Light meters

Phil Sage

Phil Sage

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Phil Sage
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Hi, just a point of interest, i did an online course whilst on lock down, light meters, i got to thinking, modern dslr's tend to do most of what the instructor was talking about. Does anyone still use one ? are they antiquated or still relevant to modern photography ??
 
I have a little Sekonic 308. I use it for incident light readings and flash.

It's not used a lot.

Where it has been most useful is in getting flash setup quickly. I use a couple of cheap non-TTL flashes and I can set up at a family event - do a quick test and get a reasonable reading and get some shots without spending too much time trying to keep people in the right place. For the few times I use it for that purpose the meter has in effect paid for itself because of the savings on the flash equipment.

When out and about then I use it occasionally for incident readings - and occasionally to check general light levels without having to get my backpack off. If I had a spot meter facility then I'd probably use it a bit more for this - but then spot meters tend to be bigger - so maybe for all that I'd be less inclined to carry it.

Would I recommend one? Well I could easily live without it. Cheaper TTL flashes with wireless remotes are available for most system these days. And with digital you can bracket without worrying about using up film. I like having it because sometimes it's nice to have but it's not critical and if it was to break or get lost I probably wouldn't replace it.
 
My favourite camera (at the moment) is my Bronica ETRs which is an entirely manual camera. I use my trusty Zeiss Ikon Ikophot meter when using this camera. When I use my Zeiss Ikon Contax clone (Kiev 4) I use my Zeiss Ikon Ikophot clone (Leningrad IV) meter. I also use a meter when messing around with pinhole photography.
 
Like John, I often use old film cameras, which don't have a meter on them at all, let alone a modern multi-zone TTL job. I have an old Lunasix meter which I use occasionally, most of the time I use a smartphone app, which I find works very well.
 
Phil Sage said:
Hi, just a point of interest, i did an online course whilst on lock down, light meters, i got to thinking, modern dslr's tend to do most of what the instructor was talking about. Does anyone still use one ? are they antiquated or still relevant to modern photography ??
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I've not replaced mine since it died many years ago (battery exploded due to lack of use/neglect).
If you want to set your camera to what the meter recommends, then it can be a big time saver; but if you want to set the flash to the camera settings you choose, then not so much. It can also be useful for setting lighting ratios; but if you know your lights (and the Inverse Square Law) it's not really needed.
GreenNinja67 said:
A camera's light meter will only measure reflected light.
If you need an incident light reading then a meter is useful.
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Sure, but when do you actually need an incident reading? And there are cheap diffusion disks that can be used to convert the camera's meter into an incident meter (also set a custom WB).
 
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I've got a Minolta spot meter which I find incredibly useful when out with my RB67 which is (similar to Mr B and John) a mechanical film camera. It's more to take spot readings from various parts of the scene so I can make a decision about what exposure to use.

Step 1 - set the camera up and compose. Step 2, take various spot readings from the scene. Step 3, calculate exposure and shoot. *Generally* to get different readings from different parts of the scene with an in built meter, you have to point the camera at it, which means you meter before you compose, which I find a bit backwards. Nowt wrong with doing it that way though and some of the lightmeters I use (iphone and VCII) are pretty much guesstimates anyway.

It's generally all ok in the end. And with digital it doesn't really matter, because you can either bracket to be sure, refer to histograms, or simply look at the resulting image and change the exposure based off that.

Getting the metering absolutely perfectly spot on is the least of my worries with my photography :)
 
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