I am looking for a relatively ~150$ cheap light meter for a large format camera I just picked up.
Are there any specific models you would recommend?
I am looking for a relatively ~150$ cheap light meter for a large format camera I just picked up.
Are there any specific models you would recommend?
Spot or incident? I'd guess that finding a good spot meter in your price range is going to be tough; more choices on the incident side. The Sekonic L-308 is very popular.
Well - this was another question I had actually, but I didnt want to bring it up in the "gear" section. For landscape photography, which light meter would be better?Originally Posted by Alan9940
Everything I have read said that if you can get a spot meter, then get a spot meter. Wondering what the community thinks.
From my point of view the choice of meter is related to type of film.
For black and white and color neg I tend to use a incident meter.
For slide film a spotmeter is essential I think, to help to evaluate and guard the highlights.
If you're shooting a landscape and your subject is far away, and has different lighting than what is available around you, are you hosed? How can you tell what the luminance is on your subject?
Well, yes, in that case, then a spot meter would be handy.
Of course there are black and white landscapes that would benefit from a spot meter, but in my experience that is not very often.
Usually you can most of the dynamic range of a scene within the parameters of the film, and the penalties for overexposing are not as harsh as with slide film.
But if you using the zone system and want to place your scene within that, a spot meter is the way to go.
I think my struggles with spot meters is the actually process. It takes too long time, and it makes you focus too much on technical issues and parts of the composition, instead of the being in the place and taking in the whole composition. If that makes any sense.
A good incident meter, that you learned to use, and compensate for, is more versatile to me for b/w and color eng.
With that said, whatever meter you get, you need to spend a lot of time and film to learn it.
A light meter may be based on science but your exposures are not.
I must be doing something wrong. I picked up an analog Cambron (ie, Soligor) spot meter in good condition (Still in the carry case, where it has obviously lived most of it's life), and metering has always been fairly simple, or at least, the way I approach it.
For the vast majority of scenes, I meter the darkest and lightest areas of the composition, determine the EV range of the scene, and assuming there are fewer than 7 stops of range, I split the difference, and use the midpoint for my exposure. I realize there are scenes that I might want to capture that will challenge this method, but so far every shot I've metered this way has come out fine.
Personally, it's only a few seconds to get the readings, and then do a quick lookup (Eventually, I'll learn the tables, but for now, I have to look up the aperture/speed combinations).
I think working with the EV numbers simplifies the process tremendously. My only complaint with the meter is I can't read it in the dark (analog meter instead of digital readout).
I shoot primarily outdoor scenes of all variety and I've only ever used a spot meter. If you plan to shoot B&W using some form of the zone system, a spot meter is essential. However, if you really want to "deep dive" and follow Phil Davis teachings, then, I believe, an incident meter is used. For B&W and color neg film, I use a Pentax Digital Spot meter. For color transparency, I use a Sekonic L-558 spot meter because it has a very unique feature; I can meter a shadow area where I want to hold detail and store that reading, meter a high value area where I want detail and store that reading, then average the two. But, there's more...then, while holding the metering button down I can scan the scene looking at the EV variance. I find this extremely helpful to determine if I want to adjust the average exposure reading. All that said, each photographer has his/her way of working and you will eventually determine what works best for you.
You could use an Lightmeter app on your phone (~2$)
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