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The Historic Light Meter Appreciation Society


Phil Rhodes

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Hi,

 

In my hunt for a decent meter, I have become the not-incredibly-proud owner of an ancient Sekonic L-398, marked Studio Deluxe on the back. I hasten to add that I very much doubt this'll be anything but a backup for long, but it had a kind of 70s charm that I thought was worth £50 - it was clearly made in the days when men were men and film was 64ASA. It reads only in footcandles and makes you do the F-stop calculation using a wheel calculator on the front!

 

Okay, so it's probably a useless bit of historic junk, but I like it because:

 

- It will inculcate an understanding of the relationship between stops, footcandles and film speed

- It doesn't take batteries, so they can't run down

- It has an additional scale marked CINE, a word which costs an extra £200 on the L-508

 

There's even a little metal slide marked HIGH, which you pull out and slot into the space between the dome and the photocell, which moves the range down five stops.

 

Any older'n this and it'd be carved out of a stone tablet.

 

I have spent the last twenty minutes wandering around pointing it at things with an ever-lengthening face - it claims that F2.8 at 200ASA need 80fc, which is... rather more than the average suburban home has flying around!

 

Phil

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Hey!

 

welcome to the 398 club!

 

80fc for 2.8/200 sounds a bit hot... Have you zeroed out the needle? (the little screw on the back, while blacking out the light dome)

 

You'll be delighted to know that you can get a set of 11 or so slides that slip into that slot and allow you to read the f-stop directly from the needle-scale, like a spectra. Each slide is set up for a different asa, up to 200 asa. Using the meter without a slide gives you direct readings for asa320, no dial twisting!

 

the 398 is still my favorite meter- I saw a DP once with one that had a gold-face, oh how I coveted that....

Edited by PatrickNeary
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Hi,

 

Yikes, someone else in the world has one of these antiques? Are they considered any good?

 

Well, we tried it against another meter in the shop, some old Gossen plastic thing with digital displays and no character, and they agreed, but it does read about a stop hotter than my Pentax P30 looking at a grey card.

 

Edit: Oh, hm. Actually, the 80fc=F2.8 at 200 is just a product of the wheel calculator, which should be correct even if the metering is off. So...

 

Phil

Edited by Phil Rhodes
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They're great! Don't be suckered in by those blue-glowing christmas trees they pass for meters today. I had a 398 and it got stolen on a shoot we did in a rough neighbourhood, unfortunately.

Thought about buying a new one, but the Gossen I have now was cheaper and so much smaller, so I gave in. But it eats batteries, something the good old 398 doesn't. Might just have to get one for myself again. Where did you buy it?

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Hi,

 

I walked into a branch of Camera World in a shopping centre ten minutes' walk from where I live (in a crappy town just outside London, notable for the inability to buy anything except appalling urban fashion and apartments nobody can afford) and it was one of the two items on the used shelf among the pocket digicams and binoculars. I didn't expect it to be there - I'd gone in to buy a filter - and the guy behind the counter couldn't even show me how to use it, which was disconcerting, but I thought it had a degree of breakproof simplicity.

 

And it was 1/8 the price of an L-508. Yes, that makes an L-508 about $800 here. Nnrgh.

 

Oh, and it's funny you should mention that, but I was kind of disappointed it didn't have the star-trek factor. I'll have to get one with some blue LEDs for music promo shoots.

 

Phil

Edited by Phil Rhodes
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Edit: Oh, hm. Actually, the 80fc=F2.8 at 200 is just a product of the wheel calculator, which should be correct even if the metering is off. So...

 

Phil

 

hmmmmm- I just dug mine out and looked at the wheel, same thing. 80fc at 2.8/200 asa. I've always gone by the kodak sheets that say 2.8 at 50fc for 200asa. Maybe Sekonic has their own way of figuring these things....

 

I have to say that on shoots I always take my fancy-pants Minoltas, but I end up using the Sekonic because I just like it!

 

A gaffer I worked with years ago dropped/lost his 398 out in crummy January weather on a night shoot, went back the next day and found it in the mud, and still is using it today.

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Hi,

 

Yikes, someone else in the world has one of these antiques? Are they considered any good?

 

Phil

 

Hey the Sekonic L398 Studio Deluxe is one of the best meters out there

I was forced to purchase it new for $150

Back in film-school way back in the nostalgic 1998

And it immediately improve my student films!

(Jesus this sounds like a crummy TV testimonial--> it dices, it slices :) )

 

I (a dumb 19 year film student) learn how to use it in about an hour

That's how simple it was

And it's never failed me ever 6 years later.

 

I've also got an L508cine

which I usually use because it's faster and cooler looking

But when the battery starts to run out (or when its cold) it gets inaccurate

The L398 doesn't have that problem, it's also sturdier

Don't ever drop the L508 is can get f**ked up,

The L398 can handle hardships better.

It also takes a couple days (took me 6 months) to learn the features in the L508

It's a little more complicated than the L398

But its got it's pros

 

 

PS Recently I heard that my old film program

Change from starting filmmakers out with the L398

To some other electronic Spectra meter

And I personally feel that those new students are missing something

 

Anyways enough of this whole nostalgia thing

 

Enjoy your meter it's right on :)

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Hi,

 

I walked into a branch of Camera World in a shopping centre ten minutes' walk from where I live (in a crappy town just outside London, notable for the inability to buy anything except appalling urban fashion and apartments nobody can afford)

 

Oh, you mean Chelmsford. :D :D

 

Don't measure it against a TTL - it's a totally inadequate way to compare! TTL's s*** at precise

light readings, anyway - they're all over the place. Only way is to compare it against another calibrated incadescent meter (don't compare to spot either).

