I need a hand-held light meter...

[japmula]

Hey Guys......there are like 10 million different types out there... :? any suggestions/referrals?????

Thanks!!

 

[drlynn]

Well, you need t odecide what features you want, and what price range you want.

Incident, reflected or flash meter, or a combination? Do you want it to have spot-meter capability?

Do you need digital, or will a match-needle be OK?

Do you need the ability to trigger slave flashes?

Do you want fries with that? (Sorry, got in the question mode, and that last one just popped out! )

 

[StvShoop]

Do you want fries with that? (Sorry, got in the question mode, and that last one just popped out! )

lol.
i was looking for a lightmeter last year, couldn't find one anywhere :?
even the internet wasn't forthcoming.
is it worth it to get one if you can just check the exposure settings suggested by the camera? and do you know of a good website? (the photo shop in town has never heard of em :cry: )

 

[voodoocat]

Do you want fries with that? (Sorry, got in the question mode, and that last one just popped out! )

lol.
i was looking for a lightmeter last year, couldn't find one anywhere :?
even the internet wasn't forthcoming.
is it worth it to get one if you can just check the exposure settings suggested by the camera? and do you know of a good website? (the photo shop in town has never heard of em :cry: )

The photoshop has never heard of a light meter? That is odd...

I really learned a lot about exposure from my incident light meter. It really gave me a good understanding of the light falling on the subject and getting the exposure I was after.

 

[danalec99]

I really learned a lot about exposure from my incident light meter. It really gave me a good understanding of the light falling on the subject and getting the exposure I was after.

Is it better than relying on camera's built-in light meter?

 

[voodoocat]

I really learned a lot about exposure from my incident light meter. It really gave me a good understanding of the light falling on the subject and getting the exposure I was after.

Is it better than relying on camera's built-in light meter?

Yes. Because your meter in the camera measures reflective light. It doesn't take into account how colors reflect light differently. It basically takes everything in the frame and averages out the exposure. An incident reading gives you the amount of light falling on a subject. So if you have access to the subject or the same lighting you can get a very accurate reading on how much light is really hitting the scene. Now with landscape work, a spot meter is going to work even better for you. Just find something you want to expose for middle gray (the shaded portion of a cloud works well) and expose for that.

Now my D70 has a color matrix meter (same one found in the F5) which does read the colors and gives very accurate exposure if the scene isn't too contrasty. In those situations, I bracket.

 

[danalec99]

I really learned a lot about exposure from my incident light meter. It really gave me a good understanding of the light falling on the subject and getting the exposure I was after.

Is it better than relying on camera's built-in light meter?

Yes. Because your meter in the camera measures reflective light. It doesn't take into account how colors reflect light differently. It basically takes everything in the frame and averages out the exposure. An incident reading gives you the amount of light falling on a subject. So if you have access to the subject or the same lighting you can get a very accurate reading on how much light is really hitting the scene. Now with landscape work, a spot meter is going to work even better for you. Just find something you want to expose for middle gray (the shaded portion of a cloud works well) and expose for that.

Now my D70 has a color matrix meter (same one found in the F5) which does read the colors and gives very accurate exposure if the scene isn't too contrasty. In those situations, I bracket.

Say, I want to do an outdoor portrait. In order to get an accurate reading, don't I just have to walk up to the subject, take the reading with the camera? Would that reading give me an accurate feedback?

 

[danalec99]

Now with landscape work, a spot meter is going to work even better for you. Just find something you want to expose for middle gray (the shaded portion of a cloud works well) and expose for that.

For the landscape works, how accurate would the result be if we use the camera's meter + gray card? Or spot meter is a bare necessity?

 

[voodoocat]

I really learned a lot about exposure from my incident light meter. It really gave me a good understanding of the light falling on the subject and getting the exposure I was after.

Is it better than relying on camera's built-in light meter?

Yes. Because your meter in the camera measures reflective light. It doesn't take into account how colors reflect light differently. It basically takes everything in the frame and averages out the exposure. An incident reading gives you the amount of light falling on a subject. So if you have access to the subject or the same lighting you can get a very accurate reading on how much light is really hitting the scene. Now with landscape work, a spot meter is going to work even better for you. Just find something you want to expose for middle gray (the shaded portion of a cloud works well) and expose for that.

Now my D70 has a color matrix meter (same one found in the F5) which does read the colors and gives very accurate exposure if the scene isn't too contrasty. In those situations, I bracket.

