Why use a light meter: somebody persuade me.

[rawhead]

OK, so here's the thing. I have here three light meters that I got as part of a huge bundle of equipment, all capable of (or being) spot metering: Gossen Luna Pro SBC + Spot attachment, Minolta Auto Meter IV F + spot attachment, and Pentax Spotmeter V.

As they are more or less coveted items, and all seem to be pretty accurate (all within 1/3 stop from each other including metering with my 5Dmk2), and especially since the Minolta is in a great condition, I have an urge to keep at least one of these guys.

But the thing is, would I use it?

For quick & dirty metering, I use Pocket Light Meter App on my iPhone (which does a great job, BTW); for mission critical shots, I'll just use the meter, Live View, and test shots on my 5Dmk2 or NEX-6. I would never leave home without at least one of those digital cameras. Is there room for a dedicated piece of hardware?

Can any of you persuade me to keep one of these (and if so, which one would it be?).


If I can't be persuaded, you'll soon see all three in the classifieds :-)

[bdial]

If you are getting the results on the film that you need with the stuff you actually use, then start a thread in the classifieds with no hesitation :-)

It's heresy, but IMHO the usefulness of spot meters is a little over-rated, and certainly, three are two more than enough. I would keep the Luna Pro, as it has nice sensitivty for low light work, and you also get incident reading which none of the other stuff can do. It's also convienient for zone placement. Then sell the rest.

[Marc B.]

If I can't be persuaded, you'll soon see all three in the classifieds :-)

Please...Do sell them. Sell them all.
You have clearly stated your metering preference.
Sell the meters, so they can be put to good use by those who may want/need them.

Marc

[CPorter]

It's heresy, but IMHO the usefulness of spot meters is a little over-rated.........

First, I don't necessarily say this to persuade the OP to use a light meter, it's a tool, use it or not, IMO. But if not, and one is continuously not pleased with their pictures, perhaps they should revisit the idea.

But spot meters, over rated? Not if you want to measure a spot, right?........especially at some distance from the camera. There is quite a lot of incompetent useage of spot meters, IMHO.

[Two23]

I do a fair amount of tricky flash--I light up trains at night. A flashmeter is essential for me. Remember, the trains aren't there yet when I'm setting up my camera. With a digital camera I generally don't use a meter in the daytime. With my vintage cameras I almost always do. It's quicker than fooling with getting an exposure from a DSLR, and I like the vintage work flow when using these cameras.


Kent in SD

[TheFlyingCamera]

Another note- the Minolta Auto-Meter is most certainly an incident meter. It becomes a reflected or spot meter with adding accessories or changing out the incident dome.

As to metering using your Canon dSLR, you may be lucky and getting good results that way, but in my experience, digital camera meters are calibrated for digital sensors, and ISO 100 does not mean the same thing as ISO 100 for film. What it means is 1/2 the sensitivity of the ISO 200 setting. I have two meters - a Minolta Spotmeter-F and a Sekonic 408. Both of them agree to within 1/4 stop, perhaps even closer. My film exposures with them are dead on. I have yet to find a dSLR sensor that matches them. Most dSLR exposures I've found are way overexposed if you go with the handheld meter reading (I've observed this with studio strobes - I don't really have call to use the handheld meter when shooting digital in natural light or with TTL flash). And frankly I'd rather carry a handheld meter than a second camera system to serve as just a meter.

If I were going to keep one of those meters, I'd keep the Minolta because it has the spot attachment and because should you ever want it, there are additional accessories for it (at one point they made a probe you could use to spot meter off the ground glass of a view camera, IIRC). I don't know about the Gossen, but the Minolta definitely can meter flash exposures and ambient/flash combination. That's something that none of your dSLRs can do for you. So should you ever want to shoot an interior and balance the lighting with off-camera non-TTL flash, the Minolta will be extremely helpful.

[kbrede]

I'd keep at least one of the meters. Your idea of carrying around a digital camera all the time might change. I know I want to carry less and less gear the longer I shoot.

[BrianShaw]

It appears to me that you haven't yet found the right meter for you. Don't sell... BUY MORE!

[Timestep]

​It's a question of being in control.

[Chan Tran]

OK, so here's the thing. I have here three light meters that I got as part of a huge bundle of equipment, all capable of (or being) spot metering: Gossen Luna Pro SBC + Spot attachment, Minolta Auto Meter IV F + spot attachment, and Pentax Spotmeter V.

As they are more or less coveted items, and all seem to be pretty accurate (all within 1/3 stop from each other including metering with my 5Dmk2), and especially since the Minolta is in a great condition, I have an urge to keep at least one of these guys.

But the thing is, would I use it?

For quick & dirty metering, I use Pocket Light Meter App on my iPhone (which does a great job, BTW); for mission critical shots, I'll just use the meter, Live View, and test shots on my 5Dmk2 or NEX-6. I would never leave home without at least one of those digital cameras. Is there room for a dedicated piece of hardware?

Can any of you persuade me to keep one of these (and if so, which one would it be?).


If I can't be persuaded, you'll soon see all three in the classifieds :-)

Get rid of them as you have determined that you don't need them. 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.

I also use the light meter to measure light not just for exposure.

with that said, I actually have very good result using the a cheap digital camera (coolpix 5000) to do test shot and it works for both flash and ambient light and mixed light.