Please can somebody recommend a small and simple light meter that I can use with my M6. The need is for when I am taking shots from the hip and I do not want to raise the camera to eye level to re-meter if the light changes. Ideally something the size of a cigarette lighter...I never use flash and do not want 300 functions, just the one thanks....

-- Richard (richard@designblue.co.uk), September 05, 2001

Answers

Sekonic L-208 Twinmaster (requires a battery) or even the Hasselblad selenium-cell winding knob meter.

-- Cosmo Genovese (cosmo@rome.com), September 05, 2001.

The Sekonic 208 works very well. Small, light and reliable but not usable in very low light situations. I use it almost all the time.

-- Roger (roger@marques.net), September 05, 2001.

If I want to measure light in a candle light room how low is this? EV what? any knowledge would be useful.

-- Richard (richard@designblue.co.uk), September 05, 2001.

I am in the marked for a small lightmeter myself, and I am almost sure I will buy a Gossen Sixtomat Digital. It is very compact (about 3 tokai lighters next to each other), very simple one hand operation. Takes 1 aa battery, weights 95 gr.,-2.5 ev at ISO 100, and cost only 85 GBP at www.robertwhite.co.uk.
Check it out at http://www.gossen-photo.de/produkte/index.htm.
Unfortunately their english site does not work at the moment.

-- Niels H. S. Nielsen (nhsn@ruc.dk), September 05, 2001.

Niels, both your answers are very correct. Gossen Sixtomat Digital and Robert White. Talk to Stu at Robert White, his address is Stu @ Robert White E-mail Address(es): stu@robertwhite.co.uk

Stu is amazing, and will give you a ton of help. And 85GBP is a good price. PN

-- Paul Nelson (clrfarm@comswest.net.au), September 05, 2001.

People on this forum like to diss the new Voigtlander VC clip-on meter, and I have no idea why. It's tiny, fits in the shoe and conforms nicely to Leica shape as if it were made for the camera, and mine follows my $300 Sekonic meter exactly, in all situations, down to where I can't hold the camera still. What more do you want?

-- Michael Darnton (mdarnton@hotmail.com), September 05, 2001.

Richard. Another possibility to consider (which means spending no money at all) is to meter thru the M6, make your settings and then go and do your hip shooting. Seems to me that this would be as effective as using a hand meter.

With my own street photography I use M2/M3s and of course a small hand held meter. I also have the M6 but find metering with it to be a distraction and annoying, plus, slows me down. But still, the M6 TTL is a super accurate meter and you may want to try out the above suggestion before spending any money on a tiny hand meter.

I will probably end up taking the batteries out of my two M6s because with the rapid load and rewind crank they are very nice cameras.

-- Steve LeHuray (icommag@toad.ner), September 05, 2001.

Richard

fyi EV is dependent on film speed. My guess for a candle illuminating a 18% gray card only a foot away - about EV 2-3 @100 ISO. This is a guess! The candle will be much brighter of course.

-- Robin Smith (smith_robin@hotmail.com), September 05, 2001.

Ken Rockwell has an explanation of EV and LV:
http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/ev.htm

-- Niels H. S. Nielsen (nhsn@ruc.dk), September 05, 2001.

Sekonic L-208 Twin-Mate. Definitely. The best mini-meter today.

-- Jay (infinitydt@aol.com), September 05, 2001.

I have a tiny Gossen Pilot selenium meter. It can fit in the flash shoe. It is a bit larger than the Voitgtlander VC meter, but much cheaper. It takes incident readings too. It really is the size of a lighter.

-- Robin Smith (smith_robin@hotmail.com), September 05, 2001.

For your specific situation, I would 2nd Michael Darnton's recommendation of the Cosina Voigtlander VC clip-on meter. Referring to his posting, I think 1 of the reasons why the VC is "dissed" is that the LEDs are on top & aren't readily viewable when you have the camera up to your eye--this will obviously be an advantage, not a problem, for shooting from the hip.

-- Chris Chen (furcafe@cris.com), September 05, 2001.

I'll add my support to the Voigtländer meter. Tiny, easy to use from waist level, appearance matches the M camera pretty well. It's a bit pricey but works very well.

-- Craig Zeni (clzeni@mindspring.com), September 05, 2001.

