How to use an SEI Photometer?

[Bill Burk]

Thanks DennisD,

You made my day! I have been curious for a long time about what he figured out for the SEI.

[DennisD]

Another former SEI user here! ....
Best damned lightmeter I ever used (albeit heavier than some cameras)

Hi Jim,
Yes, heavier than a Leica, but nothing for us LF people who carry tons of equipment ! Besides, worth every ounce.
Your comment prompted me to weigh mine... I was surprised to find it weighs well over 1lb. w/battery.

Thanks DennisD,
You made my day! I have been curious for a long time about what he figured out for the SEI.

Hi Bill,
My pleasure ! Glad you found it interesting. Definitely worth understanding whether or not you use his method.

[John Layton]

Got mine cheap at a flea market - looks mint but not working...dang! Gotta get out my tools...

Awhile back, there was a guy named Huw Finney who offered an "upgrading" service for SEI's - replacing the lightbulb with an LED, recalibrating plus any other necessary repairs, then replacing the exterior exposure chart/scale with a truly "user friendly" version - much closer to what most of us are used to these days.

Don't know if Huw is still around - but if so, it would be great if he could chime in here at some point!

[ajmiller]

Repair manual and other info here

http://www.seiphotometer.net/repair.html

[Jerry Bodine]

...Don't know if Huw is still around - but if so, it would be great if he could chime in here at some point!

I recall reading somewhere that Huw is no longer offering his SEI fixes, but his website is still up:
http://www.huws.org.uk/

[Greg]

Repair manual and other info here

http://www.seiphotometer.net/repair.html

Thanks

[Bill Burk]

Got mine cheap at a flea market - looks mint but not working...dang! Gotta get out my tools...

If it's just the internal calibrator that's not working, you could still make use of the meter by calibrating to an external light source. If you have other light meters, you can calibrate that light source to one of your other meters.

If the light doesn't come on, that should be an easy fix. I've actually gotten tired of the weight and unreliability of the D cell (unreliable because a pack of good D cells costs 5 bucks so they are hard to keep around) and now I use an AA cell inside a dime-store shell the size of a D cell.

[John Layton]

Bill...interesting idea with going with AA's and the adapter shell. I'm guessing that the weight reduction would be significant...but what about battery life?

[Bill Burk]

Never thought about that. For me, the SEI is too "fragile" so I don't take it out in the field often. At home, there's always a bunch of fresh AA's around.

[Jerry Bodine]

For the benefit of those who don’t have access to AA’s ‘Camera and Lens’ (referenced in my earlier post), he set his black dot at 5 on the ASA scale, then takes the reciprocal of whatever exposure lies opposite f/8 on the lens stop ring, and that represents c/sq.ft., obviously viewing the result in the scale that corresponds to the range selected for the reading. These settings were a personally selected combination; the same result would be obtained by setting the black dot at 10 and reading at f/11 OR with the black dot at 20 and reading at f/16. The combinations were obtained by comparative tests of his SEI with sensitive instruments and light sources of known value. He goes on to say that shooting a high flare subject (e.g., against the light), where a significant amount of flare presents a definite false elevation of the low values, the use of the anti-flare tube accessory prevents this effect and all values read true.

FWIW, since I just got my Gossen meter back from re-calibration by Quality Light Metric, I took an 18% gray card reading with the Gossen and found the SEI agreed exactly with the black dot on 5 and reading at f/8. My anti-flare tube didn’t change the result, but then there was no flare involved with the gray card.