Handheld Meter Recommendations

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I know this topic has been discussed somewhat (usually w/re to non-metered Ms), but what are your opinions on getting a good meter and learning to use it as part of building a better technical foundation? In addition to shooting lots of film, I'd like to do whatever's possible to increase technical proficiency so that it approaches "second nature" and allows more creative possiblities with less pure luck involved! In your opinion, would learning a handheld meter help build skills for someone with a M6TTL?

If so, what do you recommend. I'd like to only buy once - so I wouldn't mind spending (a bit) more to get a meter that would serve most common purposes. What do you think of the Gossen Luna-Pro analog vs. digital models?

As always, thanks for the advice!

-- eric reid (eric_reid@lkshore.com), November 27, 2001

Answers

I have a 5-year old Gossen Luna-Pro F (which I don't believe has changed in design very much) & it's a fine meter (I also prefer the analog readout). The only downside, other than its chunky proportions, is that you have to point the top of the meter towards the light source to take incident readings (rather than having the incident dome on the front like the Sekonics).

-- Chris Chen (furcafe@cris.com), November 27, 2001.

IMO, learning how to use a hh meter will definately build skills with the M6TTL. Using the meter in the M6 is just like using a wider-than- normal spot meter, so I would suggest getting a spot meter and learn how to use it -- and IMO the one to get is the Pentax digital. Having the ability to take incident readings is also valuable, but not always practical in many situations, as the meter needs to be in the same light the subject is in. The spot meter on the other hand can work from a mile away -- you just need to know how to use it and interpret its readings.

-- Jack Flesher (jbflesher@msn.com), November 28, 2001.

I've had a bunch of meters starting with the Weston Master V, several Gossens, but my favorite is the Sekonic L-508, 1°-5° zoom spot plus incident, both ambient and flash. The tighter spot will let you read multiple small areas, and then interpret that to the exposure you want to set to record the most from the scene. I use a simplified Zone system with the spot readings, assuming normal development of the 35mm film.

Working with both the hand-held spot and the meter in the M6 TTL will allow you to gain a better understanding of how best to use the M6 meter on its own, and when not to.

-- Ralph Barker (rbarker@pacbell.net), November 28, 2001.


I've used handheld meters since 1975. The one I like best is my Sekonic L508. It is fantastic. Once you use one you will wonder how you did without it before. Spot meter, incident meter, flash mete sync cord, no sync cord, it does them all. Best of all it uses one AA battery.

-- Tony Oresteen (Aoresteen@mindspring.com), November 28, 2001.

Eric- I second what Chris Chen said about getting a meter that you can hold vertically, but can point the sensor at the subject. I have a Gossen Multi-Pro that has served me well. It also does flash.If I had TTL metering, I think I'd meter off a gray card a lot (if I had time). I am a big proponent of incident light metering. This Multi- Pro has to be pointed at the subject. (Probably is why it is discontinued) As I said in an earlier post, a good meter would be adjustable for the speeds your camera tests out at, not what your shutter speed dial says. I haven't heard of such a programmable meter. If I only had $500 to spend on a camera outfit, fully $350 would go for a good hand held meter!

-- Frank Horn (owlhoot45@hotmail.com), November 28, 2001.


I have a fancy incident/reflected/flash meter (Sekonic something or other, don't ask me to go and find the model number) and I've virtually never used it. I think the M6 meter is wonderful, you just need to practice with it a bit. I get 99% perfect exposures with this camera, in fact I never got such consistent results when using an SLR with spot meter. As I've said elsewhere, shooting slide is the best way to learn metering as there's no appeal against the results, whereas neg exposure is always arguable to some extent, IMO.

Apart from anything else, getting another variable into the process will just slow you down and confuse you. A flashmeter has its uses, certainly, but the M6 meter covers the majority of situations excellently well.

-- rob (rob@robertappleby.com), November 28, 2001.


Eric,

having a non-metered M2 I use an appropriate hand-held meter, the Gossen Sixtron. This one is a quite cheap analog meter with incident readings and is working very well. Since I don't have a M6 to compare, I cannot tell the difference, but using incident light metering one sets the meter accurately and doesn't bother with readings when shooting the same objects. However, you develop a feeling for the different light levels of a szene which helps you with the composition. I won't miss my incident meter now.

