Spotmeter purchase advice needed

[dave92270]

Hello all,

 

After using analog incident and reflective light meters, I realized

that I�d like to have digital spotmeter for accurate (as well as

faster and more convenient) zone system metering; the main reason is

that each LF shot involves considerable amount of time, energy,

concentration and material, and so I�d appreciate as accurate

metering as possible to eliminate any errors caused by wrong exposure

right at the beginning of the process. I�m learning to shoot

landscape and table-top as my primary subjects. After some research I

narrowed down to about 3 meters ($430-$490) which have spot metering

function:

 

1/ Minolta Spotmeter F (discontinued, but still available)

2/ Minolta Flashmeter VI (current Minolta top model?)

3/ Sekonic Dualmaster L-558 (current model)

 

(I�m leaning towards purchasing brand new unit � have full shelf of

eBay�s semi-functioning lightmeters already, and don�t want any

further surprises; meters which need recalibration, battery

compartment modifications etc.)

 

I�ve been reading all the available threads and searched Google, but

didn�t find any in-depth reviews except of L-558, which was reviewed

in the last issue of View Camera by Ellis Vener (unfortunately for

me, the large portion of the article discusses flash and wireless

features, in which I�m not interested too much for now � still, from

the article I understand that incident and spot features of L-558 are

very suitable for zone system implementation). I want to do careful

subject illumination metering based on evaluation of both incident

and reflected (spot) values; the actual exposure will be based on

metered values and their desired placement on the zone system scale.

I will use meter both indoors and outdoors during shorter hiking. I�m

aware that Spotmeter F is spot-meter & flash only, while two other

models have combined spot, incident & flash features. I checked .PDF

user guide for Spotmeter F, and some info from both Sekonic & Minolta

websites; I also checked the comparison sheet between Flashmeter VI

and L-558 available on Sekonic website, which insists that L-558 is

much better in more then a dozen of comparable features.

 

OK, which meter to get? They all cost almost the same. I�d like as

many features as I can possibly use for my purpose; also durability,

size/weight, weather resistance and logical placement of

controls/ease of use, good manual/user guide would be helpful too.

 

Thanks for help with this decision in advance, and sorry for the

longer post.

 

Dave

[lwg]

I can't help you with the meters you have narrowed it down to. I would suggest you also consider the Pentax Digital Spot meter. It is not fancy, but it sure is fast to use and it is accurate. It does not have an incident mode, so it may not be ideal for studio use.

[ellis_vener_photography]

The Minolta Spotmeter F isreads ambient as well as flash.

 

I used a Minolta Spotmeter F for about 15 years. After spending a lot of time with

both the L-558 and Spotmeter F when doing the L-558 review, I switched to the L-

558. It just works better.

[per_volquartz1]

The old Pentax Spotmeter (analog) is one of the best meters ever made!

Simple, reliable, works forever and is perfect for visualizing zones / densities.

[dave92270]

Thanks,

 

I never though about Pentax spotmeter, either digital or analog (I though these were discontinued, perhaps not); well that would be one more to consider then. I'm pretty sure all of these meters are very fine instruments - that's why I have a tough time to pick the one... Ellis, you're saying that you had extensive time to work with both Spotmeter F and L-558, and found L-558 work better... well, it sounds like a good recommendation to me. I'd have reason to believe that newer model generally should offer some improvements. I have no chance to see and try either model in store, so I have to base my pick on recommendations by others.

 

BTW, I couldn't find any review on Minolta Flashmeter VI, is there a review available somewhere? Or PDF manual? There is generally more information available about L-558, even the PDF manual.

 

I'm sure that old/older models are surely favored by many, but if you can't buy them new & 100% guaranteed to work, it's a bit problem. The eBay prices on good models are not that great lately (in my opinion)in order to justify purchase of used gear of this type, unless on really tight budget. You can save maybe a two hundred bucks on the spotmeter, but never know what you get. I do buy used lenses (exclusively so far), but I've been lucky I think; with lightmeters my experience is worse, and most of the stuff I got is either semi-working or just too old (although I have to admit that it didn't cost much).

