Light meter help!

[Kunstler]

Hello there guys I know this isn't a collector camera question, however since you guys deal with some related cameras, you might also be able to shed some light for me....

I've stumbled upon an Weston Ranger 9 (model 348) lightmeter...I got correct battery replacements in (Wein cells) and its operational...only I'm used to my digital lightmeters so I'm a bit dumbfounded on just one last bit of this lightmeter.....the high and low scales how and when to use which one...

I just took a reading of my computer screen on the low scale got 8.5...I switch to the high scale and take the same reading at the same spot and it drops...but down to slightly under 14....

so 8 is the same as 14? that doesn't make sense at all. Is the photo sensors gone bad? I don't know...I know its simple and I found a pdf manual however it doesn't say much other than "this is how you change between your high scale and low scale"

Any info would be stellar...I love my antique and vintage film cameras and well I felt like a cheap street walker on the corner using a digital camera as my light meter....so I couldn't pass up the 10 bucks at GoodWill!

 

[tirediron]

How about the Instructions?

 

[Kunstler]

yeah I stumbled upon those prior to posting....they only say how to change between the high and low....but not what the high is or what the low is and when to use it or when to use the other....

so they were no use to me thus the posting for info that was probably "common knowledge" to people back then...but then again, I'm a product of the 80s....

 

[compur]

Normally one uses the high range when the low range is too low to register
a reading and vice versa.

The fact that you're getting a reading on both ranges (and a different one
too) of the same subject suggests to me that the meter is out of calibration.

I have not used that particular meter but I have used many other dual range
meters of similar vintage.

 

[Kunstler]

Hmm... interesting thought. Perhaps using my computer screen (inside) is not the best testing. I'll take it outside and see if i get similar results....

From what I'm reading this thing shouldn't be as volitale as the selenium meters (besides the lack of acceptable batteries) so perhaps more testing is in order.

But knowing that its a "continuation" of the lower scale helps a bit with determinging if somethings gunked or if its working...

Thanks

 

[tirediron]

Try metering a bare, incandescent bulb. from a foot or two away, you should need the high scale, but from much farther back, it should only register on the low scale. Does the manual give any calibration instructions?

 

[Kunstler]

All it really gives is how to zero out the calibration.

I did a test outside and pointed it at the sky since taht would be a very birght reading and it only went up to 8 on the low scale/18 on the high.

I opened it up and it looked like a conducting wire was loose that comes directly off the sensor...I may have it working on everything except for the ASA settings...which I hadn't messed with at all since getting it (it was already set at 100 which is what I shoot anyways...)but it would be nice to get that working as well since I do plan on doing some rather long exposures on paper negatives.

Thanks for the help.

I'll try the lightbulb test once I figure out the ASA dial and how it should be positioned.