 2009

Shaggysk8 said:
Wow that is small.

(please excuse my ignorance in any of what I might say and please correct me)
What I think I am after is something with a needle so I can gauge the difference in light during the day, also I don't really need lots of fancy stuff I was just gonna get my Zone V reading and move things around to where I need them and also make development adjustment, not sure how that will work with roll film but I will try

I guess the thing is I want to make as many of the decisions as I can so if it goes wrong I can blame myself

No ignorance Shaggy - you're well on the right track - and headed in the right direction. Keep going!!

Bob H

Jerry Parker · Nov 23, 2014

ghost said:
I hope you don't mind- but this reminds me of an issue I'm having...

I love my old analog Pentax meter, but it takes a funny battery that is no longer available- does anyone know of a reliable solution to this issue?

If there is anybody that has an answer for you, It would be Richard Ritter.
http://www.lg4mat.net/

aRolleiBrujo · Feb 8, 2015

Bump for future reading.

RobC · Feb 8, 2015

Get a Sekonic which has both spot and incident meters, you have all the bases covered then.
And all meters use a K Factor which seem to range between 12.5% and 18%. The difference between those two values is only a half stop and has already been pointed out, your film speed and print calibration will factor the K factor out so its not something you need to concern yourself with except as a purely academic exercise.

Sekonic use K Factor of 12.5%
Minolta Spot Meter F uses 14%
Others are in same ball park, i.e. within 1/2 stop or less of each other.

Oh, and current sekonics have water seals making them damp and rain proof which is a good thing if you are a landscape photographer. You can probably drop it in a brook and pick it out without a problem. Not suggesting you try it though.

aRolleiBrujo · Feb 8, 2015

RobC said:
Get a Sekonic which has both spot and incident meters, you have all the bases covered then.
And all meters use a K Factor which seem to range between 12.5% and 18%. The difference between those two values is only a half stop and has already been pointed out, your film speed and print calibration will factor the K factor out so its not something you need to concern yourself with except as a purely academic exercise.

Sekonic use K Factor of 12.5%
Minolta Spot Meter F uses 14%
Others are in same ball park, i.e. within 1/2 stop or less of each other.

Oh, and current sekonics have water seals making them damp and rain proof which is a good thing if you are a landscape photographer. You can probably drop it in a brook and pick it out without a problem. Not suggesting you try it though.

RobC, Thanks for the ideas! Would you know any under the $200 range? I wonder if new versus used is a good idea as well, since calibration may be off, if it is used? If so, I have no clue how to tell it is, nor, how to fix one! Thanks for tips! -Americo.rodriguez

RobC · Feb 8, 2015

Any of the spot meters are good if they are working as they should do. I have a minolta spot meter F which is nice but really designed for flash use. It'ssmaller than some of the others too.

You can test any spot meter against any slr camera which has spot metering. Point them both at an evenly toned and lit subject and they should ideally have a reading within half a stop of each other. And test against dark, medium and light subjects so you know they both give similar readings across dark to light.
if the difference is more than half a stop but consistent across dark to light test then thats OK since you will factor it out when you do your film speed and print tests but you might want to get the meter checked.
If the readings vary through dark to light test then get the meter tested/calibrated.
This of course assumes you slr meter is good.

heespharm · Feb 8, 2015

Curt said:
I still have a Soligor spot that I got from Fred Picker, it was converted to be more linear, so they said. It's a nice meter and takes a 9 volt battery available about anywhere. It has red LED's so it's easy to read in any light. I also have a Luna Pro F with the add on spot thing. Although older it works great and I have it for a back up. If I'm not mistaken it takes a 9 volt battery too.

I too have a Fred picker spot... Works wonderfully and can be had for about 120

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Old_Dick · Feb 8, 2015

Hi Folks,

After reading all the responses I started to look at a couple of popular photography web sites. At the expense of sounding like a total idiot does anyone make/sell a spot meter? Not one that has it as an add on and has more features then I will ever use. I have a Pentax V, started wondering what happens when it dies.

Principal Unix System Engineer, Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems(retired)

heespharm · Feb 8, 2015

Old_Dick said:
Hi Folks,

After reading all the responses I started to look at a couple of popular photography web sites. At the expense of sounding like a total idiot does anyone make/sell a spot meter? Not one that has it as an add on and has more features then I will ever use. I have a Pentax V, started wondering what happens when it dies.

Principal Unix System Engineer, Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems(retired)

Sekonic still does I think kenko does too

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hgaude · Feb 9, 2015

If money were no object!
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...01_758_L_758DR_DigitalMaster_Flash_Meter.html

aRolleiBrujo · Feb 9, 2015

Gossen Lunapro F, is this a good choice? Its very affordable, however, I think I might want to go digital, as it seems I can't understand those needles!

djdister · Feb 9, 2015

aRolleiBrujo said:
Gossen Lunapro F, is this a good choice? Its very affordable, however, I think I might want to go digital, as it seems I can't understand those needles!

The Lunapro F is not a spot meter, and even with a spot attachment not as small a spot metering area as a true spot meter. Look for a good used 1 degree spot meter by Minolta, Pentax or Sekonic.

DREW WILEY · Feb 9, 2015

It's still easy to find new and barely used good meters. My favorite is overwhelmingly the Pentax digital spotmeter, my second choice the
Minolta Spotmeter F. They read almost identically, but the manual dial on the Pentax is faster and more intuitive. Some of the cheaper spotmeters are not multicoated and therefore more influenced by flare.

aRolleiBrujo · Feb 9, 2015

djdister said:
The Lunapro F is not a spot meter, and even with a spot attachment not as small a spot metering area as a true spot meter. Look for a good used 1 degree spot meter by Minolta, Pentax or Sekonic.

hmm, which would be a better choice?

heespharm · Feb 9, 2015

Look for a soligor or a used sekonic l408

Btw everytime I type sekonic , autocorrect changes it to demonic... Coincidence ???

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aRolleiBrujo · Feb 9, 2015

heespharm said:
Look for a soligor or a used sekonic l408

Btw everytime I type sekonic , autocorrect changes it to demonic... Coincidence ???

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:devil: Cool! thank you for the devilish suggestions!

heespharm · Feb 9, 2015

aRolleiBrujo said:
:devil: Cool! thank you for the devilish suggestions!

Whoops I didn't mean 408 I meant 488

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Chan Tran · Feb 9, 2015

RobC said:
Get a Sekonic which has both spot and incident meters, you have all the bases covered then.
And all meters use a K Factor which seem to range between 12.5% and 18%. The difference between those two values is only a half stop and has already been pointed out, your film speed and print calibration will factor the K factor out so its not something you need to concern yourself with except as a purely academic exercise.

Sekonic use K Factor of 12.5%
Minolta Spot Meter F uses 14%
Others are in same ball park, i.e. within 1/2 stop or less of each other.

Oh, and current sekonics have water seals making them damp and rain proof which is a good thing if you are a landscape photographer. You can probably drop it in a brook and pick it out without a problem. Not suggesting you try it though.

When St. Ansel said he doesn't use a K factor he was actually using a K factor of 10.76.

RobC · Feb 10, 2015

Chan Tran said:
When St. Ansel said he doesn't use a K factor he was actually using a K factor of 10.76.

he should have been using 3.125

What is a Good handheld spot meter

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