 

Dave

[brian_kennedy]

There are some good threads in the <A HREF="http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-one-category?topic_id=1547&category=Meters">meters</A> category of the site that may help, too.

<P>

When you read them, you'll find that the Pentax spotmeters are pretty popular among LF shooters (I use a Digital Spotmeter myself and would recommend it). Definitely another one to consider.

[vinny_walsh]

I bought my Minolta F on ebay 2 years ago. Used but looked like new and worked fine for

a year, now it shuts off and the led screen flashes on/off. I still get accurate readings with

it and it can be calibrated against another meter by the little screw under the battery cap.

I don't know if you can do that with the others and $50 +shipping for calibration is too

much. It is a very expensive meter to purchase new but if I had to do it again I think I

would go new. You never know how many times it has been dropped before you got it. I

dropped my Spectra IV the first day i had it, it quit working for a month then suddenly it

worked again.

[tedharris]

I think if you took a pole of all the regular contributors here you would find that those who

use the Pentax Digital dominate .... smallest, fastest to use, rugged, etc. Contrary to

reports you will read it is NOT discontinued and is in stick (or was last week) at Badger

Graphic.

[ronald_moravec1]

I had the analog Pentax and later purchased the digital one. I like it for many reasons among the most important was the fact I could see the reading without removing the meter from my eye. Imagime taking three or more readings and having to look at a screen between each! Just turn it on and move it around remembering the readings.

[chris_sicard1]

The Sekonic L-608 is a joy to use. You may choose a digital readout as fine as 1/10 f-stops and choose your spot meter angle of between 1-4 degrees. With the transmitter installed, you can use the PocketWizard recievers for wireless flash. The L-558 is similar.

[jon_doe4]

Adorama digital spot meter. Half the price of the Pentax spot meters and takes batteries that are much cheaper. Reliable, rugged, light. As simple as a spot meter could be: manually set film speed, read EV, look at the shutter/aperture combinations.

[User_503771]

I've got an old Soligor 1 degree spotmeter, similar I think to the Pentax. It's analog. I bought it new.

 

I've never used the incident feature on any meter, preferring the spot function.

 

I've got an old Lunapro as a backup. My first good meter was a Lunasix. I'd meter my hand, held at the same glare angle as the subject, placed it on Zone VI, and had pretty good results.

 

So the Soligor made life much easier. I've used it for both outdoor shots and in studio settings and never felt I'd missed anything, and got good exposures.

 

If you have to have a flashmeter, then by all means get one of the ones you mention. I've heard real good things over time about the Sekonics -- seems they're very reliable and consistent.

[martin_patek_strutsky]

At first you need to ask yourself what spot- and incident metering means to you. I use incident metering only for about 80% of my shots, for 10% I use only the spot meter function and for the remaining 10% I use both methods together.

 

Others prefer to use primarily a spot meter and a large portion of photographers does not even know how to measure incident light correctly.

 

Myself, I decided for a new meter some months ago and ended up w/ a Minolta Flashmeter VI. I am very pleased as well with its accuracy as with its user interface. Also it still works on its first AA battery. I have read somewhere that the Sekonics need expensive lithium batteries and take a lot of them.

[scott bacon]

I've used the Minolta Spot F for 6 years and have been very happy with it. I bought it used on eBay and have never had a problem with it, except my own stupidity of being caught in the backcountry without an extra AA battery (a weekend of sunny-16).

I recently bought a lightly used Sekonic L-508 (also on eBay). I think I will miss the LED readout in the viewfinder, but I have already enjoyed using the incident meter. Having both functions in one meter is very convenient, IMHO. I'm pretty sure that the L-508 will replace the Spot F, but I'll give it a few months of shooting to be sure.

[l_a_k_h_i_n_d_e_r]

Ellis, saw your review in View Camera Magazine. How do you compare L-558 with Minolta? That is, as far as spot metering is concerned. Thanks.

