Recommend a lightmeter

[msommers]

With the Rollei on the way I'm going to need a light meter. The sunny 16 rule is great, and I'm wanting to get more intuition for lighting, but I'm going to have to confirm with some numbers. In some cases I'll bring the D800, but I don't always want to be hauling two cameras.

I'm thinking a basic meter will do but I see 1 degree spot being really recommended by landscape photogs, especially for B&W. Also, I'm a little confused of the benefit of a retractable lightsphere vs. one that is fixed.

I'd obviously prefer spending less than more and getting only as much meter as I need but I'm having a hard time figuring out what specs to really nail down.

-Matt

[taemo]

first of all nice, on the Rollei!
so you still went back to MF but at least with a smaller body.

i'm sure you have read about the Zone System already but if not these are good reads that helped me understand better on exposure
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tu...e_system.shtml
http://photography.tutsplus.com/tuto...em--photo-5607

you have an android phone so why not just use that as your light meter, there are lots of free light meter apps out there and personally they work fine.

I personally use a sekonic L-398 as it doesn't require batteries but really most of the time I just use my Iphone.

If you want the widest range of tone, then I think most 4x5 shooters uses spot metering to get the most accurate reading but for me, incident reading works just fine.

[D'z Nutz]

Incident meters are cheap. Spot meters are cheap. But if you want a meter that has both, the price jumps up quite a bit so you need to figure out what you want. If you want one that has both, I use a Minolta Flash Meter VI that's been awesome. I recall them being pretty cheap, but I think they've been long discontinued so they might be hard to find. I also had a Sekonic L-508 as a backup but I never used it so I sold it. The Sekonic L-508 is the cheapest meter with both incident and spot before going up to the L-758.

I've never tried the phone apps. I'd be curious to see how well they work.

[msommers]

I've tried the light meters with my phone and compared them to the D800 and they're kinda close but that great. I think it's the camera in the android phone vs. the (great) one that's in iPhones.

Sounds like I might have to bit the bullet on this one to get both features which I think is very useful. Maybe we could do a photog day so I can get more acquainted with the meters (ie: someone show me how the heck they work!).

Maybe something basic to start out? Very confused what's worthwhile

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...ght_Meter.html

[D'z Nutz]

Originally posted by msommers
Maybe we could do a photog day so I can get more acquainted with the meters (ie: someone show me how the heck they work!).

You gonna be around this time? Haha

[blitz]

Take a look at this one:

https://www.thecamerastore.com/produ...litemaster-pro

You can add this to it to use it as a spot meter:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...iewfinder.html

I have this version which is a little more expensive, but has RF built in to talk to my pocketwizards:

https://www.thecamerastore.com/produ...litemaster-pro

I also bought the spot meter attachment and it's really sweet.

[msommers]

Yeah hopefully I can find a time that works! I think the last week of Jan I'll be off work and free to for a meet.

Think I'm going to opt for a used L-358. It has an optional spot meter and likely cheaper - also has aperture priority which I really like.

Sorry Ryan I just saw your post. I'll take a look at that one, the add-on is cheaper than the 358 version which is nice.

Actually the price with accessories makes them nearly on par. And the 478D uses normal batteries which is a massive plus. I think I'll opt for that one. Thanks!