I just picked up a Gossen Luna-Pro Digital F. For other-than-M6 users wanting a hand-held meter, it seems ideal. It's only 5/8 inch thick and fits in a shirt pocket. It measures both incident and reflected. The angle of acceptance for reflected light is 25 degrees, about the same as a 90mm lens. If you scan the scene with the button held down, it will calculate an average exposure and also indicate the contrast range. You can set it for shutter or aperture priority, and put in exposure corrections, like for filters, automatically. It also takes flash readings, with or without a cable. So what's not to like? Except the $204 price tag? A small and capable meter to go with a small and capable camera!

-- Bob Fleischman (RFXMAIL@prodigy.net), October 28, 2001

Answers

I've got one of them. I agree it's a neat meter but because of the narrow reading angle it's hard to know exactly what you're metering. I hold it flat against the top of the square lens shade on my Hasselblad to it points along the lens' axis. However for the non- metered M's, the Sekonic L208 Twin-Mate is really hard to beat (except by an MR4). It fits in the flash shoe, meters like a 90mm lens, and has a memory-lock so you can meter at eyelevel.

-- Jay (infinitydt@aol.com), October 28, 2001.

I'm also a fan of the Gossen meter. It's cheaper in Europe, too - I picked one up in the UK for the equivalent of about $180 USD. It's badged as the 'Sixtomat digital flash' here, and there's also a non-flash 'Sixtomat Digital' for 100 GBP ($144 USD).

-- Richard Williams (richardw@icr.ac.uk), October 28, 2001.

How do people feel about Voigtlander's little VC meter? Anyone have any experience with it?

cheers,

feli

-- Feli di Giorgio (feli@d2.com), October 28, 2001.

asking about the Voigtländer clip on meter...

Hmm, there was an extensive discussion of the VC clip on meter and the Sekonic L208 on the Leica Enthusiasts list just recently. You might try subscribing and browse through the archives for it.

I've used it and like it a lot, but haven't bought one yet. I own one of the L208s as well as an L328, and I use the L208 the most of them. I didn't like the control layout or the readout on the Gossen Luna Pro Digital F as much.

My all time favorite meter in terms of the readout is a Gossen Luna Pro SBC. It's the only meter I've used with a direct +/- 3EV readout that lets me see all the exposure tuples at a glance. Only thing I don't like about it is the fact that its' kinda bulky.

-- Godfrey DiGiorgi (ramarren@bayarea.net), October 28, 2001.

You can get the Gossen Luna-Pro Digital F for less than $200 (incl. shipping) from www.robertwhite.co.uk. Quite a bit less, as I recall.

Except for the somewhat awkward placement of the incident dome, it walks all over the similarly priced Sekonic L308 BII, which is what I own (alas, I neglected to research the market properly).

Relative to the Sekonic the Gossen Digital F is

1. as slim and handy 2. Has both shutter and aperture priority 3. does not forget the meter reading in 2 minutes and shut itself off. 4. displays the ISO at all times without your having to press a separate button (less chance of making stupid mistakes) 5. Has a very useful contrast metering scale 6. Can bake pancakes (no, not really)

-- Mani Sitaraman (bindumani@pacific.net.sg), October 28, 2001.

I wish someone would put an incident lightmeter into a pen, with the white dome at the top, powered by an AAA cell. You could carry it at all times in your shirt pocket, - and write with it as well!

-- Dave Carlisle (dave_carlisle@hotmail.com), October 28, 2001.

Does anyone know where I can get the Sekonic L208? Camera World tells me it has been discontinued and B&H is out of stock. TIA

-- Bob (robljones@home.com), October 29, 2001.

The Sekonic L-308B meter used to go with my M4-P. It was small and accurate, and worked very well for architectural photography, but not for candid shots of people. Trying to meter a scene with a handheld meter before taking a shot is a sure way of bringing attention to the photographer! After missing a couple of potentially nice candid shots at a wedding, I decided to get a Voigtlander VC Meter and have it clipped to my M4-P. I was more than a little sceptical of how accurate the reflected-light VC Meter would be compared to my tried and trusted incident-light Sekonic handheld meter, but it turned out to be a non-issue. The VC actually meters very well, and the metering is consistent with that of my CLE's built-in meter, which is accurate. The only times when the VC fails to give accurate exposure settings are in situations when there is a lot of sky in the scene, in which case, the meter tends towards under-exposure. But this is a common shortcoming of reflected meters, and experience should tell me to get a more accurate reading by metering the scene without the sky. Without question, the VC is much more convenient than using a handheld meter, and it actually helps in taking sneak-shot of people. The VC is meant to be used with the camera at chest level, I can now meter, set hyperfocal distance on the lens, and shoot, without ever lifting the camera to my face. The unsuspecting subject will think that I have been busy fixing something on my camera!

-- Hoyin Lee (leehoyin@hutchcity.com), October 30, 2001.

Has anyone tried homebrew lightmeters? I once made an enlarging meter by mounting a smallish CDS cell on a base and reading its resistance with a VOM (way back before digital meters were affordable) I then calibrated everything for the black and white thresholds of the different papers I was using and it worked very well for me.

I've also fiddled around with silicon photocells. These have a logarithmic relationship between light intensity and voltage, as long as you keep input resistance high enough to avoid loading the cell. Since current is linearly related to light, photocell impedence increases as light diminishes, so loading gets to be more and more of a problem. The other catch is that there are temperature dependencies.

However there still isn't enough inside a lightmeter to justify the high prices.

-- David Mason (dmason@crystalstairs.org), January 25, 2002.