recommendation for classic light meter

I guess I'm gonna have to admit,that I'm getting to the age where my

eyes/brain are failing me more than usual.I've never owned one of these

gadgets, and don't know much about them.

 

I see a lot of Weston/ GE/ Seconic meters on the auction block---anybody have

any preference? Is there anything special to know about them?

 

I'd guess I'd like it to be a "classic" and not too much $$$$-- although most

of them seem pretty cheap.

Get yourself a spot meter ( 1 degree if possible )

I just bought a Minolta F for �120 in the UK and it is fantastic

 

Jon

Ikophot.

Um, buying one won't break the bank. Getting it overhauled and made to read correctly will cost $50-70 including postage, though.

 

I have fond memories of my father's GE PR-1, a very nice meter for not-too-dim light and with a useful incident light attachment, often not offered with used ones. And nearly as fond memories of the Gossen Scout that I lost somewhere up the hill behind Juneau in 1974. Both were very easy to use.

 

I'm very happy with my Weston Master V after its visit to Quality Light Metric. Likewise with my LunaPro (= LunaSix III) after its visit to Bogen. Both of these meters functioned on receipt but were badly nonlinear. If you go for a Master, make sure you get the right Invercone for it. Many of the Masters on offer have been separated from theirs, or never had one.

 

And I adore my Minolta Flash Meter. The first one, with no suffix. Lovely artifact, feels good in the hand. But connects to the flash by cable, much less convenient than modern flash meters. And large. Mine ate mercury batteries when I bought it used in the late '80s, now eats hearing aid batteries. Wein cells are just too expensive. This one was bang on when bought and still is.

Gossen Lunapro (Lunasix) are fantastic meters. They also can use a spot attachment.

I noticed there are a number of "mint" meters that don't respond to light-

 

I'm guessing that's a bad thing.

Don, I use a modern <b><a href="http://www.sekonic.com/Products/L-508.html" target="_NEW">Sekonic L-508</a></b> light meter. Yes, it is pretty expensive, but it's also extremely accurate, reliable and weatherproof (and has a backlighted display). If you can live without spot metering (I know now that I can) I recommend the newer <b><a href="http://www.sekonic.com/Products/L-358.html" target="_NEW">L-358</a></b>. Incident metering is the way to go.

BUEH-

 

My most modern camera that doesn't have a meter(I only have 2 with meters) is an (RR)"55- Signet 35 which cost me $5.00.My Most expensive camera is a #5 Cartridge Kodak about c.1900- cost me $60.00 - so I'm trying not to get carried away with the meter thing-

 

but I understand your enthusiasm(sp)

Hi Don if you like to use the old style meter the one to look for is Weston Euro Master it has markings matching most cameras. The Weston V is too difficult to read.Both do not need batteries. The best older type meter would be Gossen Lunasix F it has a 9v standart batterie lasting forever. Spot attachment can be fitted to the F but you need to recalculate. Old lunasix have mercury batteries not available anymore. Also worth noting the F can measure flash and it does it very well.

Westons are very well made but read an excessive large angle.

Among my classic cameras, I have those that have no light meter, those with selenium meters that have either given up the ghost, provide suspect readings and some that do very well, and some with CdS meters who readings may be suspect because they were designed for mercury batteries. Even though I use color negative film 90% of the time with wide latitude, I no longer have much confidence in my interpretation of the sunny-16 rule. I have a Sekonic L-188 and a Digisix meter, but they often disagree with one another. My solution is as follows. I bring along a digital Canon A-620, a top rated P&S with full manual control. You can get one from buydig.com, a trusted vendor, for about $230 plus shipping. The A620 received top rating in the Consumer Report mag I received two days ago. The limitations as a light meter are that its ISO range is 50-400, and its f stop range is 2.8 to 11.0. Within those limits it provides accurate exposure estimates. If I go ahead and take a photograph with the 620, I can look at a histogram of exposure and fine tune my clasic camera settings. The 620 photos also satisfy my need for instant gratification. The 620 is not much bigger than a deck of cards, takes AA batteries, and fits very nicely into a vest pocket. It provides the best solution I know of for exposure, except of course, when I am using a Canon T90. While I have your attention, what say you to changing the criterion for classic cameras from pre-1970 to 30 or more years old?

Thanks for all the suggestions-

 

I have a 1/2 dozen meters on my watch list. I think I'll get a couple of older ones and see how they do,as they're cheap enough.If I have to I'll bite the bullet and buy a more modern(expensive one)

 

-Kerry ,my own interpetation of "classic camera" is pre 'Auto"(AE,AF etc,although some of those are pre 1970)

I'm one of the cheapest people I know. I don't like spending money on anything if I can avoid it. I've got a string of light meters at bargain prices. Westons, Gossens, etc. None of them were quite right. The readings were off one way or the other. One was just plain erratic.

 

I bought a Gossen Lunapro SBC meter. It's big and bulky, accurate as can be; but at $75. about 10 times the prices I had been paying. I followed that with a Pentax Spotmeter V. Chrome film in the 4x5 demands accuracy, and costs enough that I don't want to waste it. I also want to know that I'm dead on.

 

I've got about $200. into these two meters. This is more than I paid for most of my cameras (including that 4x5), more than some of my Nikons, and more than almost all of my Nikkor glass (individually, each).

