What to look for in a spot meter.

MrDrizz

MrDrizz

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Mark
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As some maybe aware I have pulled the trigger on an Intrepid 4x5 their new shutter and lens (kickstarter)
This means I'm going to need a light meter.
Am I right in thinking a spot meter is the way forward, if so what features should I be looking for?
I've had a quick look on fleabay and I'm a little confused.

Cheers.
Mark.
 
You probably don't need one to be honest. I have one of those Reveni Labs spot meters and I've only used it a handful of times (and not at all when shooting large format), although I might use it this autumn when I plan on shooting some slide film.

A spot meter is probably helpful in difficult lighting, or when you're using film with a low dynamic range (reversal film, for instance), but I mostly use an incident meter (or you could meter from a digital camera if you have one with you).
 
I've covered my experience with spot meters but as a copy and paste (text only) from my book, this might offer a few pointers.

Hand held meters can be used to take both incident and reflected light readings. When taking
a reflected light reading, meters are further divided into those that take a general area reading
and those that take a very limited area and are called spot meters. Spot meters have a
viewfinder, so that you can see exactly what you are measuring, and a true spot meter will
measure down to a 1° angle. My Lunasix, which is a general area meter, has a measuring
angle of 30°.

Photograph 120 Sekonic 508 meter

The Sekonic meter above has a viewfinder on the right hand side of the photo, and opposite
you can see the lens with a small white dot. Turning the collar of this adjusts the viewing
angle between 1° and 5°. A circle in the viewfinder indicates the exact place that the reading
is being taken from. The symbol on the right hand collar is used to set whether the meter is
measuring incident light or is being used as a reflected light spot meter.

My caveats are that because it is measuring a spot and not a 30 degree field, less light is measured, and the sensitivity drops. For example, in one church in York the Sekonic couldn't give me a reading from the pews. (I'm aware of the work arounds, by the way, but...). My normal Lunasix has no problems under these conditions and I've personally, using black and white film, had no problems relying on my Lunasix. I haven't used the Sekonic in years.

Spot meters may have other unnoticed problems. Again, copy and paste from my book

Effect of flare
There is an instructive further point in the above measurement. As well as a piece of matt
black cloth against the side of the room, there was also a matt black plant propagator base in
the window area which was therefore back lit. I took a spot reading from it while sitting in a
chair and noted the reading; then I approached close up so that there was no possibility of the
back lighting causing flare in the meter, and the result was a reading 1½ stops lower. This
gives an indication of the effect of flare in the optics of the meter (it was actually visible in the
viewfinder) and an indication of the effect of flare in reducing contrast. A good prime lens will
typically have a flare factor of 2, which results in the SBR as seen by the recording medium
being halved.
I repeated the readings on an overcast day, and also took readings from the white window
frame, in both cases from a distance and also from sufficiently close to not have any
extraneous light affecting the results. My readings (in EV) were as follows:

Table 12 Effect of flare on subject brightness
From a distance Close up
Black propagator base 6.6 4.9
White window frame 10.9 10.9
You can clearly see from these figures that the shadows are more affected than the highlights
by flare.

Apologies for the formatting. The measurements were made in the bay window of a north facing room with white PVC window frames for context.

Edit to add - the book referred to was made available in pdf form in another thread - I think one of your threads, actually :)
 
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If you do go with a spot meter, it will involved a lot more effort; if you're going to peg the mid tones. you're also going to have to measure deepest shadow and brightest highlights where you want detail, and, if this falls outside the range of the film, adjust development time (and exposure) to suit. At the risk of swearing - zone system!

I've used a general area meter for about 60 years, apart from the short excursion into the joys (I use the word loosely) of spot metering. I take a reading from the palm of my hand, and open up one stop.

I will say that in a studio, spot meters are extremely useful for checking lighting ratios. Outdoors - I don't bother.
 
I have a Polaris meter and when I bought it, over twenty years ago, I convinced myself that I should buy the spot meter attachment. I've never used it! Call me lazy if you like.

