My Nikon D80 will of course not meter TTL with any of my classic AI lenses. (And no, I can't afford a D200/300.) Trial and error works okay, except when conditions are too bright to see the screen very well. I'm wondering if an add-on light meter like this one (which is fairly inexpensive) would be of value for this purpose. Any thoughts? http://www.cameraquest.com/voivcmet2.htm
That thing seems like a pain to use. You gotta do all the guessing until a green LED lights up lol. It doesn't give you anything like 1/2 stop under or over or anything...just "yes" and "no"
These don't fit on the camera but they would be far more useful IMO. About the price you are looking at for the one you posted. http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/368226-REG/Sekonic_401309_L_308S_Flashmate_Light_Meter.html My preference. http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/221078-REG/Sekonic_401358_L_358_Flash_Master_Meter.html
Oh my god you are right! WTF. At least Nikon had the decency to allow centre weighted metering on the D200 with AI Nikkors if you don't enter lens data into the camera but to disable TTL altogether is just poor!!!! I always just thought the D80 was the same but damn! The quick fix would be to carry a little P&S camera along which gives you the iso fstop and shutterspeed. I'm sure you could find a bearly working Olympus C720 or something for pennies, and it would give you a great starting point, along with a 10x craptical zoom.
An old Gossin Luna-Pro will run around $35-50 and be as accurate and sensitive as your D80's meter. I always carry a hand-held meter, sometimes you just can't do without one.
For shoe mounted... this is what I like: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/355975-REG/Voigtlander_45AD104A_VC_Speed_Meter_II.html for handheld... Sekonic 308 as already linked. btw... disabled TTL meter on the D80 when using older lenses.. thats dumb.