 

You don't need to spend a lot of money to have an accurate reflective meter. I would buy from someone such as KEH or Adorama where you get a guarentee. Or from someone here on photo.net.

Unless you're blessed with free film, processing and printing, I'd skip the retro fashion statement and go for something new and accurate. Look no further than a Sekonic L398M if you want a "classic." It's got loads of Norwood Director DNA, looks and works antiquated but is deadly accurate within its somewhat limited sensitivity--a baked-in problem with selenium cell meters. Otherwise, I'd look seriously at the little Sekonic 308BII--a near-perfect Swiss Army knife of a meter that does everything save spot readings.Very compact but good ergonomics, legible LCD readout, AA battery operation, and flash metering.About the size of a deck of cards and affordable. For me, old meters just aren't worth it. Too many suffer limited sensitivity, non-linearity, battery issues(mercury PX625 eaters), and mechanical glitches.

Just get a new minolta autometer vf. They are about us$200 and you can throw them off a building and they'l still work.

General Electric DW-68.

 

Cheap and reliable.

 

Never found one that didn't work.

 

Never had one that wasn't reliable. Costs about $5. You can pass it on to your grandchildren.

You mean one of these? My Dad stopped using it on 20 August 1958. (When somebody broke his Retina Camera). Always stored in the leather case in the dark. I liberated it a couple of weeks ago. It works fine.<div></div>

If you fancy a Weston, Megatron still sell them at �141 Plus, or they will overhaul an old one for between �22 and �66 depending what is needed - the highest price including new photocell and movement - seems like a bargain to me!

 

http://www.megatron.co.uk

 

Nick

Weston are beautiful meters, fit the classic requirement to a T and don't use batteries. The older Westons even have shutter speed scales to match the earlier German shutter speed progression 1,2,5,10,25,50 and so forth.

 

That said, I have a 70's Gossen Luna Pro that I paid $35 five years ago when I took up medium format folders. It's a 30 year old meter and that sucker will give a reading even in a cave and its always ready to use incident sliding cover allows for dead-on accurate metering.

 

The bad news - I installed the last of my 625 mercury cells into a couple of my rangefinders, last year. While at the local camera shop in March, I saw they had an adapter to converter to allow the use of two SR44 silver oxides in lieu of the mercury cells. It was $39.95 with a set of silver oxides, but I bought it. The Gossen Luna Pro is that good.

If you mainly intend to use the the meter outdoors then the selenium type's low light failings should not be that big an issue. I have a Weston V and a Euromaster and agree that the old f stop and shutter speed values on the V can be useful when shooting with older gear.Both are good meters though the Euromaster being less cluttered is easier to read.

However the meter I use most is an old Sekonic Leader De-Luxe L8 which came with its incident light attachment for just under 2 of your US dollars. This meter is tiny and fits neatly into a top shirt pocket.

I recently did some reflected light readings with incident light attachment inadvertently still attached. This meant my exposures were 2 to 3 stops over exposed. Nevertheless the negs printed up fine so if in doubt a bit of overexposure will not cause a problem with neg material.

Cheers Steve

Hi, dear friend. I own a Gossen Starlite, excellent tool for ambient or flash and incident or refleceted/spot measurement. I own a Sekonic L-398M Sudio Deluxe (selenium meter, higly precise) and Sekonic L-208, also. The L-208 it's wonderful for use with classic cameras, because permit the use of ancient shutter time scale, too. It's little and measure both incident or reflected ambient light.

Ciao.

Vincenzo

I have been using a Gossen Luna-Six off and on since 1968. It's been all over the world and had some hard knocks but still gives good readings. I wish my metered classic cameras were that reliable! Fortunately I bought enough mercury batteries a few years ago that I should be well set for a few more years.

Michael,John-

 

"yous" have convinced me- those are the words I was looking for-

 

"never saw one that didn't work"-- that will be my first meter-if I have any problems,I will report back for the "I told you so's"

 

I certainly understand some of you pro/semi-pro/LF guys not wanting to trust a vintage meter--especially when you're shooting film at $2.00+ a pop-plus processing.

 

I'm mostly shooting bulk Tri-X in $20.00-30.00 beaters, and 5X7 I shoot mostly paper at $0.15 to the click.I"d like think using a camera with a good meter has made me semi-brain dead to the sunny 16 rule over the past 4-5 years ,but in truth-I aint getting any younger.I'm having a tough time with cloudy/overcast days,especially around or on the water.

PS- this was a pretty good tutorial on meters--old and new-

 

and even a blind monk should be able to"bring in" a roll of Tri-X-

 

gotta work on the Zen thing.

I had a bunch of Westons and a couple GE PR-1 meters (with incident light attachment). The PR-1s were compact, very easy to use one-handed, and had reasonable sensitivity. They would be my choice for a good basic meter.

Don, I had bought on the Bay over 30 or so GEs and Westons. I have over 12 Weston Vs. I have had 7 of then repaired at Quality Light Metric for $66.00 or so. They work very well.

I then bought a new Sekonic 358. Now that is all I use. Once you use the 358 it spoils you and you will not want to fuss with turning dials and alligning wheels.I have used the 358 for 5 months now and am using the same battery it came with, and have a spare in the cover case to have when the current one dies.I suggest you get the Sekonic.