Which Light Meter and Why?

A guide to some popular types of light meters, and the variation between them. Metering well is an important skill for all photographers, especially when shooting film and each shot costs money!

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►CHAPTER MARKERS
00:00 - Intro
00:37 - Why meter light?
01:29 - Smartphone app
02:45 - Hotshoe meters
03:33 - Note on reflective meters
04:25 - Astrhori AH-M1
05:01 - Analogue light meters
06:13 - Digital handheld meters
07:29 - Spot meters
08:24 - Hybrid analogue meters
09:00 - Other options
09:27 - Roundup/conclusion
09:58 - What I use
10:58 - Street photography series
11:30 - My zine

#filmphotography #lightmeter

[rossmansell]

Thank God for an articulate speaker on a video. No Ahs..errs...ums. Clear and concise and no dreadful music.

[mcb]

Love, love, LOVE my Gossen Luna F. It does everything I need it to (reflective, incident, flash, spot (with an accessory), is super cheap, and uses modern electronics while also having a physical needle and a dial, so it looks the part IMO. Best $50 I ever spent.

[borromine]

Some one commented on the Gossen Luna Pro F. It is a null meter which allows you to use the Zone system as well as understand what the light is doing. So in terms of learning the craft it is probably one of the best. It also has spot accessories and both incident reflected and flash readings. It may not be the most suitable for street or sports but for almost all other kinds it one of the very best. The analog meters have a deeper level of info than digital if one is still learning

[dlalleman]

Just purchased the TTArtisan Light Meter II, for my medium format photography. I really don't want to miss my shots there, that would be to costly.

[trondsi]

5:01 I'm old school and I love this option. I have the Seconic and a couple of Weston Master meters.

[andrewwilkin]

Great video. If buying old meters just check what batteries they need. Some of the old CDS meters needed the 1.35v mercury cells. There are workarounds for these but better to find a meter that will take a 1.5v battery.

[jw]

Shoe-mount meters are my choice, one with a rear-facing readout (a keks), another with a screen on top (don't remember the brand). I like having the meter readout match the camera - waist level finder? Top readout meter, rangefinder body? rear facing meter. I keep a Pentax Spotmeter V for slide film and LF too, but pretty rare that I grab that anymore. I highly recommend that Pentax model - it goes for maybe $125 in mint condition and uses three 1.5v batteries, so no issues with funny battery stuff. I have had very good luck with the shoe mount and the Pentax, they all match my Canon mirrorless body.

[Pepsiphopia]

I have an Sekonic 308x and Hedeco Lime 2. Hedeco mostly on my medium format without built in Light meter

[thedarkslide]

There is another category of light meters you did only cover in passing showing the iPhone: small, digital point and shoot cameras with a decent zoom lens. For example, I use the Olympus XZ-2 as a dedicated meter, especially when I need spot metering. I zoom into the area I want to spot meter, I change the metering mode to spot metering in camera, I set ISO and shutter speed. Then I translate the reading to my film camera if not identical.

[TeddyCavachon]

I started doing Zone System with 1° spot meter in 1971 and with LunaPro and Sekonic flash meter for studio lights but today shooting film I’d just carry compact digital, take a shot and adjust exposure via highlight warning and histogram changing ISO setting of digital as needed to match results on the film.

When started shooting digital with key / fill flash I realized it was easier to just put white and black towels on a stand where the face would and add fill until seeing detail the black one and then adding key over fill until the white one was just below 1/3 stop clipping in non-specular highlights. It’s faster and more accurate than incident metering of flash and can be used with ETTL flash.

[JanneRanta]

Imo, nothing beats a dial indicator light meter. My gossen lunasix is basically perfection.

[dustysprockets]

Another great watch. I've used the sekonic 308x for years, handy as. I also like my Pentax Spot master V, the old model before the digital meters. Both are pretty affordable

[joshmcdzz]

I have been using advanced light meters from sekonic and minolta.. but recently, I realized the phone apps is the way to go... You will get to know that when you start shooting at night and you realize those incident meters want to expose your night photo to look like daytime shots.. Phone apps really help me expose slides accurately because you can see what the scene will look like before shooting ( a cheat for kinda a mirrorless film camera if you get what i mean )

[garymc]

I’m happy with my Voigtlander VM and VMII. They look good on my M3 and M2, not too modern. Work well too, more accurate than guessing “sunny 16”.

[MezeiEugen]

Could you provide the link for the lightmeter app? I know and use other apps, but would like to check the one you showed too.

[qvarfoto]

Fantastic video as always, Hashem! I usually have the TT Artisan cold shoe light meter with me as a backup on photo walks etc, but to be honest I very much prefer to use the internal light meter in my camera(s). Not because they're more accurate in any way (because they're usually not, as you just explained), but just because it's a smoother workflow for me. Although I pretty much always prefer spot metering on my digital cameras, so I might go for one of those next. If only they were smaller, lighter and cheaper, hey? Haha! Cheers /Freddy

[ericmenu]

Another option if you shoot film on tripod : use a small digital camera to mesure light and even preview an idea of the final image, very useful with slide film

[cameraprepper]

I have done a lot of light metering with handheld light meters for more than 3 decades, the best way to measure light is with incident light metering where there a dome on the light meter, I can recommend Gossen Light Meters, new or used. I have the Gossen Variosix F2 which is very good, it can also measure flash light.

[joachimlindback]

Sekonic L-398. No battery needed. Saves film, shutter, battery, electricity and even the planet.

[rjbiii]

I've had zero luck with the light meter apps on my iPhone XR. They are all wildly inaccurate for me with no way to reliably calibrate them. Maybe they work OK on other phone models, who knows.