That said I get about the same numbers of mismetered shots as with built-in meters. But everytime I get slides back I know it was definitely me who did something wrong and don't blame it on the camera. And since it is me who made the fault, I sometimes even learn from it.

If I were you I'd get a fairly cheap incident / reflective light meter (something analog about us$ 50) and start working with it, then you'll see best if you like it or not. If not, you didn't spend a fortune, if yes, it didn't cost you too much and analog meters aren't that bad; in fact I prefer a needle over those flickering displays in tricky szenes.

Kai

-- Kai Blanke (kai.blanke@iname.com), November 28, 2001.


Which type of meter you should get depends on the usage. If you are into studio work then a model with flash metering will be important. Then you should decide whether a simple incident meter will be enough or a more precise spot meter. I have been using the same Minolta Spotmeter F for over ten years and recently bought the Sekonic L-308 incident meter for traveling. The Sekonic L-508 seems to have everything and the new L-608 is more of the same but has digital read out at the viewfinder. If I need a new meter right now I would go for the Sekonic L-408. It is a small incident meter with digital readout and a 5 degree spotmeter built-in and it will take flash readings.

To really appreciate your new meter, you should learn to use the sunny 16 rule and guess-timate exposure. Relying blindly on any meter is not wise.

-- ray tai (razerx@netvigator.com), November 28, 2001.


Eric:

Handlheld meter or built-in, the real trick is to carry a small-3x5in neutral gray card on your key chain and take reflected readings off that when held in the same light as the subject.

Go to a plumbing supply shop and look at their samples of Formica counter tops or a furniture store for the same stuff and pick a light- mid grey sample coupon and they may give you one from an old bunch. It likley has a hole in it already as they are on chains.

This is a standard reference for all your shots. In B&W it gives you a standard reflectance and with colour it gives you a standard gray for correct colour balancing.

In colour neg work, take a shot of the card at the beginning of each different sequence of shots under different lighting and the final print filtration can be adujsted to give you the correct grey, then everything else will fall into place. Slides really can't benefit as much from this unless you do your own processing and printing. Most pro labs will however adjust the colour to your preference and if you show them the grey card, thay can make Cibachrome or Frontier prints to match.

This comes from the late Bob Mitchell, a real wizard at B&W and colour printing who helped develop some of the most useful devices for standardizing amateur printing and photography. Any of the meters mentioned will be great with this technique.

cheers

-- RICHARD ILOMAKI (richard.ilomaki@fmglobal.com), November 28, 2001.


I'm a satisfied Sekonic 408 user. It's tough and weatherproof, and it uses a single AA battery. I sometimes wish I had the zoom spot meter of the 508, but considering the difference in cost and size, I'm in no hurry to upgrade.

-- Mike Dixon (mike@mikedixonphotography.com), November 28, 2001.


I use a Sekonic L318B. It is the size of deck of playing cards, and has a large digital readout, but also a small 1/2 stop analog bar scale across the bottom of the LCD - in case you prefer that. It comes with incident dome and reflected (4o degree) tips, and as a separate accessory a 5 degree spot eyepiece 'telescope'. Runs off a single AA battery. I've found it to be excellent, pocketable, and a life-saver with my unmetered M4-2/P bodies.

It does NOT have flash capability. For that you need to move up to the larger Sekonics or a Minolta of some kind.

Definitely a hand-held INCIDENT meter is one of the most accurate ways to measure in many situations because it is not influenced by light or dark subjects - it's like having a gray card without having to carry around the gray card. It's the standard for motion pictures. BUT an incident falls down when the subject is far away and in different light, i.e. where you can't put the meter in the same light as the subject. It also can't handle subjects where the light IS the subject (sunsets and some night photography).

Generally I agree with all the other suggestions here. I prefer the Sekonic over the Gossens because it has both digital and analog readouts and because it's a tad more compact. But you'll just have to weigh your needs - if you need flash capability, for example, or the ultra-narrow 1-degree spot, you'll have to get something a little less portable.

-- Andy Piper (apidens@denver.infi.net), November 28, 2001.


I'm another Sekonic 408 user. I like this meter, I use the flash function almost daily this time of the year. A flash meter is great since it makes it much easier to use bounced flash and get the exposure right. In practice, the 5 degree spot is tight enough for 99% of all real life picture taking. For the last % I have to take a few steps closer to the subject.