Say, I want to do an outdoor portrait. In order to get an accurate reading, don't I just have to walk up to the subject, take the reading with the camera? Would that reading give me an accurate feedback?

I find the incident meter works the best for portraits. That way I can check the highlight areas and the shadow details to get a good ratio. With an incident meter you basically walk up to the subject and point it at the camera to get your reading.

 

[StvShoop]

thanks for the info voodoocat, good stuff.

maybe the photo place has heard of light meters, i dunno. but they don't have any :x

any suggestions on where to get one? (preferably cheaply?)

 

[danalec99]

I really learned a lot about exposure from my incident light meter. It really gave me a good understanding of the light falling on the subject and getting the exposure I was after.

Is it better than relying on camera's built-in light meter?

Yes. Because your meter in the camera measures reflective light. It doesn't take into account how colors reflect light differently. It basically takes everything in the frame and averages out the exposure. An incident reading gives you the amount of light falling on a subject. So if you have access to the subject or the same lighting you can get a very accurate reading on how much light is really hitting the scene. Now with landscape work, a spot meter is going to work even better for you. Just find something you want to expose for middle gray (the shaded portion of a cloud works well) and expose for that.

Now my D70 has a color matrix meter (same one found in the F5) which does read the colors and gives very accurate exposure if the scene isn't too contrasty. In those situations, I bracket.

Say, I want to do an outdoor portrait. In order to get an accurate reading, don't I just have to walk up to the subject, take the reading with the camera? Would that reading give me an accurate feedback?

I find the incident meter works the best for portraits. That way I can check the highlight areas and the shadow details to get a good ratio. With an incident meter you basically walk up to the subject and point it at the camera to get your reading.

Thanks voodoo!

For the landscape works, how accurate would the result be if we use the camera's meter + gray card? Or spot meter is a bare necessity?

 

[voodoocat]

thanks for the info voodoocat, good stuff.

maybe the photo place has heard of light meters, i dunno. but they don't have any :x

any suggestions on where to get one? (preferably cheaply?)

If I had it to do over again I would have gotten a meter that does flash and spot meter. But the one I got is a Capitol and it costed $89 at the camera shop. You can check ebay... or bhphoto.com but don't buy something that is too old. Chances are it's not very accurate.

 

[voodoocat]

Thanks voodoo!

For the landscape works, how accurate would the result be if we use the camera's meter + gray card? Or spot meter is a bare necessity?

It depends on the contrast in your scene and if it's dominated by a color that will throw off the meter reading. Like snow or white sand... it will try to expose for middle gray so it'll come out underexposed. Increase your exposure by 2-3 stops to compensate.

 

[ksmattfish]

For the landscape works, how accurate would the result be if we use the camera's meter + gray card? Or spot meter is a bare necessity?

Your results should be pretty good if the light falling on most of your scene is the same as the light falling on the gray card.

there are like 10 million different types out there... any suggestions/referrals

Really there are only 2 kinds of exposure light meters. Different models may use a specific type of metering, or combine several.

Reflective: measures light reflecting off of your subject. To use a reflective meter you point it at the scene to be photographed. In-camera meters on any modern camera are reflective meters; there are several styles such as center weighted, averaging, matrix, etc... This just tells you where your meter is measuring from in the scene.

Incident: measures light falling on your subject. Use an incident meter at the subject with meter pointing at the camera, or anywhere that is getting the same light as your subject.

Spot: a reflective meter that measures a small area of your scene. Allows for more precise reflective metering. Compared to many hand held reflective meters, an in camera meter is almost a spot meter, particularly when using longer focal length lenses.

Flash: a setting that may work with either reflective or incident metering. Measures the superfast burst of a flash, and locks it in the display, so you can see it.

Read your camera manual, figure out exactly what your in-camera meter is doing, and decide if you really need a different metering feature that you don't already have. Meters aren't cheap; you could maybe get a new lens instead? Or save up for a light meter that has a nice spot and flash functions.

I decided I needed a light meter when I started doing large format (for a little while I used the in-camera meter of my 35mm SLR for my LF meter). Eventually I began using more and more cameras that didn't have in-camera meters.

I use a Sekonic 508 which pretty much does all of the above. I'd say I use it in incident mode 75% of the time, spot 20% of the time, and flash the remaining 5% of the time. Even though the meters that "do it all" are expensive, in the long run they are much cheaper than going through several $75 to $100 models, and then buying the really expensive meter.

 

[danalec99]

Thanks for the info voodoocat, ksmattfish!