Which lightmeter should I buy?

Mike1234 · Feb 9, 2010

In your price range I'd buy a cosmetically challenged Luna Pro SBC or a nice Luna Pro. I prefer the SBC for its use of a common 9v battery as much as any other reason.

olleorama · Feb 9, 2010

Hello, I bought a nice digital ambient/flashmeter with a rotating scale for $15 from the US (I'm in sweden). I would certainly go for the US market if I were you. Just search for light meter and see what you can get for cheap. I would certainly go for something with ambient and flash, and both incident and reflected light. butkus manuals were a good resource in determining which meters have the features I needed. If I were you I would be prepared to expand my budget a bit if needed. I rather have a good meter and be skint for a month, than to have a meter without flash metering or running on some rare battery.

(My meter is a pretty obscure Vivitar 230 LX, but works very well, is very accurate, runs on a standard 9V battery and was made in the US. Fab stuff!)

John Koehrer · Feb 9, 2010

Definitely HAS to have a current battery regardless of the brand of meter.
I had a Luna Pro F & it was very good. Now I have a Digiflash that I found online for $75 & I keep it in my jacket pocket all the time. Gossen also makes the Digisix that's the same size as the Digiflash and does not have flash measurement.

Q.G. · Feb 10, 2010

Those two (Digiflash and Digisix) are rather good too.
Due to their size, changing settings is a bit fiddly, and you need to protect the buttons a bit against accidental pushes. But apart from that, great!

Metroman · Feb 10, 2010

Well I have two Westons, one from 1956 a III and a 1965 V. Both going strong and the V is used everyday.

In Europe they can be repaired either in Holland or UK:

Holland - John Desq

UK - Megatron (they refurbished my V last year with a new cell etc. for €70)

Peter Loy always has several for sale and I can recommend him.

jeroldharter · Feb 10, 2010

You will get a large number of answers to a broad question like that.

I suggest an incident meter to begin with. Spot meters are good, but harder to use, larger, much more expensive, and prone to error if you are not skilled.

I have used a Gossen Luna Pro SBC (with 5 degree spot attachment also), Sekonic 1 degree spot meter, and now the Gossen Digisix and Digiflash.

I recommend the Gossen Digisix. It is probably the cheapest new meter you can buy. It is also the smallest and lightest. works great for me. For the price, it is almost disposable in the modern photo world and would be a great start for you.

SchwinnParamount · Feb 10, 2010

John Koehrer said:
The Weston master V is compact & reliable, but not especially sensitive if you intend to use it in low light. None of the selenium meters are.
The Sekonic 308 is compact, digital, gives incident, reflected and flash modes and will be better weather sealed and durable than any meter with a moving coil meter.

I have one of those. It died 3 weeks after I bought it from a guy who knows meters and swore this would last forever.

The meter is pretty and great to hold in the hand. If it works, it is a marvelous work of art. If it doesn't, it is a marvelous boat anchor.

nkbitsch · Feb 10, 2010

I've fallen in love with the Sekonic 308. I've found it pretty cheap from this ebay seller. Does any of you (especially people located in europe), have any experiences with buying from hong kong ebay shops? The meter cost $138 from the seller in hong kong, compared to $315 the cheapest place i can find it in europe.

david_mizen · Feb 10, 2010

on your budget id go for the gossen luna pro you can find them on ebay well used but working quality light metric can fix them if any thing goes wrong (they have just done one for me) just as good but cheaper is the gossen luna lite basically the same meter but it uses leds instead of a galvameter to indicate the exposure

macrorie · Feb 10, 2010

I own several of the suggested meters: Sekonic 208 and 308, Gossen Lunapro SBC and Digisix. The Sekonic 208 is nice and small but has a "coarse" iso scale, the 308 is my favorite meter, but it is beyond your budget, the SBC is a big meter (at least the late ones are) but very precise and it has extreme low light capabilities), and the Digisix is small, precise but a little fiddly in changing iso settings. In the US a new Digisix would also be out of your price range.

Given the fact you are going to be buying used, I would make sure to get a battery-powered meter, and the choice may not be that significant as long as you get one that uses modern (not mercury) batteries. My main suggestion is that you find a way to check the meter against another one with known accuracy and the same reading angle. If you can get the Sekonic 308, then by all means get it, it is great meter.

Metroman · Feb 10, 2010

nkbitsch said:
I've fallen in love with the Sekonic 308. I've found it pretty cheap from this ebay seller. Does any of you (especially people located in europe), have any experiences with buying from hong kong ebay shops? The meter cost $138 from the seller in hong kong, compared to $315 the cheapest place i can find it in europe.

Niels don't forget you will probably have to pay VAT and import duties from Hong Kong!