I rely on incident light measurement as I previously did with my Weston Master and Invercone attachment. I can partly put this down to the fact that I deserted negative film for quite a few years in favour of slide film.

However, my experience until relatively recently was with 35mm and medium format. My large format photography centres round photographs of people where using a spot meter is probably unnecessary.
 
PeterSpencer said:
I have a Polaris meter and when I bought it, over twenty years ago, I convinced myself that I should buy the spot meter attachment. I've never used it! Call me lazy if you like.

I rely on incident light measurement as I previously did with my Weston Master and Invercone attachment. I can partly put this down to the fact that I deserted negative film for quite a few years in favour of slide film.

However, my experience until relatively recently was with 35mm and medium format. My large format photography centres round photographs of people where using a spot meter is probably unnecessary.
Click to expand...
Funny you mention that, I have just made an offer of £40 on a SPD100.
 
The SPD100 is a very good, reliable meter in my experience. I also bought a Sekonic 308S so that I had a backup in case of accidental damage, especially since the Polaris felt a bit flimsy. The Sekonic seems better made but doesn't seem to have a spot metering accessory, mine came with a lumidisc for measuring flat lighting, maybe, never used that either .

The Polaris meter's spot metering accessory has a 10 degree acceptance angle, maybe you need something with a smaller acceptance angle for more precise measurements. Good luck with finding the spot attachment on its own.

However, I think if you are metering outdoors, especially if the light is fairly even, you will good exposures just using an incident reading.
 
Sometimes, to make it easy, meter an 18% gray card and base your exposure off of that.
I have several light meters, incident/reflective combos and a Pentax Digital Spotmeter and it can get rather involved using them.
Just remember the meter reads for an 18% gray reading. Depending on what you're photographing (i.e. snow images), you may have to compensate for the scene.
I mainly shoot BW but looking at and understanding the Zone System and using it can help, though even that can get confusing, but knowing how it works IS rather easy.
Have fun though.
 
I discovered the Weston Invercone in the 1960s and never looked back. Once I knew how much light was falling on the subject, I found it easy to adjust for any part of of the image I wanted to emphasise.
 
I have no idea about meters - always just having left it to the camera. But we're clearing out my father-in-law's house, and there is a Zeiss Ikon Ikophot exposure meter. I've stuck it on ebay rather than give it to the charity shop - but little interest. If anyone wants it - make a silly offer on ebay and it's yours.

www.ebay.co.uk

Vintage Zeiss Ikon Ikophot Exposure Light Meter in Case | eBay

With original plastic case and instructions for use.
www.ebay.co.uk
 
It is very personal as to what spot meter you like to use, I loved my Pentax digital spot meter but foolishly sold as it was not getting any use. Years later I bought a Minolta spot meter which I have not jelled with, it works just as it should but I don't get on with it. The Pentax had a very simple aperture shutter speed relationship around the lens barrel the Minolta is a bar with tabs on a LCD display which should be clearer but not in my way of working.
 
zx9 said:
It is very personal as to what spot meter you like to use, I loved my Pentax digital spot meter but foolishly sold as it was not getting any use. Years later I bought a Minolta spot meter which I have not jelled with, it works just as it should but I don't get on with it. The Pentax had a very simple aperture shutter speed relationship around the lens barrel the Minolta is a bar with tabs on a LCD display which should be clearer but not in my way of working.
Click to expand...
I have had a Minolta F spotmeter for years, keep trying to get to know it, but likewise I have never gelled with it. I don't think I've used it to meter a single photo, which is a criminal shame! But I guess the meters in my SLRs are "good enough" in most cases!
 
IMO, you do not often need a spot meter.

Another option is a cheap used pocket camera like a Casio EX-z75, that offers multiple metering modes (spot, center weighted, multi/average), and a test image (like we used to use polaroids). The main difference between a digital camera and a dedicated spot meter is the size of the spot being metered (generally larger on a digital camera). You can get a camera like this that is both cheaper and smaller than a spot meter (but make sure it uses available batteries).
 
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