what light meter

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lee_barro

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so the title pretty much says it, what light meter should i go for. im looking for one as soon as possible. i dont want to spend a fortune.

Lee
 
what for? flash, cinema, or stills? is spot metering essential?
 
Sekonic L-308s is pretty much the benchmark at that price - excellent meter. I'd never part with mine as it makes life so much easier with off camera flash or studio flash.

Around £125 new, but worth shopping around or second hand....
 
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Here's an answer I just gave in a PM
TBH a meter is a meter is a meter, they all give exactly the same results however much or however little you spend.

The Sekonic meters are very popular, they don't have the build quality of say my Minolta, but the only real difference is £300 and the fact that if I drop mine I can pick it up and carry on using it...

Have you thought about a second hand meter via Ebay?
 
Eighth Avenue said:
Has it made a significant difference to your work since you got one?
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To be honest, life is a breeze now, either with studio or hotshoe flash off camera - forget the chimp it and adjust it theory, it's a waste of your time and not really accurate enough - the Sekonic nails it 100% of the time for me.

I got mine on here second hand for around £85 and it's an absolute revelation to me in terms of correct flash exposure and time.....
 
DekHog said:
To be honest, life is a breeze now, either with studio or hotshoe flash off camera - forget the chimp it and adjust it theory, it's a waste of your time and not really accurate enough - the Sekonic nails it 100% of the time for me.

I got mine on here second hand for around £85 and it's an absolute revelation to me in terms of correct flash exposure and time.....
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Thanks, might have a look on fleabay :)
 
Gossen digiflash for weddings (even though it chews batteries for breaky).

Gossen something or other for studio.
 
lee_barro said:
so the title pretty much says it, what light meter should i go for. im looking for one as soon as possible. i dont want to spend a fortune.

Lee
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Hi Lee

A Minolta IVf is a great well constructed meter. It’s also reliable and dead easy to use for ambient light and cabled or un-cabled flash.

As you don’t want to spend a fortune, its worth having a look in high street photographic shops for a second-hand one, as people sometimes sell off their old film cameras plus accessories and just occasionally there’s a used Minolta (or Sekonic) lurking in the bottom of the bag.

If you do find a used Minolta IVf and it appears to be inaccurate by about 3 stops, try and get it at a price that reflects its condition (and ideally on sale or return), as the problem is usually just a dirty pin contact that easily cleaned with a piece of card.

Happy hunting
Sam-D
 
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Just remembered I have an old portaflash light meter, which is fine. They dont go for much on Ebay. Only one third accuracy, no calibration, no reflected, but hey, they are cheap.
 
I've got a Sekonic 358, but for most of the times I use it, a 308 would suffice.
 
I use a little Polaris one that works just great. Bought it used but a lot of people buy meters and never or rarely use them so there are a lot of very lightly used ones about, mine came with the spot metering lens too.
 
Moore Photos said:
I'm a L-308 user as well and it is an excellent piece of kit.
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I just bought one of these yesterday at Calumet in Glasgow (miserable pr**ks). Asked the guy if it remotely fires the flash by radio and he said yes. No it bloody doesn't!

Still, I should have checked that out myself! lol Can just fire the camera instead whilst holding it. Seems like a decent piece of kit though.
 
thank you all for the replies :D, i went for the 308s. cant wait for this and my lights to arrive today so i can start shooting :D:D:D
 
gman said:
I just bought one of these yesterday at Calumet in Glasgow (miserable pr**ks). Asked the guy if it remotely fires the flash by radio and he said yes. No it bloody doesn't!

Still, I should have checked that out myself! lol Can just fire the camera instead whilst holding it. Seems like a decent piece of kit though.
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You stick it in flash mode and press the top right button then when you fire the flash it gives you the reading so you just take the transmitter off the camera or buy a second.

He might not have been lying because there is a sync port on the light meter and you could get a "sync port to XX" lead the plug into your remote to fire it that way but its just as easy to fire it manually.
 
