Any recommendations on flash meters?

[donald_karon]

I recently had the opportunity to work with a professional lighting set-up for portrait photography: monolights, softboxes, nice background, etc. Needless to say, it's easy to see why the pro's use this type of arrangement and the results were quite pleasing. So, of course, I want one.

 

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One thing I'm having trouble finding is a good source of information about flash meters. There are plenty of them on the market. Some can remember several readings in memory, some can handle multiple flash readings for a single scene, some digital, some analog readouts, all fairly expensive. Are these features important? Anyone with strong opinions regarding one brand over another?

 

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Thanks.

[scott walton]

Minolta IV, Sekonic 408's, Gossen's Luna Pro F... to name a few. All

the bells ect. aren't necessary but handy once you get going. Let's say

your shooting a product or some setup. Your strobes will only give you

f11... multiple pops (opening the shutter in a dark studio and popping

2, 4 or 8 times) will give you the apeture you need to render

everything in focus. Two pops will give you f16, 4 pops will give you

f22 and 8 pops will give you f32. I do caution you when doing multiple

pops, reciprocity will come into play eventually! At work, I have the

Seconic 408 and it does everything I need in the corporate situation.

At home I have the Gossen Luna Pro F. It's great also but there is no

sych socket. Just a little more work but it still works great.

Remember, lightmeters are just a necessary tool in our world. The

easier (read more things in the meter) the meter, the easier your job

will be.

Cheers

[charlie_strack]

I bought the Polaris unit because it was the cheapest. I paid about

$150 for it new. It works well, works as regular and flash meter,

incident, or diffused metering. It has regular flash mode, or will

tell you the number of "pops" to use.

 

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If your just looking for the basics, it's hard to beat. If you want

a "does everything" meter, then you can look at the others. Brace

yourself for the price tag, though.

[jorge_andrada1]

Try reading the reviews at www.photographyreview.com. All the majors

are evaluated there. Good luck.