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Thread: Sekonic L758 Spot Meter Question

  1. #11

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    Re: Sekonic L758 Spot Meter Question

    Quote Originally Posted by R.K View Post
    So in most of the situations you don't nead an average value. Am I right?
    If you have a spot meter with a Zone scale on it, and you expose/process using some semblance of the Zone System, then, no, you don't need to average. Simply place subject luminance values where you want them, adjust development as needed (assuming B&W film), and you're golden. You don't even need a spot meter, if you can accurately measure middle gray with whatever meter you have; read middle gray and do the mental calculations from there. Heck, you don't need any meter! Brett Weston never used one.

  2. #12

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    Re: Sekonic L758 Spot Meter Question

    And if you want a Zone Sticker for the Sekonic L758 here's the one I use...

    Works for single spot readings (not memory)... Have the f/stops showing at the bottom... take a reading...

    Sticker tells you which of the clipping point triangles to look at (sticker doesn't move and you don't try to slide to line up with the sticker... it's a mnemonic only)...

    Depending on what Zone you want to place that reading at, the triangle on the meter scale (not the sticker) points to the f/stop to use at the given shutter speed.



    http://beefalobill.com/images/zone.pdf

  3. #13

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    Re: Sekonic L758 Spot Meter Question

    Quote Originally Posted by Bill Burk View Post
    And if you want a Zone Sticker for the Sekonic L758 here's the one I use...

    Works for single spot readings (not memory)... Have the f/stops showing at the bottom... take a reading...

    Sticker tells you which of the clipping point triangles to look at (sticker doesn't move and you don't try to slide to line up with the sticker... it's a mnemonic only)...

    Depending on what Zone you want to place that reading at, the triangle on the meter scale (not the sticker) points to the f/stop to use at the given shutter speed.



    http://beefalobill.com/images/zone.pdf
    Thanks Bill, I am going to try this, every little help to get me to meter better is going to be a bonus

  4. #14

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    Re: Sekonic L758 Spot Meter Question

    Quote Originally Posted by Alan9940 View Post
    If you have a spot meter with a Zone scale on it, and you expose/process using some semblance of the Zone System, then, no, you don't need to average. Simply place subject luminance values where you want them, adjust development as needed (assuming B&W film), and you're golden. You don't even need a spot meter, if you can accurately measure middle gray with whatever meter you have; read middle gray and do the mental calculations from there. Heck, you don't need any meter! Brett Weston never used one.
    You right, the best pictures was made without a light meter in many cases.
    But I’m certainly not that good and I’m using Sekonic. Before I used the spot with mechanical calculator and get used to it until I find that it not reliable any more. It was possible to adjust it, but the repair person told me that that particular model was not designed good from the beginning and instead of spending money on bad model to get another meter. I didn’t want again to spend money on something old and got a new Sekonic. The first impression was- it is a good meter, a lot of functions, but unfortunately no one can be used strait forward for the zone style reading. So I start with paper and pen, measure shadows , write results, measure highlights write results, calculate stops in between, calculate aperture and speed value if the shadow reading placed on zone 3, and finally taking picture. And I don’t like it. It takes too long to do all of this calculation. I start using memory. Maybe I’m not good with the short memory but after memorizing a 3 readings, I’m getting confused what was what. So I start thinking what I want from my meter. In general I want it to show me distance in stops or EV values between low and high readings and I want it to calculate aperture and time values for shadows placed on zone3. Yes I don’t want meter to read the shadows values for zone 5 and after adjust settings in my head to move shadows on zone 3. Another idea after some internet reading was try to switch to the aperture priority mode. So when I turn on my meter it always already set to the aperture somewhere around f16 or f22, because I want to have a sharp picture (except some particular cases of course). Another good thing in the aperture priority mode that I can see the EV scale at the bottom on the screen. So if I let say memorize 2 critical readings, then I will see how many stops or EV values they apart. The last thing to make meter give me right away readings for shadow placement on zone3. And this can be easily done by adjusting the ISO value on the meter. Let say, I have some film, and I want to shut it as ISO100. Instead of setting “ISO 1” button on the meter to ISO 100, I will set it 2 stops faster to ISO400. In that case when I measure the shadows, meter will give me speed and aperture I need to place my shadows on zone3.
    So in the field. After setting up the camera. I take my meter and with measure button pressed searching the important highlights in the scene for the highest value. It is better to start from the highlights reading because if you measure shadows first and highlights second and save them both in the memory, you will need after to use meter “memory recall” function to go back to the shadow reading. Because I’m in the aperture priority mode the highest value will be when the shutter speed will be shortest. Say I found that spot and release the measure button. Without even looking on the screen I press the memo button and save the metered value in the memory. On the EV scale my saved highlights value will be in the 0 point. The second reading I do for the important shadow and save it in the memory. So my shadow reading now current on the display and the values displayed for zone 3 placement and I can right away transfer them to my shutter. Now I’m looking on the EV scale. I remember that my first reading saved on the 0 point of the EV scale, and let say my second reading located on the -4 point of the EV scale, than I have 4 stops between the shadows and highlights readings and if I keep shadows on the zone3 the highlights will be on zone7. If I like this scenario I can press the shutter right away. Of course if I have more than 4 or 5 EV values between measured points before pressing the shutter I’m thinking what to adjust. If I have some particular subject in the scene and I want it to be placed on some particular zone, then I will measure that subject and check on the EV scale how it will be located in the relationship to the shadows and thinking what to adjust and how to develop. But in simple situations I think this is a strait forward process. The “ISO 2” button I usually setting up for zone 7 reading. Let say if my film ISO 100 then “ISO 2” will be set to ISO25. During the day time shooting it is not very important, but if you taking the picture at night in darkness and meter can’t read the dark areas, I can read the value near the street light for example and put it on the zone7 and by pressing the “ISO 2” button meter will give me correct camera settings for my zone 7 placement. The Sekonic have 3 cameras setting, so my camera 1 preset for the ISO 100 film, Camera 2 for ISO 400 and Camera 3 left for incandesced light readings. Try it if you want.

