Light meter help

[sarahkate]

Hi. I'm looking to purchase a light meter to use with me canon ae-1. I'm looking at either a used Gossen Luna pro or Sekonic L-208...which do you recommend? Or is there another light meter around $100 you would recommend? Thank you in advance!'

 

[tirediron]

They're both fine; any of the Gossens are good as they were top-of-the-line professional meters in their day, and all of Sekonic's models are excellent. If you do buy a Gossen, check which type of battery it uses as certain older ones require oddball hard-to-find batteries. Minolta made a nice line of meters as well.

 

[unpopular]

I'd save a bit, honestly. Get a spot meter. These average reflective meters won't do you any more good than the one in your AE-1.

You'll need to learn how to spot meter, if you don't already. People here can help. But you'll enjoy it much more. The older, analog Pentax and Soligors are good choices for around $100. The Minoltas and older Sekonics are good choices for around 200-300. I owned an original Gossen Starlite, which I very much enjoyed for b/w zone system.

 

[sarahkate]

I'd love to have the spot metering but they are more expensive, I suppose I could try and find an older/used one. But I kind of want to purchase one sooner than later...I could always upgrade my light meter later. Thanks for the advice though, maybe I'll get lucky and find a used spot meter around $100.

 

[unpopular]

Really, sarah, i don't think you'll get a whole lot of use out of these meters. If you're really wanting one, I'd suggest an incident meter instead. These meters will be almost exactly the same as the one you have already, if not inferior as they are not TTL.

Take a look here:
Spot Meter | eBay

Also consider this incident meter
SEKONIC L-398 STUDIO DELUXE LIGHT METER w/MANUAL - WORKS GREAT | eBay

These meters are fantastic, and extremely well built. They also have a reflectance attachment included.

 

[tirediron]

A spot meter is a useful addition to your bag, but I would not recommend it as your only meter. Unpopular brings up a good point; the Sekonic is a reflective-only meter (my mistake you wrote Sekonic 208, I read "308"). I would definitely suggest getting a meter with both reflective and incident capability.

 

[unpopular]

On that particular unit above - be sure to confirm that the high-level slide and reflective attachment is included. It should be a little perforated metal card that slides into the back when not in use.

 

[sarahkate]

Correct me if I'm wrong (I'm still new to photography). My ae-1 is completely manual and I'm not very good at the sunny 16 rule! So the meter in my camera isn't going to help me determine the correct exposure like a hand held ligjt meter would right?

 

[tirediron]

The built-in camera meter should provide you exactly the same exposure information for reflected light metering situations as a hand-held meter will, not where incident metering is wanted.

 

[sarahkate]

The built-in camera meter should provide you exactly the same exposure information for reflected light metering situations as a hand-held meter will, not where incident metering is wanted.

Ok this makes since now!

 

[sarahkate]

Tirediron, you also mentioned you wouldn't recommend a spot meter as an only meter for my bag...would you recommend a meter with both reflective and incident capability over a spot meter? I'm only looking to purchase one right now.

 

[Patrice]

I used a Gossen Luna Pro 6 for years. It is a very useful incident and reflected light meter for both still and cinematic photography. The flash meter feature is especially useful when dealing with multiple manually set flashes.

 

[unpopular]

Sarah, I dont mean to complicate matters all the more, but I think that a spot meter is all that anyone would need, but it would take a good deal of practice and understanding to get to that point. One nice thing about incident metering is that it measures available light rather than reflected light, so what you read is usually pretty accurate without compensation. The nice thing about a spot meter is that you can decide how the scene will be rendered very precisely, but requires that you compensate the exposure. Given that you seem a bit new to this, I'd suggest an incident meter. But if you understand reflective metering and exposure compensation, I'd go with a spot meter. These handheld average reflective meters are useful for quick exposure measurements when you don't have a built-in meter, which you should, provided it is functioning properly.

 

[APHPHOTO]

When i'm shooting. Getting the correct exposure is never a problem. Its the white balance thats the issue. Does anyione use one and if so what kind?

 

[Buckster]

When i'm shooting. Getting the correct exposure is never a problem. Its the white balance thats the issue. Does anyione use one and if so what kind?

Gray card = No more white balance issues. Any of them will work. I use this one: Amazon.com: PhotoVision 14" Pocket One-Shot Digital Calibration Target with DVD, Collapsible Disc Exposure Aid for Digital Cameras: Camera & Photo