Backup Light Meter Recommendation?

[Jack Brauer]

Hello,

I am going on a month long trip to Patagonia in November (woohoo!) and want to make sure that I have backups for certain pieces of equipment that could fail, one such item being a lightmeter.

I currently use a Pentax digital Spotmeter, which I really like. I would like to buy a backup spotmeter, but it doesn't necessarily need to be such a nice/expensive spotmeter - just something basic that will work for me in a pinch. Are there any reliable and inexpensive spotmeters out there that will fit the bill?

Thanks,
Jack

[J D Clark]

I use a Pentax as my primary spotmeter, too, and as a back up I have a Soligor Spot Senser II, which is a good, basic spotmeter that can be bought used for around $100. It works almost identically to the Pentax. The one downside of it is that, because it's an analog meter, accidentally dropping it might destroy it. Ultimately, my goal is to have a second pentax as a backup...

John Clark
www.johndclark.com

[Michael Graves]

I've got the Soligor digital spot and it works very nicely. I use a Gossen Multipro as a backup and as a flash meter when shooting with the speedo kit. Also comes in handy when I want to take an incident reading.

[Tony Lakin]

Hi
I use a Zone VI modified Pentax V analogue meter and a Gossen Starlight as back-up which I know isn't cheap but it does everything else as well and very accurately i.e. spot metering including zone system, flash and incident and more and is also quite light and compact.
Good luck with your Patagonian trip (lucky devil)

[naturephoto1]

Hi Jack,

I have been using one of the Zone VI modified Soligor Digispot II since about 1988. I have found the meter to be very accurate and very reliable.

These can be found used in the stock or the modified form and used to be carried under the Adorama and Tundra badges. The unit reads in .1 eV values which I find more valuable (though I can not say it is more accurate than the Pentax Digital). The unit is larger than the Pentax.

Right now there is one on eBay without the case. It has the Zone VI metering guide on the front of the meter. These labels used to available as through Calumet so I can not say if this is a modified or stock version. The meter does not include the case or instructions. But, it is straight forward to use and I may be able to dig up the instructions.

Here is the eBay listing:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Soligor-Spot-Met...ayphotohosting

Good luck and have a great time.

Rich

[David Karp]

My backup is an analog Pentax Spotmeter V. Works great. It used to be my primary meter before I picked up a nice Pentax Digital.

Both were calibrated by Quality Light Metric on separate occasions and both still give identical readings.

[RichardRitter]

My backup meter is my eye and most of the time I don’t use a meter. I learned to do this by forgetting the meter a few to many times and started guessing the exposure before taking the meter reading. Also on a sunny day with clear blue sky the exposure is always the same.

There is a very good exercise in the Finely Focus DVD www.circleofthesunproductions.com on teaching yourself to know the exposure with out the meter.


Richard T Ritter
www.lg4mat.net
www.finefocusworkshops.com

[Herb Cunningham]

I have a pentax zone VI spotmeter, but the really neat one is the tiny spot meter by the guys in San Fran, I think the name is Better Light or some such. it matches the pentax readings and is a bit larger than a zippo lighter.

I can look later and tell you the exact name

[Dick Hilker]

My trusty old Rollei SLR35 and its analog meter serve as both a back-up meter and camera -- especially nice for those opportunistic shots when it takes too long to set up the LF.

[Kevin Crisp]

My backup is a Weston Master 5, after a Quality Light Metric calibration and cell replacement. I zoned the dial, though arguably the dial was already suitable for that. It needs no batteries. I know from testing what ASA to set on it to use it for a spot meter, of sorts, that will give me the same reading as the Pentax digital. Once that testing is done, which takes about a minute, I can hold it close to something discrete I want to measure and get the same reading I would get with my Pentax digital. No, you can't take a distant spot reading of something inaccessible, but often you can find something handy of the same luminescence and get the job done. On the rare occasions when I shoot LF chromes, I have found the Weston as a incident averaging meter (with clip on dome) to be extremely reliable.