TT Artisan Light Meter. Quick review.

MrDrizz

MrDrizz

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Mark
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So on a whim I bought the TT Artisan hotshoe light meter, what attracted me to it was just how attractive it looks. The dials are very much like the Voigtlander VC meter and I feel fit right in with the look and feel of older manual cameras.
It's an all metal construction and does feel very solid, well put together. Using it is extremely simple, set the ISO with the inner wheel on the left aperture dial, shutter speed on the right. Point the meter towards your subject and the top -+ symbols will light to to show over or under exposure and the centre green LED lights when the exposure is good.
I tested the light meter accuracy against the light meter in my Fuji XT3 and it was within 1\2 stop which to me is good enough as the meter in the Fuji is pretty dam sophisticated.
Over all I am very impressed with it. Build quality is right up there and for something that only cost £40 it seems like a no brainer if you're looking for a light meter to put on your vintage FED2 or Leica.

Compared to the Reveni Labs or Voigtlander it's an absolute steal.

Pros
Build quality
Price
Ease of use

Cons
Hotshoe mount is loose on some cameras
Changing the battery requires a screw driver.
 
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That looks superb and not much money either, a rare thing in today's world !
 
Looks great - thanks for your review.

I've long been tempted by a hotshoe meter rather than using a Sekonic L208, which is a nice piece of kit but still too big for my liking.

Where did you purchase the meter?
 
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Many thanks for the review Mark!

I too could be very interested in something like this. Can I ask, do you happen to know what the angle of view is when it comes to the metering area? I can see that it says 45 degrees elsewhere online, but as is characteristically the case with online specs, it's not stated whether this is the angle from the central axis outwards to the edge of the view, or the angle from edge to edge.
 
freecom2 said:
Looks great - thanks for your review.

I've long been tempted by a hotshoe meter rather than using a Sekonic L208, which is a nice piece of kit but still too big for my liking.

Where did you purchase the meter?
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I bought it from eBay. Took about 2 weeks to arrive. Which was very fast for something coming from China.

They have black and silver.

www.ebay.co.uk

TTArtisan Light Meter Hot/Cold Shoe Fixing Set-top Light Meter Lens Photometer | eBay

Otherwise deal is final. we will try our best to help you. We believe that everything could be solved by communication.
www.ebay.co.uk
 
Mark,

I hope you don't mind me adding here that I bought a similar product that I have had for a couple of weeks and found to be a great performer. Solid build like how you describe yours and it seems to tally as far as readings with the meter on my EM1 MkII. I find it can be a touch tight on older cold shoes but it does go on and I bought an angled extension shoe for use on my TLR.

Bought from Doomo direct and took a couple of weeks to arrive from China. Tracked all the way.

So there seem to be at least two examples of a compact meter that do what they say.

Here's mine:

Doomo S

DSC02711_1024x1024@2x.jpg
Image from doomo.com
 
moggi1964 said:
Mark,

I hope you don't mind me adding here that I bought a similar product that I have had for a couple of weeks and found to be a great performer. Solid build like how you describe yours and it seems to tally as far as readings with the meter on my EM1 MkII. I find it can be a touch tight on older cold shoes but it does go on and I bought an angled extension shoe for use on my TLR.

Bought from Doomo direct and took a couple of weeks to arrive from China. Tracked all the way.

So there seem to be at least two examples of a compact meter that do what they say.

Here's mine:

Doomo S

View attachment 341518
Image from doomo.com
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Not at all.

I too have another light meter but that one is purely LCD screen and is harder to use. Similar screen to yours but withouy the dial.
 
A handy thread... Especially seeing different ones.

I picked up a Voigtlander VCII meter from the Photography Show a couple of years ago. It's a great bit of kit but has one outstanding issue. The price!
 
I bought the TTArtisan Light Meter II and after a bit of a faff with the battery, I took it out for a spin. It is WAY OFF metering correctly. Used my Nikon D7500 on a walk with the light meter on top. Set the camera to ISO 400, no auto, the aperture to f8 and took a few images. The camera metering and the Artisan meter were nowhere near each other. I guessed the settings better than the light meter. If I set the light meter to ISO 100, then the readings are correct for a 400 ISO film.
Am I doing something wrong?
Apologies if this post isn't clear.
 
Mozziephotography said:
I bought the TTArtisan Light Meter II and after a bit of a faff with the battery, I took it out for a spin. It is WAY OFF metering correctly. Used my Nikon D7500 on a walk with the light meter on top. Set the camera to ISO 400, no auto, the aperture to f8 and took a few images. The camera metering and the Artisan meter were nowhere near each other. I guessed the settings better than the light meter. If I set the light meter to ISO 100, then the readings are correct for a 400 ISO film.
Am I doing something wrong?
Apologies if this post isn't clear.
Click to expand...
Looking at this review on 35MMC, it looks like the original version had a well known issue with accuracy, but the version 2 should have resolved that?

www.35mmc.com

TTArtisan Lightmeter II Review - Gradual Improvements

Now, TTArtisan released a second generation of the lightmeter, coming with a few changes to its design and some functional improvements.
www.35mmc.com www.35mmc.com

Accuracy​

I need to be clear on this, the original TTArtisan lightmeter had problems with accuracy. You could find comments from a range of users complaining about this online and even my unit was out of the box underexposing by about 1.5 stops. And while I managed to fix this by simply opening the unit and installing a tiny flash gel filter in front of the lens, I was hoping for an improvement from the TTArtisan. And seems they did it. The new TTArtisan Lightmeter II keeps the 45-degree angle, but now utilizes a bigger opening and a different lens, with TTArtisan claiming higher accuracy thanks to these changes. And I can confirm it so far, with my unit being spot-on accurate right out of the box, closely matching readings I’m getting from a mix of other devices and cameras. In the first two weeks, I kept comparing and checking on it, but now I got to the point when I fully trust it on pretty much all occasions.
 
Took it outside to test again with my Nikon D7500. For 400 ISO, I need set the meter to 100. For a 200 ISO film, I need to set it to 50. I can live with that but it's a bit annoying.
 
I bought the black version some time ago, I'll need to check which version it is...I haven't developed any film where it has been used yet
 
lindsay said:
I bought the black version some time ago, I'll need to check which version it is...I haven't developed any film where it has been used yet
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This is the reason I wanted to check it with a digital camera. No good wasting a film with it being so way out.
 
Just a thought, the 2 dials are screwed on, maybe they weren't checked for accuracy. Possible to unscrew the left one and realign it in the correct spot?
 
Mozziephotography said:
Just a thought, the 2 dials are screwed on, maybe they weren't checked for accuracy. Possible to unscrew the left one and realign it in the correct spot?
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If you can't swop it / get a refund, then that could be worth a shot. Just beware that there could be a tiny ball & spring under each of the dials to provide the indexing .... work on a tray or better in a box, in case.
 
droj said:
If you can't swop it / get a refund, then that could be worth a shot. Just beware that there could be a tiny ball & spring under each of the dials to provide the indexing .... work on a tray or better in a box, in case.
Click to expand...
I suppose if I leave it as it is, knowing how to change the ISO accordingly, that might be the better bet. I'm useless when it comes to tech, can't think I've missed something in the instructions.
 
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