Good light meter for under $200

<p>Many of my favorite cameras have no builtin light meter. They include Nikon F (plain prism), Leica early Ms and screwmounts, Contax IIa, Voigtlander Vito b and Vito III, many Retinas. Some others have selenium light meters of questional accuracy or require mercury batteries.<br>

I am pure amateur, and I mostly use color negative film of ISO 200. I had a Digisix meter, but it has become erratic. One alternative is to always carry my Canon Powershot A620, to use as a light meter.<br>

But I would like see some of your recommendations.</p>

<p>It's very easy to find a good used meter on Ebay for under $100. I have a Minolta incident meter that was very inexpensive and has worked well for me. For under $200 you should be able to find one that also does spot meter.</p>

<p>in the 'new' category, you might want to look at the Sekonic 308</p>

<p>Sekonic Flashmate L-308s. doubles as a flashmeter.</p>

<p>I have a couple Weston Meters, a Master II and a Master III that I picked up on the Bay and sent them off to Quality Lite Metric 7095 Hollywood Blvd., Unit #550, Hollywood, CA 90028. The phone number is 323-467-2265 I believe. I think I payed anout $5,00 for a non-working meter, $85.00 for the repair and so for less than $100.00 I have an excellent meter.</p>

<p>I've also trained my eye to "guestimate" the exposure. It's not all that difficult, just a little practice. The main issue to conquer is lack of trust in oneself. I find I'm accurate within the latitude of B/W film most of the time, a few misses. Here's a link to an article that got me started. <a href="http://www.fredparker.com/ultexp1.htm">http://www.fredparker.com/ultexp1.htm</a></p>

 

<p>Look at the Gossen Digisix. Can't go wrong there. http://www.amazon.com/Gossen-Digisix-GO-4006-Exposure/dp/B00006OAJB</p>

<p>The <a href="http://www.jollinger.com/photo/meters/meters/gossen_lunaprosbc.html">Gossen LunaPro SBC</a> uses a 9-volt battery and goes for anything from a few bucks to $100 on eBay.</p>

<p>It's worth it. Best meter I've ever had. Various accessories make it even more useful.</p>

<p>Shepherd DM-170; had it for years. Cheap, fast, accurate, easy to read, it's taken some heavy knocks but at the price you don't have to worry. Overall, probably my "Best Ever Buy" meter, for everyday use.</p><div></div>

<p>I would also say look at the Minolta Auto Meter IIIF (not to be confused with a color meter of the nearly same name that's costly).<br /> Ebay recently for $65 typically.<br /> All sorts of add on gizmos if you want/can find them. (spot , microscope, remote probe (for ground glass))<br /> Does incident, reflective and flash measurements.<br /> Easy to find 4LR44 alkaline or lithium 6V battery.<br /> ISO 12-6400.<br /> EV range (incident) -2.4 to + 19.1. (per instruction manual)<br /> Shutter speed 1/2000th sec - 30 minutes.<br /> Flash aperture F1.4 - 32. (I think)<br /> 5.2 x 2.7 x 1.6 inches, 6 ounces w/o battery.<br /> Happy hunting.<br /> Jim</p><div></div>

<p>Jim, I've got a friend with a Sekonic 308, and if I ever get around to buying a modern meter, it might well be that one, based on how much my friend likes his.<br>

That being said, for my manual cameras, I sometimes use an old Nikon N70 as a spotmeter, now that I can't find a battery for my ancient Pentax spotmeter. And I bought a Weston --think it's a "Master II"--on a big auction site for less than $10 not long ago. It works quite well, happily enough. Being naturally frugal (my wife is shouting "you mean you're CHEAP!" in the background), I'm fairly satisfied with these stopgaps. :-></p>

 

<p>For starters:<br>

1) Don't buy a relic, holy or otherwise, regardless of who used it when to make great images--remember it's all they had.<br>

2) Don't touch anything that uses mercury batteries whatever you're told about converters or zinc-air replacements or goofy shimmed hearing-aid battery hacks. Leave this stuff to the survivalists.<br>

3) Resist buying a brand that's no longer made which too often means no service and/or no parts.<br>

4) Sekonic makes superb, accurate, affordable meters that never seem to break in everyday use. The 308BII is probably their longest running battery-powered model and costs south of $200. Used 318 and 328 models go for very little.<br>

5) With film and processing getting pricier, an accurate meter makes sense and if accurate means new, then buy new.</p>

<p>Jim's Minolta III F is the same meter I have and it's great. I just got back two rolls of E6 I shot using it and everything's right on. Haven't tried its flash functions yet.</p>