Sekonic 308 BII. SUPERB LIGHT PRIECISE VERSATILE. You cannot get better. This model is going to be discontinued and replaced with a bulkier one with more (useless) functions. Get one now!

-- Samir (sjahjah@lemonde.fr), September 05, 2001.

Richard: Two regulation dinner candles spaced 20" apart. Reflected reading taken with Gossen Luna-Lux off the palm of my hand, held 20" from the candles, centered on them: EV 6.75. Incident light reading with Luna-Lux: EV 7.5. Incident reading with Minolta digital Autometer: EV 4.4. Without spending time to figure out why the discrepencies, I think for a portrait shot by candlelight a couple of feet from a couple of candles, in a light-colored environment with close-by refecting surfaces, figure EV 6 or so. This at least puts it in the ballpark.

-- Bob Fleischman (RFXMAIL@prodigy.net), September 05, 2001.

Thanks very much for all your help, you are all such clever cookies..... I read the link on EV, and does this make sense EV0 is f1 for 1 second at 100 ASA.

I tend to use f2.8 at say 1/15 with say 1600 ASA. Which would equate to EV-3+4+5=EV6 Does this seem correct?

-- Richard (richard@designblue.co.uk), September 06, 2001.

Bob

What ISO for your EVs? Not that I really care, but EVs without film speed is not very useful. The things we get into....

-- Robin Smith (smith_robin@hotmail.com), September 06, 2001.

I see a bunch of old Weston meters on eBay. Cheap, simple. Maybe not as sensitive, etc..

-- Tse-Sung (tsesung@yahoo.com), September 06, 2001.

Robin, it was ISO 400. Sorry for the omission.

-- Bob Fleischman (RFXMAIL@prodigy.net), September 06, 2001.

I use the Sekonic 318B - the size and weight of a deck of cards and does incident and (non-spot) reflected metering.

35 'cron on the camera, 90 TE in one pocket, Sekonic and some film in t'other...who needs cameras bags? 8^)

Spot meter eyepiece available as an option, but I usually use the regular 50 degree reflected meter as a 'pseudo' M6 meter for my M4-2/ Ps. For street photography amid the highrises the incident head 'saw' too much light from the narrow strip of sky overhead and tended to underexpose shadows.

Cons: Meter turns off after 30 seconds or a minute - saves batteries but I have to keep switching it off and then on again to reactivate. Meter KEEPS READING for a fraction of a second after releasing the button, so I have to be careful not to turn it too quickly to read scale, or reading may change.

Pros: Big digital readout for aging eyes backed up by analog scale across bottom.

-- Andy Piper (apidens@denver.infi.net), September 07, 2001.

Dear Andy; with a 90/2.8 in your pocket, you must call a lot of women atention; specialy at spring. Just a joke, coudn´t keep it to my self.

-- r watson (al1231234@hotmail.com), September 07, 2001.

rwatson: That's why I use the TELE-ELMARIT 90; if I carried the regular Elmarit in my pocket I'd get arrested.

-- Andy Piper (apidens@denver.infi.net), September 07, 2001.

Andy;you made my morning, can´t stop laghing of just imagine this perverted photographer with a hard-on tele-elmarit.

-- r watson (al1231234@hotmail.com), September 07, 2001.

can any body help to explain the relationship among EV, film speed, shutter speed and aperture. Is there any formula between them? Please kindly advise.

-- tom tong (tom.tong@ckh.com.hk), September 11, 2001.

company:libre(real briar) owner:georges daoud (king of pipe)middel east r.c:(mount lebanon) : 63489 we are a pipe selling company and we are interested in adding a new brand wich is lighters, we want cheap pricesand good quality lighters and what brands do you have (automativ,normal,pipe...etc) and what is the leat quantity that we can order and if your prices are really reasonable we will buy a large quantity of lighters. please send us a list of prices and pictures of models of your lighters. contact us on : fax:00961-1-241706 p.o.box:90-531 jdeideh beirut lebanon we want automatic and normal and other kind of lighters.libriar@inco.com.lb

-- georges daoud (.libriar@inco.com.lb), October 17, 2001.

I prefer the Minolta F spotmeter. I look at a scene and meter the portion I feel should fall into zone 5 and use that reading. No more guessimates over back lighting etc. Incident meters are fine if you want a general reading and the light source is nice and uniform.

-- ray tai (razerx@netvigator.com), October 18, 2001.