Did you see Warehouse Express or Foto Sense.

nkbitsch · Feb 10, 2010

I was wondering, was is the difference between the sekonic 308S and 308B?

Metroman · Feb 10, 2010

According to Sekonic

suzyj · Feb 12, 2010

I just bought a Sekonic L358 from a Hong Kong ebay seller. It's wonderful. Much more sensitive than any of my camera's spot meters. I can use it in aperture priority (set an aperture with the dial and it suggests a shutter speed) or shutter priority mode. It'll even trigger flashes and sort the metering out for those. And the best bit is it's much more compact and amenable to carrying around than a 35mm camera.

Best $200 I've ever spent.

benjiboy · Feb 12, 2010

Metroman said:
Niels don't forget you will probably have to pay VAT and import duties from Hong Kong!

Did you see Warehouse Express or Foto Sense.

As Andy says it is subject to customs duty and V.A.T, the customs duty is added onto the the price you paid and the V.A.T. is calculated on the total of the two, and don't forget that these grey imports don't have any U.K warranty ( or whatever country you are in ) and the official importers won't touch them, even for money in most cases, so what cheap can be expensive in the long run.

Screwdriver · Feb 12, 2010

suzyj said:
I just bought a Sekonic L358 from a Hong Kong ebay seller. It's wonderful. Much more sensitive than any of my camera's spot meters. I can use it in aperture priority (set an aperture with the dial and it suggests a shutter speed) or shutter priority mode. It'll even trigger flashes and sort the metering out for those. And the best bit is it's much more compact and amenable to carrying around than a 35mm camera.

Best $200 I've ever spent.

I also have the Sekonic L358 and love the thing. I bought the Pocket Wizard module to fire some flashes I have. It's a great meter!

benjiboy · Feb 13, 2010

I love my Sekonic L-358 too, they have become almost an industry standard these days, I bought the optional 1 degree spot attachment too about a year ago and now have the best of both worlds, because the more expensive Sekonic L-758 has no facility to take general reflective light readings, only incidental, and spot.

elekm · Feb 13, 2010

If you're going to shoot a Hasselblad (or medium format), don't cheap out on the meter.

Buy a quality meter. And the great thing about buying an excellent meter is that you only have to buy it once.

You're going to pay more up front, but you're going to get a better meter, and you won't outgrow it or find it to be inadequate in two months.

In 2002, I bought a Sekonic L-508, which I think is an excellent meter. It does reflective, spot, incident and flash. It uses common AA batteries. I've never found it to be lacking.

I think that when you buy cheaply made things (in photography and in life), you often end up paying more in the end because cheaply made items (not the same as inexpensive) don't hold up or don't perform as expected.

Q.G. · Feb 13, 2010

And if you are going to use it with Hasselblads, get a meter that (also) gives a reading in EV values.
You will have to transfer the settings from the handheld meter to the lens (and camera), and it is so much easier and quicker if all you have to transfer is just one value, without having to change or translate aperture and shutterspeed data to the ones available you would like.

Jeff Kubach · Feb 13, 2010

I'll go with Gossen Luna-Pro.

Jeff

FotoGys · Feb 14, 2010

I would take some time to get a bigger budget and then go for the Seconic L758

Guus

nkbitsch · Feb 14, 2010

It sounds like I should go wait for a while till I get a bigger budget. Friday I got the great news that I got a job that I applied for as a tester at Phase One. Maybe I'm lucky that they have a good old light meter I could lent.

Thanks to everybody who commented on my thread, I have gotten a lot wiser on meters, what and what not to buy.

w9cae · Feb 14, 2010

Just noticed this thread tonight & thought I should chime in. Recently I was give a Rolleiflex & it's common flaw the light meter was stuffed. I too wasn't able to spend the $$$ for a new Gossen or Sekonic. So I opted for a used one, just like this one http://www.flickr.com/photos/kongzi/4128339096/

The used one looks mint & works & thats the ???? You dont know till after real life use if the selenium used light meter is telling you the truth. In my case which dont make sense the meter reads more then an F stop more. So all my pictures were under exposed. Selenium light meters usually over time read the other way where as they loose life they give you over exposed reading. I looked to see if there was a way to adjust. But I didnt see any way to get inside to workings. My temporary solution was to set for 50 ASA when I want 100 ASA resulting in a reading close to what I should see.

I dont recommend buying a used light meter. Simple device with so much potential for problems. My 20 cents

Theo43 · Feb 14, 2010

nkbitsch,
If you can find a good condition Gossen Luna Pro SBC go for it; I can't imagine anything better!
Ted

Mike1234 · Feb 14, 2010

Yeah, you just can't beat an SBC unless you spend big bucks on a really nice spot meter.

Which lightmeter should I buy?

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