<p>I actually like to have a classic meter with my classic cameras. As my meterless cameras are all Russian or from East Germany, I bought a Sverdlovsk 4 (original Russian model). Semi-spot (8 degrees) and very accurate. 25 euros including shipping from Russia.</p>

<p>As discussed by others here, the Sekonic 308 meter is simply great.</p>

<p>I also second the Gossen DigiSix. I haven't led astray by it yet. But if you need spot metering, it may not be the one for you. JR</p>

<p>Here's a bit of contrarian opinion - why spend a lot on a meter unless you know each of your camera's true shutter speeds? Most of us have more than one old camera (I think most of us here have more than ten, actually). I have folders with slow shutters, SLRs and rangefinders of varying accuracy, one TLR that's dead-on, another that's slow, etc. You have to calibrate each camera to the meter unless everything you've got has had a recent CLA and is totally accurate. In my case, that's impossible, so I just use a Weston Ranger 9 I found in a $5 bin and adjusted to be accurate enough for slides with non-mercury batteries. So far, it's served well for my needs. I guess it's to each his own, but I wouldn't spend a lot on a meter unless I was shooting slides exclusively and my cameras were accurate.</p>

<p>Minolta Flash Meter IV. Like all Minolta meters it can be used as an incident meter or with a reflective attachment. Also like all Minolta meters it has a rotating head so you can meter the light from whatever direction it's coming from without having to spin around like an idiot. It takes 1 AA battery, and even with a cheap rechargeable it seems to last forever. I'm not a fan of LCD read-outs but unlike the later models, it's got a very simple display. It turns on at the push of a button and the front glows green for long enough to take readings in virtually no light. Despite what appear to be sparse controls, it's actually got some very advanced features including being able to record data, I suppose for scientific experiments! As the name says, it's a Flash meter, so it can meter flashes. It can use a corded flash via a PC cable so the meter will fire the flash and measure the light, OR it will use non-corded flash, so the meter will detect a flash being fired and meter it at the same time. It will also display ambient light reading separate from the flash reading. That means this simple looking flash is great for studio photography. Another neat feature is something that will be familiar to OM4 users, it can do Shadow, Highlight and Average readings. These are probably best used with the reflective attachment in close range or with the spot attachment from a distance... which basically gives you the OM4 meter off-camera. While this meter has a truck load of features you may never use, it's also exceptionally durable and is a meter that you can use for a long time and never grow out of. The shell is made of a kind of high durability plastic that would be right at home on the Space Shuttle and despite it's expense I never feel uncomfortable stuffing it into my back pocket while hiking. It's not the smallest meter on the market and the spot attachments are very expensive, but I think it's still one of the best deals on a meter as you can usually find them for around $200.</p>

<p>http://www.rokkorfiles.com/Other%20Accessories.html</p>

<p>I, like Kasper, have a Sverdlovsk 4. Very accurate, with semi-spot and incident.</p>

<p>The great thing, apart from the price, is that it will take just about any battery that you can make fit that can deliver a voltage of between ~3.8- 4.5v. There is an in-built calibration mechanism.</p>

<p>For clip-ons, the Voigtlander meters are the best and easiest and they look good with classic cameras. Old selenium meters like the Westons work if you get one with a good cell, but many have tired cells that don't read true anymore and getting them replaced can be expensive. Gossen Luna Pros are great, especially with the spot attachment, but the older ones need batteries that are hard to find these days. Separate pistol shaped spot meters work well for planning a shot out -- knowing how bright everything in the frame is going to be and they're very handy with holsters. I have all of these as well as a few classic Leica meters including a clip on selenium one.</p>

<p>For using, the holster spot meter and the clip on Voigtlander got used a lot more than the others. But then the Weston will never run out of battery power and it still works, and since they came in leather cases, many of the cells are still good.</p>

<p>I've used the VCII and various Westons, but my favorite by far, especially if you want something compact that's no hassle to carry around, is the Sekonic 208. It's a bullet-proof gem that you can leave in your pocket with spare change and keys, it has incident metering, and most of all it's incredibly quick to use, far more so thant the Weston, VC or Digisix. Cheap, too.</p>

<p>I use a Luna Pro that I bought when Ektachrome was 3. It was CLA'd and converted to modern batteries. They can be had for your price range. There is no better meter. Likewise, since I'm getting my photo stuff under control, I have some excellent working Weston and Gossen light meters that I will be putting on a well known international auction website in the near future. They don't require batteries and are excellent companions for vintage cameras. I can't believe they are worth more than $100 even if they work perfectly. After all, they only tell the f-stop and shutter speed. They have no bells and whistles, digital displays, don't connect to the internet, and can't be used as a phone!</p>

<p>Digi Six will do anything you need and it's inexpensive. That makes three votes!.</p>