-- Peter Olsson (peter.olsson@lulebo.se), November 28, 2001.

another happy 408 user! the buttons are a bit stiff in the beginning, but you get used to it. it is cheaper than the 508, but also thinner, which makes me carry it in my back pocket. 5° is a bit too wide, but usually fine enough. i smashed it around a bit, even dropped it in a puddle once, still works perfectly. if i would get another meter i would go for the small seconic one, i think it is called 308. it is really small, of course no spot attachment, but it also does flash and you can get it pretty cheaply second hand. i saw it once for GBP 70 and me stupid didn't buy it....

-- stefan randlkofer (geesbert@yahoo.com), November 28, 2001.

Using a handheld meter builds your photography skills no matter what camera you use. Personally, I prefer the analog type, since I can see the entire dial at one glance and make decisions about aperture and depth of field. I used a Gossen Luna Pro back in 1970, and rwecently found a used Luna Pro S. I chose this because it has a Zone System scale, which is useful even with 35mm photography. It turned out to have a couple problems, so I sent it to Gossen USA and they fixed and tuned it. Gossen stood behind their product even when it was an old, used, second-hand purchase.

-- Jeff Polaski (polaski@acm.org), November 28, 2001.

I recommend the Gossen Luna Pro Digital F.

Good low light perfromance, does flash if needed, ambient and reflected. Uses a single AA battery. Very high quality. Compact and slim so it fits in shirt pocket or case with each. Light weight. To me its perfect.

-- Dan Brown (brpatent@swbell.net), November 28, 2001.



I've used the Minolta Autometer IV for the last eight years and it's never failed me. I'm not sure why, but the Minolta is the industry standard in commercial photography. As long as you occasionally get it calibrated, any meter will do the job. I would agree with Andy in getting an incident meter, being that you already have a reflected meter built into your camera.

-- Steve Wiley (wiley@accesshub.net), November 28, 2001.

Hi Eric, After doing some research I ended up with a Gossen Starlite. Good for incident 1 and 5 degree spot as well as flash. Very easy to use. Can I recommend a book? I think it's called " The Zone System for 35mm Photography". I'm not assuming that you don't already know the information in the book, but it helped me a lot both with in - camera and hand held meters.

-- Bill Henick (dhen1922@aol.com), November 28, 2001.

FWIW: On the Sekonic 508 do-everything meter -- A friend of mine bought one when it first came out as he thought it would be the pentultimate solution to metering for large format. Well, he was sorely disappointed in its spot performance, it being as much as two and one half stops different than my trusted Pentax digital at low light levels -- and my meter proved to provide the correct exposure. His worked competently in the other modes, and in the spot mode at normal daylight levels of light, however he promptly sold it.

-- Jack Flesher (jbflesher@msn.com), November 28, 2001.

Make sure that you adjust your hand-held meter to give, in appropriate circumstances, the same reading as the meter in your M6. If your new meter is a spot meter this can be trickier than you think. The best subject for meter calibration would be something like a matt surface painted wall in very even light. Open shade on a sunny day would probably be best, but overcast often produces very even light. Sweep your spot meter across the surface to confirm that there is no or little variation in surface reflectance. Then take a reading from the center of the area that you will meter with the Leica. Note the reading. Now meter with the M6. Note the variation between the two readings. There will almost certainly be some variation, and it may be substantial. Don't panic; there is nothing wrong with either meter. I think it is possible that Leica uses a different meter calibration standard that that used by the Japanese meter manufacturers. Aside from that, it is often the case that even identical meters will show a 1/3 stop variation from sample to sample. The point is, if you are going to be switching back and forth between the in camera meter and the HH, you want to be sure that they will give the same reading in a given light condition.

The easiest way to calibrate the HH to your M6 is to adjust the ISO of your HH meter until it and the M6 give identical readings.

Once you have done this, you can be confident that any differences between meter readings will be due to the size of the area being averaged. (Spot meters are averaging meters, too; they just average a very small area, rather than the rather large area averaged by the in-camera meter of the Leica.) You can now use your spot meter to learn under what lighting circumstances the M6's in-camera meter will be misled into recommending a less than ideal exposure.