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Hi,

 

> Chelmsford

 

Yeah, for my sins. Twitch. Flinch.

 

Been there? If so, I can only apologise, but still - with the love and support of their families and some very expensive professional help, people from Chelmsford have made it big. I'll name one in a minute. Honest.

 

Phil

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You'll be delighted to know that you can get a set of 11 or so slides that slip into that slot and allow you to read the f-stop directly from the needle-scale, like a spectra. Each slide is set up for a different asa, up to 200 asa. Using the meter without a slide gives you direct readings for asa320, no dial twisting!

 

the 398 is still my favorite meter- I saw a DP once with one that had a gold-face, oh how I coveted that....

 

 

I know Marty @ Empire used to do this, but didn't know if anyone was still doing it.

Do you know who it is, I don't own one but it's the kind of question I get asked.

 

That meter goes back to the forties, it was the Norwood originally. (Don Norwood, ASC)

I saw one branded "Bolex" once.

 

-Sam

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with the love and support of their families and some very expensive professional help, people from Chelmsford have made it big. I'll name one in a minute. Honest.

 

Famous chef Jamie Oliver is from Chelmsford, isn't he? B)

 

I really liked that guy, but it's very rare to see him on US television nowadays, since he's busy with that whole "Fifteen" restaurant deal. Although I do appreciate his daughters' names, Poppy Honey and Daisy Boo.

 

*cough* lightmeters... Yes. In an effort to make myself look cooler on productions, I should buy one.

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Hi,

 

There's two scales on the speed ring, one of which is marked in common stills shutter speeds, and the inner of which, in red, is marked in motion picture frame rates. There's marks at 18 and 32, with a red line between in such a position that I'm assuming it's 24.

 

Not my image (Mine's slightly different colours):

 

398tn2.JPG

 

Put the ASA reading on 200, line up 80fc and the low range indicator, and the red line is one gradation beyond 2.8 towards 4 - so the calculator implies that 80fc is actially slightly over at 2.8. It thinks that 50fc is slightly a gradation and a bit the other way, towards 2, but it's within half a stop.

 

I guess this is probably a good idea for neg, but perhaps should I ever shoot any reversal, it'd be good to aim half a stop under what this thing's telling me.

 

Phil

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Any older'n this and it'd be carved out of a stone tablet.

 

:rolleyes:

 

Phil....

Sorry, fella?...but I think I have one up on ya?.... I have one of those ?stone? meters.

 

I recently was handed a Studio S, presumably manufactured in 1957 (the same year as my GE.) I openly admit that this model is older than any of the other Sekonics I have handled. I have searched for a down-loadable manual...in vain. Have I overlooked a resource? The center button, which is used to freeze the reading needle on other models, seems to be non-functional on this relic...thus leaving the needle free to perpetually move. Oh great sages of cine, is this by design...or by damage? If by damage, any advise on how to free a stubborn button?

 

Many thanks from a novice flint knapper,

Diana

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Hi,

 

The 33 page manual came with mine. I can't see Sekonic minding if I threw it on the scanner at some point. There's a lot of stuff in the manual, which I've only just started looking at.

 

Is the button stuck down permanently, or free to move? On mine, in the rest position, it protrudes about 1/8" or slightly more. The long L-shaped bracket that does the clamping is visible through the side of the clear upper casing.

 

Phil

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:rolleyes:

The center button, which is used to freeze the reading needle on other models, seems to be non-functional on this relic...thus leaving the needle free to perpetually move.  Oh great sages of cine, is this by design...or by damage?  If by damage, any advise on how to free a stubborn button?

 

Many thanks from a novice flint knapper,

Diana

 

On mine ( a Studio Deluxe II), the center button needs to be rotated slightly counter-clockwise to unlock it, and lock the needle. Then you can push it down to free the needle for readings, or push it down, rotate it clockwise (about 20 degrees) to lock it and have the needle swing around wild and free.

 

As far as cutting ND strips and sticking them in the top slot, I suppose that would work, but you'd need 11 different strips, (at 1/3 stop increments i think). The slides start with one big hole (for 200 asa) and progessively add more, smaller holes till they resemble the "high" slide.

 

Presumable you could make a set of slides by drilling the holes into small black plastic or cardboard slides, but that seems like crossing over into fetish territory, especially as the slide sets can be found pretty cheap!

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On mine ( a Studio Deluxe II), the center button needs to be rotated slightly counter-clockwise to unlock it, and lock the needle. Then you can push it down to free the needle for readings, or push it down, rotate it clockwise (about 20 degrees) to lock it and have the needle swing around wild and free.

 

:blink:

No...at least I think not. It's a solid silver, smooth button, no markings on it at all...not like the later models. There is no real way to tell if my attempts to rotate it are making any progress...but certainly nothing has been released by the attempts.

 

Good grief....

Diana

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Speaking of old light meters, does anybody know ehere I might obtain an analog spectra meter? I mean the type that reads in footcandles with no slide in and has slides for different EI ratings. I can't seem to find anything but the new digital ones for sale, though the spectra website still lists the Classic.

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