Hand held meter for new M3 user

[atlee_wong]

Looking for a hand held meter, would prefer a digital one.

 

Leaning towards either the Gossen Digipro F or the Sekonic L308S and

looking for some input.

[stuart_carroll]

The L308 is compact, easy & fast to use, and reliable. I have one which I use with my M3 and

have had great exposures so far (within the limits of an incident meter).

 

Cheers, Stuart

[david_chang_sang]

While I have the L-358 Sekonic meter, I have used the L-308B and I second Stuart's recommendation for that meter.

 

Small, handy, and pretty accurate and can do incident and reflective without having to fiddle much with the meter itself. You could easily operate the meter with one hand.

 

Cheers

Dave

[chandos_michael_brown]

I've been using the Gossen for several years and really like it. Sounds like you face a Hobson's choice.

 

Cheers!

 

Chandos

[leica ron]

Just to stir things up a bit ...

 

I use a Minolta Flashmeter IVF with a 5 degree spot attachement.

I'm looking for a 10 degree attachement.

 

Although I agree with the principle of incident light metering, I think that reflective metering plus use of the brain works well for me ...

[patricks]

small(ish) and very accurate: Gossen Luna Pro Digital F

 

larger but a bit more flexible: Sekonic L 358.

 

Use them for your digital photography as well.

[frederick_muller]

Gossen Sixtronic for general ambient and incident readings. Minolta Spotmeter F for digital 1-degree precision. Voigtlander-Cosina VC Meter II for a nice, compact shoe-mounted meter. Sunny f16 rule and Mark-1 eyeball for on-the-fly outdoor shooting.

 

And a lurking lust for a Weston Master V or some such ... :-)

[ronald_moravec1]

Weston Master 4 or 5. Has numbers on it, so it must be digital.

 

Have a new cell put in and it`s good for 20 years.

[todd_phillips1]

The Seconic 308B is excellent. I keep mine on the neckstring and tuck the meter in my shirt pocket taking it out when needed. I've also used it without the neckstring and just keep it in my back pocket.

[harvey_edelstein1]

L358 has more sensitive in low light, several calculation modes flashmeter and remote trigger option, lights up digital display when room lighting is dark. I had gossen star F it had poor user interface limited calculations, well built but its no Sekonic each time its turned on you have to reenter modes again.

[eliot_rosen1]

I have a Gossen Luna Pro, which works flawlessly. It is pretty old (it says Made in Weste Germany). You can do reflected (30 degrees)and incident metering, and with the attachment, which I have, you can get several different angles of acceptance, including 5-degrees. No super spot (which is rarely needed) and no flash, but a good meter. The Gossen DigiPro is probably even better.

 

Interestingly, Gossen meters tend to hold their value better than other brands, even though I doubt that anyone collects modern lightmeters.

[billc1]

The Gossen Digisix meter works well because it is very small. I have it im my pocket all day and hardly notice it.

[george_b1]

Since 1945, I've tried them all, including the famed Weston Master V, which I used until I found the Sekonic 308.

 

Simply stated, for shooting with a hand-held Leica (no LF studio,no MF on a tripod), the 308 is a near-perfect companion.

 

Its sensitivity and repeatability is all that you could ask for. Then, its capability to switch from incident to reflective with the flick of a thumb lets you determine just how to shoot.

 

It fits into a shirt pocket or a small pocket on a shooting vest, it's rugged, it uses an AA alkaline battery, and the readout on the 308S is excellent.

 

Conclusion: You don't have to "fiddle" with it, it's portable, it takes the world's most available battery - - - and, it works!

 

George (The Old Fud)

[shoebox]

Another vote for L308. It's small, light, accurate and is easy to use.

[paul_neuthaler]

L308 -- great & light & quick.

[art_arkin]

Seriously, take this from an M3 shooter. A Gossen digisix is all you'll ever need period.

