Cheap but reasonably good light meter?

[warheit12]

Basically I no nothing about light meters or which ones are good and which ones are bad. but shooting film alot and I would really like one. I am looking to spend 20-30 dollars on one, there is some wiggle room there of course. but basically I dont want to break the bank on the light meter. I no I might not get the best one, i just need one that can tell me what to set the exposure to and such before i waste the film.

Thank you in advance for any help =)

 

[Helen B]

At that price there isn't much available new apart from lux meters that you could use with a table to convert between lux and photographic exposure. Even used there isn't much that would be reliable. How much could you go up to?

 

[pgriz]

In my slide-shooting days (yeah, that dates me), having the exposure right was critical as there is no post-processing with slides. So I learned pretty quickly that I needed to get a good idea of the light variation and where in that range the subject would be located. A good incident light meter was one of the basic tools, and my Lunasix Pro was used (in conjuction with the camera meter) to get the correct exposure reliably. When I got lazy, the number of poorly exposed shots went up, and there's nothing like seeing a once-in-a-lifetime shot captured with the wrong exposure, to remind you that good technique has to be practiced all the time. If you don't need the added functions of flash metering, there are lots of used incident light meters on the market. I'm with Helen on this - you need to raise your budget a bit to get something that is reliable.

 

[xyphoto]

You are not going to find a good light meter in this price range. I would recommend getting a gray card.

 

[Tee]

Hold your laughter for what I'm about to suggest. Do you have a smart phone? For grins and giggles, I got the Fotometer Pro app for $1.99 and you know what? It's pretty gosh darn accurate outside. I got the app because a lot of times I'll be outside for work and stop and wonder what settings I would use for a shot if I had my camera. I'll pull out the handy-dandy app and compare notes, then finally break down, run to my car and see what the camera meter says. You may begin laughing now.

 

[2WheelPhoto]

My budget light meter I bought is the Sekonic 358. I LOVE it! I wanted the high-end one but as a student couldn't justify it.

 

[tirediron]

Head on over to eBay; there are [literally] thousands of meters for sale. If I were you I'd look to spend closer to the $100 range. That will get you (with a little patience) a nice Gossen meter. Look for something like a Luna Pro F which will do both reflected and incident as well as flash. If you do go this route, make sure you get one which uses either an 'AA' or 9v battery, NOT one of the old-style, hard or impossible cells.

Also, while they will be cheap and tempting, I would stay away from the slew of old selenium meters. The sensitivity of the selenium degrades over time, and older ones can be very innacurate (if a light meter doesn't need a battery, it's probably a selenium-cell meter).

 

[warheit12]

Ok, thanks for the suggestions. it looks like if i want to buy one I need to get a higher budget.

But honestly after researching alot about light meters I think I can make one myself. They do not seem that complex and I think I can get most of the parts for free(being a student gets you free samples lol) that are very high end.

It should be fun in the very least, I will post my results once I have finished it ^_^.

 

[pgriz]

Well, that depends. Is your real name McGyver or Goldberg?

 

[tirediron]

It won't be difficult to built a basic reflective meter, no, but calibrating it might be a whole 'nother story.

 

[bhop]

Are you using a meterless film camera? I have a couple external meters, but honestly rarely use it unless i'm using it with one of my old cameras without meters. It's still good to have one and learn to use it, but if you've got a camera with a meter it's not a necessity for shooting film.

 

[Josh66]

Ok, thanks for the suggestions. it looks like if i want to buy one I need to get a higher budget.

But honestly after researching alot about light meters I think I can make one myself. They do not seem that complex and I think I can get most of the parts for free(being a student gets you free samples lol) that are very high end.

It should be fun in the very least, I will post my results once I have finished it ^_^.

Interested in seeing the results of this...

Are you using a meterless film camera? I have a couple external meters, but honestly rarely use it unless i'm using it with one of my old cameras without meters. It's still good to have one and learn to use it, but if you've got a camera with a meter it's not a necessity for shooting film.

Comes in handy a lot with flash...

 

[greybeard]

Hold your laughter for what I'm about to suggest. Do you have a smart phone? For grins and giggles, I got the Fotometer Pro app for $1.99 and you know what? It's pretty gosh darn accurate outside. I got the app because a lot of times I'll be outside for work and stop and wonder what settings I would use for a shot if I had my camera. I'll pull out the handy-dandy app and compare notes, then finally break down, run to my car and see what the camera meter says. You may begin laughing now.

I have a freebee from called beeCam for Android phones. Free from the Android market.

 

[warheit12]

My smart phone does not have a light meter so i cant use any of those apps i believe. kind of sucks, with beeCam I can just input how many lux i think there are and it will tell me what setting i should put it at.

 

[MTVision]

My smart phone does not have a light meter so i cant use any of those apps i believe. kind of sucks, with beeCam I can just input how many lux i think there are and it will tell me what setting i should put it at.

My phone doesn't have a light meter either (at least I don't think) but I can still use the light meter apps....

What kind of phone do you have?