5 Degree vs. 10 Degree Spot Meter

[hjoseph7]

I was thinking about purchasing a Spot Meter attachment for my Minolta Auto Meter IIIF light meter. The Spot Meter adapter run about $50 on eBay depending on the condition. This is an old meter (circa 1980), but it still works fine. I compared it against my more modern Sekonic L-358 and the Minolta is spot on. The reason I replaced it, is because it tends to eat up the (hard to find) battery very quickly. This meter does not have an off/on switch, but its supposed to turn itself off after about 2 minutes. Unfortunately, I don' think that part works. In any case,  I saw various used Minolta Spot Meter adapters for sale, some are 10 degree and some are 5 degree.

For some reason there seems to me more 10 degree adapters for sale ? I'm leaning more towards the 5 degree adapter because I think it might be more useful for my needs. I plan to use this meter + adapter to average out various spot meter readings, mainly for B&W photography. What would be the advantage of using 10 degree vs 5 degree ? My guess is that the 10 degeree Spot Meter might allow more background light into the reading making it less accurate, but that's just my guess...    

Edited December 17, 2023 by hjoseph7

[BeBu Lamar]

For a spot meter the smaller the spot the better it is. It's a compromise because making the smaller spot you lose sensitivity and also make the meter less accurate. 

[AJG]

I would agree that a smaller angle is better.  For zone system work I have long used a Soligor 1 degree spot (not a flash meter) and I have a 5 degree attachment for my Sekonic L 718 which does work with flash. The finder for the Sekonic 5 degree attachment is a bit vague but it works well enough.  Incidentally, if you're tired of burning through batteries for your Minolta, my older Sekonic meters run for months at a time on AA alkaline batteries with frequent use.  L 718 meters in decent condition generally run around $100 or so in the usual places, and my experience with Sekonic meters has been excellent.

[hjoseph7]

" L 718 meters in decent condition generally run around $100 or so"

Thanks I'll take a look. I always wanted one of those, but the price kept me away...

Does it do averaging ?

Edited December 18, 2023 by hjoseph7

[AJG]

13 hours ago, hjoseph7 said:

" L 718 meters in decent condition generally run around $100 or so"

Thanks I'll take a look. I always wanted one of those, but the price kept me away...

Does it do averaging ?

Not that I know of--I've never attempted to use it that way and I haven't looked at the manual in decades, so it's possible that it can. I almost always use it as an incident meter with studio flash so I've never needed or wanted that capability.

[BeBu Lamar]

With the Sekonic L718 you still have to get the 5 degree spot attachment. I would recommend the Minolta Spotmeter M. I saw several on ebay for $150 or so. Its a 1 degree meter and would do average and also uses only 1 AA battery. It also has a real on/off switch so it can't drain the battery either. 

Edited December 18, 2023 by BeBu Lamar

[John Seaman]

I've got a Sekonic L-438 View Spot Meter which has a variable spot of 3,4,6 and 10 degrees. I use it a lot, mainly for checking film camera meters. It runs off a single AA battery.

[hjoseph7]

Here are 2 pictures of the Sekonic L-718 and the Minolta Auto Meter IIf. Notice that the Minolta has an Average button. The way it works is that you take a reading, save it to memory(Memory button is labeled 'M' ), take subsequent readings while saving and after you are finished saving all of your readings, you push the [Average} button to get an average of all the meter readings saved in memory. I'm not sure if the the Sekonic l-718 can handle this ? I know the higher model  the Sekonic L-858 has a built-in Spot Meter with averaging, but is way more expensive ! 

Edited December 18, 2023 by hjoseph7

[hjoseph7]

"'ve got a Sekonic L-438 View Spot Meter which has a variable spot of 3,4,6 and 10 degrees. I use it a lot, mainly for checking film camera meters. It runs off a single AA battery."

 

This doesn't sound like a bad deal... They are going for less than $100 on eBay, but I don't see an [Average] button ?

[AlanKlein]

Joseph, I have the IIIf with a 10 degree spot attachment.  The 5 degree does not work on the III but will on the IV.  I also had a problem with the battery draining. So I pull it out when not using the meter after the photo shoot.  

[AlanKlein]

3 hours ago, hjoseph7 said:

Here are 2 pictures of the Sekonic L-718 and the Minolta Auto Meter IIf. Notice that the Minolta has an Average button. The way it works is that you take a reading, save it to memory(Memory button is labeled 'M' ), take subsequent readings while saving and after you are finished saving all of your readings, you push the [Average} button to get an average of all the meter readings saved in memory. I'm not sure if the the Sekonic l-718 can handle this ? I know the higher model  the Sekonic L-858 has a built-in Spot Meter with averaging, but is way more expensive ! 

The Minolta III takes a maximum of three readings to average.  

[hjoseph7]

1) " I have the IIIf with a 10 degree spot attachment.  The 5 degree does not work on the III but will on the IV " 

 2) "The Minolta III takes a maximum of three readings to average.  "

 

1) Wow, Bummer !! Good thing I posted this.  I downloaded the manual for the Minolta II(check bellow),  not the IIIF and it seems to work fine with that meter. Are you sure the 5 degeree meter does not work with the IIIF ? 

2) Geez that's not a lot of readings,  but its better than nothing. Maybe I can do a highlights reading , then a shadows reading, then somewhere in between ? If things get critical, I can repeat the process using other values ?

My Canon EOS-3 camera can average about  8 spot readings at a time then average them, but you are talking about 15 years in technological progress.

I learned the hard way that after using this Meter, it's best to take the battery out. It has been sitting there for 3+ years without the battery, but once I plugged the battery in, it worked just fine 😊.    

Edited December 19, 2023 by hjoseph7

[John Seaman]

9 hours ago, hjoseph7 said:

I don't see an [Average] button ?

No, it just gives single readings, no averaging function. You look through the finder and point the spot to the area of interest, press the button and it gives a light value reading on a scale in the finder. There's also a scale on the top which gives the camera settings for different ISO's.

[hjoseph7]

Looks like my L-358 can average up to 9 values which is great ! Unfortunately I could not find a Spot viewfinder under $150

Minolta does not list the 5 degree Spot viewfinder as one of the accessories for the Minolta IIIF. It does list the 10 degree Spot viewfinder. However you still might be able to use the 5 degree with the IIIF if you add 1.2 stops to each reading,  which makes it a little inconvenient.

 

[AlanKlein]

You're right about the 5 degree spot attachment for the IIIf.  However, there's a 1.2 stop adjustment you have to make to the reading when using the IIIf.

 

[AlanKlein]

Pg 1 of spot attachments.