-- David Mark (dbmark@ix.netcom.com), November 28, 2001.


Eric

I have the Gossen Luna Pro (analog version) made in West Germany (that gives you an idea of its vintage). This is a terrific meter, very easy to use. It meters a conical area corresponding to about 30 degrees, or a little more than that of a 90 mm lens. I use this as a gold standard, to calibrate my Leicameters (MR4s), which should agree with the Gossen meter to within one-half stop or less.

This is certainly not a spotmeter, but I have a plastic attachment that converts the Gossen Luna Pro meter to allow 5 degree or 15 degree metering angle, which is not bad. Also, the Gossen meter has a sliding white dome that converts it from reflective to incident metering.

The all purpose Sekonic meter that gives you 1-5 degrees is probably the ultimate hand held meter, but I find this older analog meter to be extremely reliable and well made.

-- Eliot (erosen@lij.edu), November 28, 2001.


I have a digital Minolta IVF light meter and it is perfect!

Street Photography by Dimitris Kioseoglou

-- Dimitris Kioseoglou (kosefoto@otenet.gr), November 28, 2001.


I thought the Sekonic 508 would be the perfect light meter. it is not. the underexposure calibration issue is easily worked around, and there are some limitations with the flash meter that I had to buy the Minolta V flash meter to accomplish my tasks with. the biggest problem I have had is the incident/reflective mode switch is not always obvious and too many times I thought I was taking an incident reading only to find I was spot-metering out into deep space or the trees. there is a mode indicator, but I am amazed at how many times this has tripped me up. I have almost, several times now, either taped over the incident globe or the viewfinder eyepiece. one or the other, but not both. for me, working with multiple cameras with multiple metering requirements, it just doesn't work well.

-- daniel taylor (lightsmythe@agalis.net), November 28, 2001.

I use two hand held meters: a Sekonic L208 and L328. The L208 is small and handy, analog readout like a Gossen Pilot II, but it's more sensitive. I use it most of the time in casual picture taking, and mostly in reflected light mode. The L328 is a more "systems" oriented meter, primarily incident reading type with digital readout. I use it mostly when I'm doing flash or need sensitivity beyond the L208's range. I have the 10 degree reflected light spotmeter for it too. Works great.

My favorite meter, however, is a Gossen Luna Pro F. It has the most intuitive analog readout, is very very sensitive, and does both reflected and incident light metering modes. My only complaint with it is that it's kinda bulky.

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


Gossen Luna Pro.

-- Tom Bryant (boffin@gis.net), November 28, 2001.

IMO the only reflected-light meters which are truly useful are those with narrow-angle readings, and then they must have some sort of viewing device to accurately aim them. The Gossen Lun-Pro (analog) accepts a 7/15 degree attachment which has a tiny but (barely) usable waist-level viewer. The Luna-Pro digitals do not, so even though they're cery handy in size, they're awkward to use accurately. The Sekonic L-408 is my all-time favorite.

Jay

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


Eric:

All of the above referenced meters are good as long as you know how to use it, and allow for it's limitations. I use a Gossen Luna-six- 3, the European version of the Luna-pro that I purchased in 1972. I do not use, nor feel the need for a spot meter. I use my meter and read small areas in close that I feel are comparable to what I see in the distance. If I am in the sun and want to shoot an object in the shade, I aim the meter at something in the shade, even if it means turning around to meter. I shoot quite a bit without the meter, but check myself regularly. This has worked well for me for many years, but all of us learn differently. Try the old trick of borrowing or renting a hand-held meter for a few days and see what you think of it. Good-luck and enjoy.

--MJ

-- Mark A. Johnson (logic@gci.net), November 28, 2001.


Well I have a Gossen Luna-Pro [analog] that I have had for many moons. I have the little attachment that permits waist level definition of semi-spot. My experience: this is the single most unreliable piece of photo equipment that I have ever owned. It didn't work well when it was new and got worse. After two attempted repairs by the Gossen, it never got better. I have it in a shadow box to remind me that not every example of a classic is good. If you would like to buy a pristine example of a classic meter, I have one; totally non-functional.

I go with the 508.

Art

-- Art (AKarr90975@aol.com), November 28, 2001.


All the above are too big

Leudi

-- martin tai (martin.tai@capcanada.com), November 28, 2001.


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