[dave92270]

I was able to try Minolta Spotmeter F in the store today, and I liked it a lot. The controls were pretty straightforward, and I found the meter easy to use. The meter is small (smaller then I thought), and I like that it uses a single AA battery too. It's a pity that I couldn't compare it with other models (I never seen or used any other models either). Price was reasonable (around $380) and I almost bought it. I assume size-wise it's similar to Pentax Digital - from reading .pdf manual it seems that Pentax uses bit different approach with ring dials and only internal (viewfinder) readings. I'd like to know as well how Spotmeter F compares to spotmeter usability in Flashmeter VI if anyone has experience with both of them. Since I want to take it outdoors for hiking, having both functions (reflected spot & incident)in one meter would be nice; would save a space in the bag so separate incident meter wouldn't be needed. I'm a bit affraid that L-558 may be an overkill for me with all the extra flash features and wireless stuff. Not easy to decide that's for sure.

Could maybe someone point out what is the main advantage of Pentax digital spotmeter over the other models - I see that it is really favored by many.

 

Dave

[sandy_king]

As Martin mentioned in a previous message you really need to base your decision on what kind of metering you do. I own both a Pentax Spotmeter V, with a Zone Scale, and a Sekonic L-508 (currently model is L-608 I believe). I use the Sekonic about 95% of the time because I prefer incident meauring for most scenes, and of course if I want to check reflected values the Sekonic will do that as well since it functions as both an incident meter and a spotmeter. However, there are some scenes that I like to meter with the Pentax using the friendly little Zone scale. This keeps me from doing something really stupid as I might in spot metering with the Sekonic, which as far as I know does not accept a Zone scale attachement.

 

 

Sandy King

[radim sulc www.sulc.com]

Hi Dave, I would purchase Sekonic Zoom Master L-558. Great choice.

[kirk_keyes]

For about the last 15 years, I've been using a Pentax Spotmeter V in combination with a Minolta Flashmeter IV. I would highly recommend both meters. About 10 years ago, I bought a Minolta Spotmeter F - I didn't feel like it added anything over my Pentax SpotV, and infact, I missed having the exposure calculator dial that is on the Pentax. It's really easy to do zone calculations with it. And if I remember right, with the Minolta Spotmeter F, you have to look at the LCD display on the side of the meter (no internal display I think), so it was just a pain in the ass to use... And the computer in it was pretty simple, not as good as the Flashmeter IV. So I sold the SpotmeterF.

 

Just last month, I bought a Minolta Flashmeter VI - it's really cool. You can meter, either spot of incident, and the press a button on the front and it switches to an analyze mode and you cen then use the spot to measure the difference between the originally metered level and new spots. It displays the difference in stops. In the spot meter display. My only concern is that the spotmeter may be more prone to flare than an dedicated spotmeter.

 

But the Flashmeter VI is really cool, and quick to use. I highly recommend it. Now I think I can retire my other two meters and just carry one.

[dave92270]

I'm still looking around; mpex had used Pentax Digital Spotmeter but it sold out already as I just found out. I'm pretty much narrowing down to Minolta VI and L-558 because their dual functionality. It seems that Minolta has some convenient functions which L-558 lacks, but Sekonic offsets them in the other areas...

[dave92270]

OK here is the outcome:

 

Since I really have need for both incident and spot metering (or at least I think I do), after repeated reading of .pdf user guides/manuals for both Minolta Flashmeter VI and Sekonic L-558, I ordered new L-558 today. It's a good chunk of money, but correct exposure is crucial and so I hope this investment is wise.

 

The main deciding reason for picking L-558 over Minolta VI was that while Minolta offers neat features out of the box with its latitude display and S/A/H instant adjustments for easy rendering of shadows/highlights and averaging, similar functionality can be most likely programmed into L-558 through custom setting/compensations, and it has advanced averaging too. Minolta seems to offer instant ease of use, but L-558 has extras which may come handy down the road, once I'll become more familiar with basic use of the new tool. From high-resolution images I judge that L-558 is possibly better built as well, including weather-resistant sealed case.

 

Obviously both meters are great, but because the price difference between them is negligible, why not to get more featured one. I dismissed the older (and now discontinued) Spotmeter F because its features don't match those of newer Minolta VI model (while price is almost the same), and I didn't go with Pentax Digital because I want to have quality digital incident meter as well (at this price), not only the spotmeter.

 

Thank you all again for the help and suggestions; I considered all the advices and hopefully made the best choice matching my personal preference.

 

Dave