Gossen Ultra-Spot 2

[robert_gabriel1]

Anybody have any experience with the Gossen Ultra-Spot 2 meter? How does it stack up against the Pentax digital?

 

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Thanks to all, Robert

[n_dhananjay3]

The Ultra Spot has more bells and whistles. The Pentax seems more

intuitive and simpe, at least to me. Both offer full view of all

information in the viewfinder, which I think is crucial to a

spotmeter. The Gossen has more buttons to control all those bells and

whistles (all available at the touch of your thumb, conveniently

placed but still requires you to toggle back and forth sometimes).

The Pentax requires you to keep stuff in your head (not that it's a

big problem, but for what it's worth, the Gossen can keep a bunch of

readings in memory and display it in the viewfinder. In short, they

both are well designed and work well. I think it would come down to

things like how well does it fit in your palm, idiosyncratic

interactions between the interface and you and so on. I've heard

folks occasionally complain about non-linearity in early Gossens -

don't think that's a problemn now. FWIW, I got subjectively equally

good exposures from both. I would try playing with both, if possible

to see what fits. Cheers, DJ.

[walter_glover]

Robert,

 

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I recently had another look at the Gossen (my main meter for

constant light is the Zone VI modified pentax and I use a Minolta

Spotmeter F for flash and they both track extremely well through

all light levels in constant light) and I put the Gossen down as

soon as I checked it in the store.

 

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The Test?? I set the meters beside each other on stands and

read a standard 18% grey card. Make a note of the EV and then

place ND filters in front of each meter and note the EV. The

Pentax and Minolta tracked well all the way to an ND 3.0 (10

stops) but the Gossen NEVER tracked and by the ND 3.00 was

nearly three stops out.

 

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Another Test?? Similarly set the meters in a darkened kitchen

pointing at an unpowered electric stove element. Note the

reading. Now turn on the stove element and before you can see

a glow take a reading � this will demonstrate each meters

response to infra-red. Despite the stories about Zone VI filters

and baffles the factory supplied Minolta was best here, closely

followed by the Pentax and the Gossen was way out of line.

 

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God luck ... WG

[upscan]

I tried the previous model to the Ultra Spot 2 and found it the most

unergonomic and backward meter I ever used. As far as the logic is

concerned it is of the cow counting school, "count the legs and

divide by four" type. Zone system? for the birds...It has a good

viewfinder, it is easy to repair by technicians and that is about

all. Expensive? indeed but do not let that fool you. This meter will

be confined to oblivion now that Gossen has a "catch-up" meter to

Sekonic's.

[stefan_dalibor1]

I recently aquired a Spotmaster 2, but this is my first spotmeter (so I can't offer real comparisons)... in my experience, it seems to be a well thought out device:<ul><li>The user interface, while probably more complex than that of most other spotmeters, is IMHO easy enough to be learnt by playing around with the meter for 5 minutes (I still don't have the manual). But I have to admit that I'm an IT professional, so maybe I'm biased in favour of computerized interfaces...

<li>the program modes seem quite useful to my - the way the measured values are displayed and can be ``shifted'' really facilitate contrast evaluation<li>Metering accuracy seems to be at least as good as that of my Profisix (i.e. the Spotmaster gives the same readings)<li>The viewfinder/display is easy to read</ul>

Things about the Spotmaster I don't like so far:<ul><li>The user interface feels a bit sluggish - after activating a control for switching modes or shifting values (not when measuring!), it takes appr. half a second until the resp. command is executed. I find this a bit nerving sometimes, e.g. when I want to switch over several values<li>Averaging over 10 measurments is not possible in f-stop mode (only in time or zone mode)... but as the zone mode is probably the most useful anyway it's not that important<li>In zone mode, you have to measure from dark to light (i.e. determine the lowest zone first)</ul>

Things that might make me swap the Spotmaster for another meter (if only the Zone IV wasn't so expensive!):<br>I tried the stove test Walter described, and can confirm that the Spotmaster measures a hot stove element 2 stops higher than if it's cold, so the Gossen seems to be quite sensitive to infrared light. I'll try to get a response from Gossen about this behaviour (inquiry is pending).<br>

I'll try to measure linearity as soon as I can get hold of some ND filters...