Is This A Decent Meter?

[smoke665]

I would like to add a meter to my gear bag, for both studio lighting, and natural light (inside and out). Is this a good choice for beginning use?
Sekonic L-308S-U Flashmate Light Meter 401-307 B&H Photo Video

 

[KmH]

Yes. It's good for a first hand held light meter.
I used an earlier L-308s for several years.

 

[Gary A.]

Yes. There are more expensive that do more stuff, but that one will read the light similar as a more expensive meter. You may want to include a 'Spot Meter' ... but now you're upping the ante.

 

[Rick50]

This will work great for incident ambient or flash exposures. I have the big brother 358 and use it inside for studio work. I also have the 758 and use it's spot metering for film photo's, mainly 4x5. Else I use the camera meter.

 

[tirediron]

It's a very good meter, but check out Craig's List and similar 'sites. I got my Minolta Flash V for ~$150 on CL, and my Sekonic L758 for $300. You might get a better meter for the same $$ or save a lot on that one.

 

[smoke665]

@tirediron found a decent used one at a whole lot less money.

 

[Derrel]

Check YouTube for the various recorded Sekonic-sponsored webinars using the advanced 758 Sekonic meter...the way this meter can show you the percentage of flash, and the perentage of ambient light, is really much,much more direct than with lesser meters. I think the added sophistication of the 758 is what makes it perhaps, the best combination meter ever made. Minoltas were fine, and I have an old Minolta, but these mnewer high-high end Sekonics leave me drooling. and besides, the Sekonic recorded webinars are some of the best-available lighting videos I've seen on YouTube.

 

[jcdeboever]

Check YouTube for the various recorded Sekonic-sponsored webinars using the advanced 758 Sekonic meter...the way this meter can show you the percentage of flash, and the perentage of ambient light, is really much,much more direct than with lesser meters. I think the added sophistication of the 758 is what makes it perhaps, the best combination meter ever made. Minoltas were fine, and I have an old Minolta, but these mnewer high-high end Sekonics leave me drooling. and besides, the Sekonic recorded webinars are some of the best-available lighting videos I've seen on YouTube.

these?

Archived Webinars

 

[WayneF]

I would like to add a meter to my gear bag, for both studio lighting, and natural light (inside and out). Is this a good choice for beginning use?
Sekonic L-308S-U Flashmate Light Meter 401-307 B&H Photo Video

See Why would I need a handheld light meter?

about light meters, why and how, but specifically about the L-308S meter. It details the differences in features that the L-308S has, and does not have (and reaches conclusion that the L-308S has all we need). One thing though, the L-308S does not do Aperture preferred metering (and flash cannot use aperture preferred anyway). But no big deal, when you do get the Shutter preferred reading, you can simply run the shutter speed up or down on it to see any Equivalent Exposure of any aperture.

 

[Derrel]

Check YouTube for the various recorded Sekonic-sponsored webinars using the advanced 758 Sekonic meter...the way this meter can show you the percentage of flash, and the perentage of ambient light, is really much,much more direct than with lesser meters. I think the added sophistication of the 758 is what makes it perhaps, the best combination meter ever made. Minoltas were fine, and I have an old Minolta, but these mnewer high-high end Sekonics leave me drooling. and besides, the Sekonic recorded webinars are some of the best-available lighting videos I've seen on YouTube.

these?

Archived Webinars

Yes, those are the videos I was referring to, and I think there are also a few that have been dispersed onto YouTube as well. But yeah...videos actually sponsored by a light meter manufacturer, and with information that can be trusted. A lot of the stuff on YouTube has sketchy origins, and low production values, which is the opposite of these videos.

 

[Designer]

...webinars using the advanced 758 Sekonic meter...

I've watched several of those already, so I'm glad it wasn't a waste of my time.

One thing, though; so far I have not seen a good reason to the get the top of the line, although that would be my preference if I ever wanted to purchase one. Then there's the much higher cost of the 758. (gasp!)

 

[Derrel]

The best video I've seen is the outdoor Arizona springtime shot with backlighting, and multi-strobes, and keeping a long shoot very consistent in terms of the percentage of flash-to-ambient...this is the kind of thing I have to compute manually, laboriously, because my meter reads flash at only two speeds: 1/60 second, and 1/250 second, and I have to meter ambient separately from flash illumination. A higher-end meter would make this outdated method unneccessary.

The other issue is for studio shooting when you want to be able to meter the lighting on the subject's face in incident light mode, and them immediately meter the reflected light value of light hitting the background and coming back to the subject, without the need to stop, and remove the dome, and then slip in the reflected light metering attachment...this is part of that background density/color measuring that commercial and pro shooters want to be able to measure, and test, in order to work fast, and repeatably, over hours, or days, or over different sessions.

The 758 dates to a time almost 10 years ago, when they had software that would allow the user to test the RAW file capability of their specific camera, and to then input profile data that would show the REAL, actual, recoverable highlight exposure of the RAW, and not the in-camera JPEG file the histogram reads off of...this was something that only a few people were really in need of, I think. But now, many cameras are much better in terms of total DR that the sensor can handle, yet still.

The incident metering for subject/reflected metering for background/comparing those two is a fundamental principle used whenever a gray backdrop, or a cream backdrop, is measured to get that just-perfect white background value, or to establish the exact gel-saturation level when one needs to "fake" a backdrop color using a dark or gray seamless and a colored gel....INCIDENT-only metering simply cannot establish either of those values: you need a reflected light value, so that's partly what the higher-end meters offer: quick incident and quick refleced light readings, and precise, real-time measuring and readout of ambient-to-flash percentages (not ratios, but simpler percentages).

 

[Designer]

Now I was just looking on Amazon at Sekonic, and I see that they have one called "pocket wizard".

Amazon.com: New Sekonic L-478DR-U Pocket Wizard Lightmeter With Exclusive USA Radio Frequency And Exclusive 3-Year Warranty: Electronics

I'll have to start reading the features on all of them, but this one is spendy too, so I will have to try to figure it out. Got to run to the TV right now, though. Bye.

 

[table1349]

If you don't mind used then you might consider this: Sekonic L-358 Flash Master

 

[unpopular]

I really liked my gossen starlite. Super easy to get contrast ratios in a zone system readout.