Appreciating the Weston Master II light meter

[cindimiller]

I agree with Ron, those were the days! I still have a Weston II (1951) that I inherited, along with my first camera from high school, a Nikkormat FTN (1969). Still have days I prefer them both. ;)

[Troll]

In its day, Weston meters weren't the kings of the hill -- the General Electric DW-68 was. About half the price of the Westons, it was extremely rugged and when the snoot was removed it read directly in foot candles. Also, they read in ASA not in the Weston scale.<P>Later, GE brought out the model PR-1 to compete with the Weston, but it was never the success that the DW-58/68 were.<P>I still use my EuroMaster when shooting Large Format, but don't believe that it's as rugged or as accurate as the earlier Westons.

[larry_miller5]

I have all the Weston Master meters except the Master 6. This one looks and feels a toy meter. However, if I see one sleeze bay and it's dirt cheap I may get it to round out the collection. I also like the Russian and German meters. Been collecting them for years. I've got one called the Bee Meter. Anyone remember that one? Back on topic, the only two Westons I still use are the EuroMaster and the EuroMaster II. George, at Quality Metric says those two meters and the Master V are the best that Weston ever made. Geez, the guy is a Weston Master himself. I figure he knows.

[catherine_t1]

Sorry to dig up a slightly old, slightly newish thread, but a couple of these posts talk about being sure to use Weston scale versus ASA. I just got a Weston 6 (sorry to hear someone thinks it's like a toy, but if it works what does it matter?) and it says ASA next to the window, so that means this one does ASA right? (I know it sounds like a stupid question but I don't know anything about these meters so if they use another scale I wouldn't know if they claimed it was still "ASA").

[mohir_ali]

I gave up on the Weston meters. I could only see the little numbers in bright light, where I could easily just guess exposure.

[ron_voorhees]

ASA and Weston Scales:

 

I just came across a "Camera Collecting and Restoration" site (below)that shows the ASA

and Weston scales side-by side. The table also shows DIN and another scale for Ratios -

I had not known about them.

 

Hope it helps.

http://www.daniel.mitchell.name/cameras/index.php?

page=westonmtr&WEBMGR=a632109084ce93a0c0569e8fad672ab5