 

Most importantly, it's always there ready for action within seconds unlike a larger 308 (or similar) buried in your backpack. This may not seem far but believe me you'll pass up countless great photos due to the hassle of having to stop and dig around your bag in a crowded street.

 

Digisix in your jeans pocket and an m3 on your shoulder is the way to go. You just don't need any thing else unless you are into zone system which is not a Leica thing anyhow. Keep it simple.

[rolfe_tessem]

The L308 as many have recommended is great -- but the L208 (an analog meter) is even

smaller.

[ilkka]

Sure, any meter will do, and the Gossen is very small. But it is also a bit cumbersome to use, first getting a reading and then transferring it to a scale to get apertures and shutter speeds. The 308 gives a direct aperture reading at pre-set shutter speed and alternative selections can be easily toggled with the up/down switch. It is small and light (though not as small as the Gossen) and uses normal AA battery. And it also doubles as a flashmeter.

[Jochen_S]

At the moment I love my Lunapro. I should have a Variosix somewhere too, but I prefer reading scales when I'm checking a location and the +/- 3 f-stops scale comes in handy too. Sometimes I even grab the old Lunasix 3 for sentimental reasons. Maybe a digiflash would do the job too; at least if you need no extra glasses to read it.

 

Sorry, I know nothing about Sekonic but I doubt really bad choices to be somewhere, so pick what you like.

 

Picking a flash meter is a really good idea; especially when you 're going to use it on a regular base.

 

My only suggestion is to keep it rather simple. I prefer scales over multiple button setups. About batteries: My local supermarket sells 9V and AA(A)s. I prefer 9V, because most (A)AA meters won't accept NiWhatever cells and I don't like to stock them as Alkalines if avoidable.

[r s]

Sekonic L308 BII

[ilkka]

I must politely disagree with George B: "no MF on a tripod"

 

I find the 308 'a near-perfect companion' also with MF whether on tripod or not. It is the only meter I use with my 905. For LF I use spot meter but even then, the 308 is with me as a backup.

 

I have never used the old Weston but I do have an old selenium Sekonic 398. Over the years I have owned and used eight different meters, excluding built in ones, and the 308 is the most usable, best value meter I have.

[Rich B NYC]

Sekonic L308BII. Everything but a spot meter in one small package. I use mine with an M2, an Olympus OM1 with a broken meter and several other meterless bodies.

[Richard Williams]

I have the Gossen Luna Pro Digital F (Sixtomat Flash in Europe) that Patrick mentions and can also recommend it - very clear, easy to use interface, slim and pocketable:

 

http://www.gossen-photo.de/english/foto_produkte.html?foto_sixtoflash.html,picts/navi_foto_sub_01_sixtoflash.gif

 

It look like this model might have been discontinued (no longer linked from Gossen's main product webpage) in favour of the Digipro F, which adds a swivel head (good for taking an incident reading while looking at the display) at the expense of making the meter a bit less compact. The Luna Pro Digital (= Sixtomat Digital) without flash metering is still available in the smaller form factor:

 

http://www.gossen-photo.de/english/foto_produkte.html

[john_boyle3]

Any of the meters mentioned on this thread will do a fine job for you. I've used a Gossen Lunasix 3 (Luna Pro) for many years and recently had a new cell installed in a Weston Master IV. Both do a fine job, but the Gossen is easier to use for incident measurements. However, the Weston does not require a battery. Just pick one and go take pictures.

[ben z]

What I particularly like about the L308 over the Gossens is that they're all narrowish-angle meters (about like a 90mm lens)and need some care taken in aiming them for reflective readings, but the 308's cell is on the face of the meter not the front. That means if I hold my Leica with my left hand with one finger to hold the 90mm framelines in view, and grab the meter in my right hand and lay it flat against the lens hood, I can meter similar to using a clip-on like the MR4 in terms of using the 90mm framelines to outline exactly what I want the meter to see. It's much less accurate doing that with a meter where the cell is at the front (hard not to angle the meter).