I clearly said by radio and not cable to him, but doesn't matter. I've dealt with this guy before several times and the wife was with me on one of the times and even she said he was a knob.

I'm looking at backgrounds now with support stands etc and Calumet can go spin if they think I'm using them as he couldn't be arsed helping me there either.

Asked about a flag and they don't run that line. Isn't this a particular common piece of lighting kit?
 
Hmm, Calumet around here are the only decent photographic shop left. I'm surprised.

Staff that actually shoot too, now there's a thing.

Their backgrounds are expensive for what they are, but their background stands, esp the heavy duty one, is superb.
 
With the internet being such strong competition I believe there's no excuse for being rude.
 
Definitely.

I have to say though, the only meter that will remotely fire certain flashes are Sekonic when they have a pocket wizard chip inserted inside their belly. This costs a lot extra. I do not know any meter that natively will fire remote flashes out of the box - there are jsut too many variables and too many frequencies.

This is quite standard for meters. Maybe you should have researched your meter before buying it?
 
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err

pop a radio triger in one hand and meter in other, press the button on the meter so its "waiting for the next flash" and then position it where you want it and press the button on the radio trigger. Job done
 
gman said:
Still, I should have checked that out myself!
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Kris said:
Maybe you should have researched your meter before buying it?
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Nice irony you telling me to research something when you haven't even bothered to read my post properly a few cms up the screen ;)
 
Richard King said:
err

pop a radio triger in one hand and meter in other, press the button on the meter so its "waiting for the next flash" and then position it where you want it and press the button on the radio trigger. Job done
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I'm not sure if my radio trigger will do that, will check it out. Otherwise I can just fire the camera, no big deal with digital.
 
You're right, I should have just agreed with you that you should have researched how all hand-held meters work before buying one.
 
No problem.
 
btw, even my portaflash has a 'waiting for flash' mode that lasts about 30 seconds, so I'm sure yours should.

Always helps if you can afford a spare trigger for the meter alone, which depending on which brand you use, could be cheap or expensive.
 
Graham, if you get a sync cable to whatever connection your trigger has and connect that to the light meter you will get wireless BUT I just have a 2nd transmitter in my pocket which is always handy OR have the camera on a tripod and use a 2nd RF602 to remotely trigger the camera so killing 2 birds with one stone. I think you need to spend a lot more to automatically trigger the lights from the meter. Does the 358 do it? - I don't think so :shrug:
 
I was thinking about that Darren and I suppose I could get a cheap trigger just for this purpose but I'm wondering what's the point when I can use the camera (which will be in my hand anyway)?
 
gman said:
I was thinking about that Darren and I suppose I could get a cheap trigger just for this purpose but I'm wondering what's the point when I can use the camera (which will be in my hand anyway)?
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None, thats why most people don't bother :) If I had bought the 358 I would have looked at the module BUT I use Lencarta Wavesyncs and/or RF602s so they wouldn't work anyway.
 
gman said:
I'm not sure if my radio trigger will do that, will check it out. Otherwise I can just fire the camera, no big deal with digital.
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most cheap radio triggers have a "test button" on the top

press that!
 
It's ok, my trigger has a button on top and works fine whilst mounted on the camera. Been playing around tonight, jeez as soon as I get the studio lights out the other half scuttles away before I can blink!
 
gman said:
It's ok, my trigger has a button on top and works fine whilst mounted on the camera. Been playing around tonight, jeez as soon as I get the studio lights out the other half scuttles away before I can blink!
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You'll learn far more about lighting without her help...

Still life subjects show up faults better, and as they keep still you can take your time and get repeatable results. When live subjects move even slightly it changes the effect of the lighting quite dramatically.
 
I've been using a real-life baby doll that she uses for work (that I find very creepy looking) and it's helped somewhat, but it only really lies flat in one position. I think I need to get my creative head on with static subjects.

I tried to do an alternative technique here but I'm now looking at accessories to help with the current lack of space and controlling light spill. The background shaper is looking tempting and perhaps a flag?
 
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