Sekonic L-508 / irritating sound

Hi everybody,

 

I just bought a brand new L-508. It works perfeclty, but in low light

condition, when a blue backlight automatically illuminates the LCD,

my meter produces a verry irritating sound (hi-pitched) and i do not

know how to stop this.

 

Does anybody have encountered the same problem ? Is there a way to

stop this ?

 

Thanks in advance

When the back light comes on there is some sound. This is true for any flourescent type light source. I have never found it annoying, at least there enough other things in life to annoy me I haven't had to worry about this sound. You may check the manual, it seems to me that you can turn the back lighting off.

it is normal, but may be louder and more irritating on your meter. it is an oscillator used to synthesize a high-voltage for the illumination and you will probably find differences between units. if you cannot ignore it, open the back and apply pressure at various points to isolate and eliminate any mechanical resonances. if you bought the meter locally, and the noise affects your enjoyment (and thusly, your photography) you might want to swap for another unit. odds are that the new one will be slightly different, louder or softer.

 

I have to hold the meter next to my ear to hear the oscillation, and that is acceptable. the illumination is triggered from the incident light globe which makes for unpredictable illumination in some applications.

Mine does the same thing. Pretty annoying. Other than that I love the meter.

Yup, it's from the inverter that supplies the higher voltage to the LCD backlight. We've heard complaints about this before. I certainly wouldn't open it up. If anything try another. <p>

I suppose one good thing is that you know your hearing is good. Wait a few years or visit a few concerts and I'll bet it won't bother you any more! I couldn't hear it if I tried.

It's normal. However I like it (I'm a musician) and many times I put my meter on just to hear it.

So do i, my Spectra ciné Incident Light Meter IVA does too;this

funny thing,and my Minolta spotmeter F not!!;it doesn't matter

really; they 're pretty handy tools anyway; but Your eyes are much

more sensitive ,the most accurate ILM ever made!

best regards,

jerome(France).

Hello:

 

As small as it is, and because it's battery operated, I would expect it to have a relatively high frequency oscillator for a fluorescent lamp...usually ultrasonic if not power line (mains) frequency (which does not apply here with batteries).

 

Maybe the inverter (circuitry that produces the operating voltage for the lamp) is an off-the-shelf item and the designer never checked what frequency it runs at...or never considered audio 'pollution'.

 

I don't know if there is such a thing as electroluminescent backlighting, but electroluminescent lamps run at a much lower audio frequency (400 Hz is common - very audible!). This would be simpler and probably less costly than fluorescent.

 

And if it is blu(ish), it could be white or blue LED, and maybe the designer is chopping the power to the lamp to save battery life and did it at a frequency inconsiderate to the photographer's ears. If it's worse than a charging flash, that's pretty inconsiderate!

 

If I ever find a road-kill L-508 I'll be sure to open it up.

 

Sorry for the pretty nearly off-topic discourse.

 

Murray