Minolta Flash Meter 6 vs Sekonic L-558

[Justin Medlock]

Hi,

I am wanting to buy my first meter and can find info about the Sekonic L-558, but can't find much about the Minolta Flash Meter 6 which looks like a very nice meter. I hope to study BTZS (book on order) so I think I want a combo incident/spot meter (so am not looking at the Pentax). I plan to do nature, landscape, architectural, and portrait photography.

I would appreciate any advice or information on real experience with these meters, especially the Minolta. (I've read the users guide for the Sekonic, but it doesn't look like the Minolta users guide is available online.)

[Justin Medlock]

p.s. I'm interested only in natural light photography; not interested in using flash.

[Ralph Barker]

I can't help you on the Minolta, but I use the Sekonic L-508, the 558's predecessor, and love it. It has all the essential features, and is easy to use. Having both incident and zoom-spot reflected is very handy, too. The Sekonic appears to be one stop more sensitive than the Minolta at the low-light end - potentially useful in forest situations.

[Martin Patek-Strutsky]

Have the Minolta FM6 and I am very satisfied with it. Use it quite often in low light and never reached the sensitivity limits of the meter.

Would buy the Minolta again as I prefer its very intuitive user interface and its smaller dimensions.

I'm shure both meters would serve you well. Would play a little with both and take the one feeling more ergonomic for you.

[Cameron Attree]

I have been using a Sekonic L-558 since my move to LF a couple of months ago and have been very happy so far. Prior to that I used a Minolta Autometer IVF with a 5 degree spot attachment but decided that the built in spot meter would be much easier to use. Also the Sekonic offered many more features such as filter factor and exposure compensation. I can't offer any any advise about the Minolta Flash Meter 6 but I have no hesitation in recommending the Sekonic. Regards, Cam.

[Ted Harris]

Not sure why you ha limitd yourself to those meters.





If you have no interest in flash then there is no sense in looking at dedicated flash meters (although they all do ambient light too). For all three of your noted application you will be best served with a good spotmeter. I suggest you look hard at the Pentax Digital Spotmeter as well as anything else you consider. Fast and easy to use and the smallest of the spotmeters. For maximum ease of use with the Zone system you will also want to look at the Gossen Ultraspot but it is a very large meter.

[Chan Tran]

I have the FM6. I picked it instead of the 558R because I like Minolta meters. I had 4 Minoltas before. The FM6 does have less features than the 558R. One thing I miss on the FM6 is that it doesn't read non cord flash in spot mode. It has less resolution on the analyzing function that display the percentage of flash vs ambient. It doesn't have an aperture priority mode. But overall, I like it very much. Perhaps, the m ain reason I didn't get the Sekonic because it's made in Malaysia instead of Japan. Silly me!