prefered spot meter type???

[camerafilmnegative]

hello all
hope all is going well in LF world......

I am about to buy a new spot meter and thought I would consult with you first.

Am thinking of a Sekonic L-778, have read good things from you here (as has the Minolta 'F')

But am also considering on of the Sekonic L-508 type (L-558, L-608, L758, etc....)

It would seem having the added choice of a swivel head with a lumisphere could only be a good thing ?

I intend to use the new spot meter for both field and macro studio mainly in B+W but occasionally in colour.

Ease of use/no parallax/being rugged/not being overly complex are considerations in whittling down to the final choice

My budget is not limitless but I do intend this to be a long term purchase.

Your thoughts and experience will be appreciated.

[vinny]

the most intuitive meter for the zone system and the is the pentax digital. I had a couple minolta F's which are fine.

[welly]

I've got a Sekonic L758. It's brilliant and amazingly well featured but has more features than I'll ever use or know how to use. But for spot metering and incident metering, it does everything I'd want it to do. I've had it for about 5 years now.

[camerafilmnegative]

thanks welly
and like the/your LFA blog, now a bookmark, thanks again

[John Olsen]

I've used the Pentax spot meters in digital and analogue forms for 20 years. Both of mine are ancient (one of each variety) and they still agree with each other and track with my standard test illumination. Totally reliable and easy to use.

[Daniel Stone]

I have a Sekonic L-778, it works great. If you use flash, you can make spot meter readings with it using the PC sync, or the hot shoe.

If only shooting b/w, I'd just use a Pentax Digital. Brilliantly simple device, and these days can be had for a very small sum, for a great condition unit.

Dan

[C. D. Keth]

Any of those will work fine. If you're the type to count on your fingers, the pentax would suit you since you can label it to correspond to the zones for zone system exposure. Other than that, they are all essentially equivalent. I have a sekonic L-558 that I am very happy with.

[Larry Gebhardt]

I use a Pentax Digital Spot. It's certainly the most intuitive meter I have used. I also have L308S for flash and incident use. It's good too, but certainly not as quick to use as the Pentax. I assume the L778 is about the same, but I haven't used one. I think if you are shooting a lot of macro and studio shots being able to meter spot, incident and flash all in one meter would outweigh the intuitive nature of the Pentax. I know I find my Seconic in incident mode more useful than the spot meter for macro, both indoors and out.

[Leigh]

I have two of the Sekonic L-558 meters. They're marvelous, with every capability you could ever want.
I wouldn't trade it for anything.

The L-7xx series is grossly over-priced, loaded with supposed "features" that you'll never use.

I have also owned some of the predecessor Sekonic models, plus the Minolta Spotmeter F.

- Leigh

[Scott Davis]

I currently have a pair of Sekonic 408 meters, which have a 5 degree spot - I don't use them for spot metering so much because the 5 degree is a rather large coverage area, for a spot meter, but it is handy to carry, and it serves well as an all-around meter because it will do incident and reflected, as well as spot, for both ambient and flash. The reason for the pair is so I have a backup if one breaks or gets lost/stolen.

When I need to get critical, I use my Minolta Spotmeter F because it will do flash and ambient with a 1-degree spot, and it has handy features that let you calculate contrast range.