Preferred ambient lightmeters?

Chris Keth · December 31, 2004

I recently bought a good spotmeter and thought I was set but my ambient lightmeter is on the fritz and I'm starting to look for a new one. The one I have is a Gossen Digital Luna Pro F. I'm disappointed it's not doing well already. I've only had it a year (I did check the batteries :))

What ambient meter(s) have you guys found that you like? I realize some of you might not use an incident meter(It's possible, I guess), if you don't could you explain exactly your method of metering for me?

I was considering a Sekonic L-398 Studio Pro (the analog one that needs no batteries) Are these a solid choice and are they accurate enough?

Thanks, everyone. This forum has been extremely helpful to me lately. You guys (and girls) rock! B)

Edited December 31, 2004 by Mr. Bunnies

David Mullen ASC · December 31, 2004

I've had a Minolta incident meter for 17 years now (!) that seems to work fine. I probably should get a new one someday...

Kevin Zanit · December 31, 2004

The older Spectras are always a real good choice:

http://dbarkertv.com/16MM/16mm%20RAW%20Ima...M%20Spectra.jpg

I personally use a Sekonic 508c, which I really like. Obviously you don?t need the built in spot meter. I also have the older Studio Delux which I carry as a backup. Its a real solid meter that works, no matter what you do to it :P

Kevin Zanit

Greg Gross · December 31, 2004

I use Spectra 4A and seperate Minolta F spotmeter. I have used Spectra

shooting dv with PD-170 and it gave excellent resultswith selected ASA.

Of course I have found out that 95% of the time I do not need to use it

with dv. I'm searching for 16mm camera presently and it will get a lot of use

after I find one.

Greg

Laurent Andrieux · January 1, 2005

Do you mean "reflection " meter by "ambient meter" or just " incident" ?

I have an old Weston Master and had it recently checked. The guy changed the selenium cell and it works fine.

May be it would be worth showing yours to a technician....

Chris Keth · January 2, 2005

Do you mean "reflection " meter by "ambient meter" or just " incident" ?

I have an old Weston Master and had it recently checked. The guy changed the selenium cell and it works fine.

May be it would be worth showing yours to a technician....

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I mean an incident meter. I have been wanting something different for a while, this is kind of just incentive :)

January 3, 2005

Sekonic L-508 Cine here.

Bought it for medium format still photography, but since it's the Cine model, killed two birds with one stone. I think I picked it up around $300 off eBay.

Great little meter.. does zoom-spot, incident, flash (corded and cordless) and has all the cine goodies too - shutter angles, fps, etc.

http://www.sekonic.com/Products/L-508c.html

-Sean

oscar jimenez · January 3, 2005

I would say that Minolta are good and for the price, they dont hurt too much!!

I have a IVF and still works good. They are not as sturdy as Spectra Cine, but they are good. My fav is Spectra Cine ( I dont know the model, I guess is 4A or something)

Brett B · January 3, 2005

I also really like the Sekonic L-508 Cine. It has worked great and you are able to enter the fps, instead of chaning the shutter speed on the meter every time you ramp or change frame rate.

Edited January 3, 2005 by Brett B

Dan Salzmann · January 6, 2005

I really like the 508Cine which uses AA's instead of expensive, sometimes hard to find lithium batteries . I don't really see the point of analog meters these days but if it works it works.

Adam Frisch FSF · January 7, 2005

I have the walnut-sized little Gossen DigiFlash. It's so light and small I can have it around my neck or in my shirts breast-pocket all day without ever getting tired. Got sick of always misplacing/sitting on/never finding my lightmeter because it weighed too much so you couldn't let it hang around your neck. And a lightmeter-holster in your belt is just uncool... :D

Riku Naskali · January 7, 2005

So what are the cheapest meters you would recommend? I have an old Gossen, but it uses those impossible to find batteries, so might as well replace it with something digital.

oscar jimenez · January 7, 2005

What exactly do you call cheap??? that's the main question. I find Minolta 4f at $250.00 cheap price for what you get. Anyway, the whole shoot rests on your meter reading, so what would be more expensive instead? a good meter or having to reshot ? let me see: meter=500.00. compared to: 30 people crew, talent , lightning and camera equipt, lab work, telecine cost per hour, location cost, transportation issues, permits and....

Riku Naskali · January 8, 2005

What exactly do you call cheap??? that's the main question. I find Minolta 4f at $250.00 cheap price for what you get. Anyway, the whole shoot rests on your meter reading, so what would be more expensive instead?

Well, let's see... My income is about 500 bucks a month, after paying my rent I got about 200 bucks a month living. :huh:

So 100 bucks is a stretch I would be willing to make. And I really don't need anything fancy, only accurate metering.

Heck, even my old gossen would do that if I just had the time to make a battery-adapter for it. I checked it against calibrated Sekonic and it was spot on. And I paid twenty bucks for it.

And I don't think the whole shoot's just about the meter reading. Of course you have to meter properly and your meter has to be accurate enough, but that's all.

Josh Bass · January 8, 2005

I was given a tiny little, cheapo analogue spot/incident meter. It seems to work fine, but I won't make any guarantees. If anyone's interested, I'll try to find a link to it. It' called a Tundra or something (sorry, it's not in front of me). Seriously, this thing was like $60 US new. I checked it against my lady's more expensive, more accurate Minolta (I think), and they read things the same way.