  5. #15

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    Re: Sekonic L758 Spot Meter Question

    Bob, how do you change between camera presets

  6. #16

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    Re: Sekonic L758 Spot Meter Question

    No matter how many of these schemes I’ve used, the vast majority of the time the final exposure was almost exactly what I got from an incident reading. So I do incident reading first and often skip the spot readings.

    I’d much rather spend my time focusing and composing.

    So in the end I end up wasting most of my L-558 capabilities. Oh well.

  7. #17

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    Re: Sekonic L758 Spot Meter Question

    [QUOTE=IanBarber;1445874]Bob, how do you change between camera presets[/QUO

    To change between cameras press and hold "ISO1" button and after press "Mid Tone" button. One press on the mid tone button will change camera 1 to camera 2 another press on the mid tone button will change to camera 3. Be Shure to press ISO 1 first, other ways mid tone button will work differently.

  8. #18

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    Re: Sekonic L758 Spot Meter Question

    Quote Originally Posted by Alan9940 View Post
    And, as others have pointed out middle gray—18% reflectance—is not necessarily Zone V. Some meters use 18% for middle gray while others use 36%. I have to set the ISO on my Sekonic to half that of my calibrated Pentax Digital spot meter to get the same exposure readings.
    I have a Pentax Digital Spotmeter and a Sekonic L758, so I'm very much wondering about this. When I do side-by-side tests, there's a very obvious 2/3 stop difference between the readings on these two meters. Meanwhile, a modern digital camera tends to spot-meter a value in-between the two (or sometimes agrees with the Sekonic). Its making it hard for me to have any confidence in which reading is actually correct. (If I take a digital photo and look, the Pentax exposure is bright and the Sekonic is dark. Haven't compared /w film, because that's too hard for a quick side-by-side test.)

  9. #19
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    Re: Sekonic L758 Spot Meter Question

    Quote Originally Posted by dkonigs View Post
    I have a Pentax Digital Spotmeter and a Sekonic L758, so I'm very much wondering about this. When I do side-by-side tests, there's a very obvious 2/3 stop difference between the readings on these two meters. Meanwhile, a modern digital camera tends to spot-meter a value in-between the two (or sometimes agrees with the Sekonic). Its making it hard for me to have any confidence in which reading is actually correct. (If I take a digital photo and look, the Pentax exposure is bright and the Sekonic is dark. Haven't compared /w film, because that's too hard for a quick side-by-side test.)
    Film will be your authoritative source and you must test on film. Regardless of the terms ISO or ASA, digital has no such metric, instead it is the manufacturers' best approximation. Many of us underexpose slightly in digital because outcomes are better when we recover shadows while blown highlights can be impossible to recover.

  10. #20

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    Re: Sekonic L758 Spot Meter Question

    dkonigs,

    If you can describe your method for side-by-side comparison, then it might be easier to troubleshoot.

    For example if you still see 2/3 stop difference... the meters would be in disagreement if both tests were done using spotmeter in daylight with a quality grayscale by reflected light (or spotmeter readings taken of an arrangement that simulates a reference light source such as a translucent screen backlit with tungsten light bulb with an blue filter like 80B in the light path between bulb and meter somewhere).

    Or if you were comparing the Sekonic L-758DR in incident mode with Pentax spotmeter, well... there you have it. There's often a difference between the two metering modes. In that case you need not be concerned, simply take the meter reading you believe to be most appropriate for the work you are doing. (Example, black and white negatives I usually choose the greater exposure).

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