Why use a light meter: somebody persuade me.

[andrew.roos]

But so here's a question. You say EV0 is 1 min @ F8. But why meter at F8 when digital sensors have no reciprocity failures?

[snip]

From my perspective, any advantage you may have from being able to read off very low light situations accurately is, if not nullified, kind of negated or overwhelmed by the idiosyncrasies of shooting film and having to deal with reciprocity failures and compensation values.

I don't know the 5D2 but my Nikon D5000 refuses to provide a meter reading at a light level below EV 0 (at ISO 100). This is irrespective of the aperture and ISO settings - it's just the meter sensitivity threshold, so setting ISO 800 and f/1.4 won't help! I just gave 1 minute at f/8 as an example to illustrate what sort of light level this is as I quite often shoot in light levels like this (and then sometimes I find myself using the SBC to calculate the exposure for my DSLR!).

As for reciprocity failure - well if you shoot Delta 100 read the thread I've just posted - it's easy to calculate in your head with an error margin of not more than 1/3 stop out to at least 8 minutes (measured exposure, giving about 40 minutes actual exposure). Just add an additional 1/3 stop for every stop of metered exposure above 4 seconds.

Good luck with your decision,
Andrew

[Alan Klein]

What's the degrees of the spot on the minolta compared to the other meters?

[Diapositivo]

If I were you I would keep them all.
1. The Pentax is the only true spotmeter of the bunch so it would work as the spotmeter.
2. The Minolta is a great incident meter and it can measure flash too.
3. The Gossen can measure very low light, can be good for low light situation as well as for darkroom work.

Agree on all points.

The Exposure forum will give you plenty of information about how using the incident light metering and how, generally speaking, incident light metering is very precise and convenient.

Spot metering is the way to go when you want to place exactly the scene "tones" on your film curve and you have a scene, such as a scene with a wide brightness range, which makes exact exploiting of the film difficult. That happens especially with slide film. A spot meter will allow you to get an idea of where exactly the shadow will block and the highlights will burn in the final image.

For low brightness range subjects incident metering is just unbeatable, very fast, very accurate, no reasoning to make and no room for mistakes.

[L Gebhardt]

I use the meter app on my phone when I am out with a folder or the Hasselblad and no tripod. It usually works well enough for negative film.

But I would rather use an external meter. I have both a Seconic 308 and a Pentax Digital Spot. Metering with the Pentax is faster than any of the other options, and gives better results. It's all I use for large format.

My recommendation is to keep the Minolta and the Pentax meters and really learn how to use them. You may find it preferable over juggling a digital camera in addition to the film camera. An incident meter and a spot meter both have different uses. After a few months sell what you know you don't like using, but give them a fair shake. It may help your photography.

[jnanian]

keep the luna pro get rid of the spot attachments, and use the lunapro for low light work
just learn to judge the light by experience ... most of the time you don't even need a light meter
too much fussing around when you could already be done with the photograph

http://www.fredparker.com/ultexp1.htm

there's endless threads about sunny 11 / 16
they are some of the most useful threads on apug ...

[Sirius Glass]

Low light situations is a VERY interesting area for me as I do lot of, and love, (pre)dawn/(post)dusk/night photography (ref:http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=nigh...4%40N00&m=tags).

I have a Gossen LunaPro SBC but I have never used it as an incident light meter. Now that I read that article, I will look for situations to use it.

I use my Nikon F100 spotmeter with a zoom lens that I use as a spot meter for the Hasselblads and the 4"x5" when the SBR is great.

[rawhead]

I don't know the 5D2 but my Nikon D5000 refuses to provide a meter reading at a light level below EV 0 (at ISO 100). This is irrespective of the aperture and ISO settings - it's just the meter sensitivity threshold, so setting ISO 800 and f/1.4 won't help! I just gave 1 minute at f/8 as an example to illustrate what sort of light level this is as I quite often shoot in light levels like this (and then sometimes I find myself using the SBC to calculate the exposure for my DSLR!).

Ah, I see! I should check the EV levels the next time I meter in these kinds of situations. However, I do know for a fact that I have successfully metered in situations where I have a stacked ND400 + ND8 and I'm metering at 30 sec (maximum on 5Kmk2 Aperture Priority mode) near the maximum aperture of whatever lens I have on there (F2.8~F4), so I believe it can handle a scene with a little less light than what you are describing.

So the Gossen LunaPro SBC, I see on the dial here for EVs down to -8... is that how dark the scene could be for this light meter to still meter accurately??

That's pretty amazing....

[Chan Tran]

According to specification the 5DmkII metering range is from EV1-20@ISO100 with an f/1.4 lens attached.

[E. von Hoegh]

According to specification the 5DmkII metering range is from EV1-20@ISO100 with an f/1.4 lens attached.

Gee, an old Weston with a selenium cell will do that...

[E. von Hoegh]

Ah, I see! I should check the EV levels the next time I meter in these kinds of situations. However, I do know for a fact that I have successfully metered in situations where I have a stacked ND400 + ND8 and I'm metering at 30 sec (maximum on 5Kmk2 Aperture Priority mode) near the maximum aperture of whatever lens I have on there (F2.8~F4), so I believe it can handle a scene with a little less light than what you are describing.

So the Gossen LunaPro SBC, I see on the dial here for EVs down to -8... is that how dark the scene could be for this light meter to still meter accurately??

That's pretty amazing....

Yes, the LunaPro is the meter to use if you need to take a picture of a black cat in a coal mine, at night, under the new moon.