Light meter suggestions?

[Paul Ron]

the early masters knew their materials back and forth and could run circles around people today ...
hobby people that started when dry plates started and roll film started began doing tourist photography
shooing exotic people and places and some folks subscribed to photographic annuals that had articles ads &c published and tables for time of year and place for exposure guides
there were things that looked like slide rules / "exposure calculators" where you plugged in your region, plate speed, type of scene weather/sun &c and it gave you an exposure
later on there were Actinometer and Extinction meters ..the extinction meters were close to a modern light meter.

here's a link to a photo magazine in the late 1800s and it has fun stuff in it including a list of reasons why the semi centennial stand we all love so much
is the greatest thing since sliced bread "camera stand of the future!" ... invented by a photographer ( E.C. Fischer in Vermont ) sold to photographers ( through E.C. Codman &co in Boston )
$25 shipped! light meter not included
http://tinyurl.com/cokdhop

thanks. very impressive book.

[Daniel Unkefer]

SONY DSC by Nokton48, on Flickr

Peco Junior with sawed-Off Medium Sized Rail, 240 chrome barrel Schneider Tele-Arton, Sony NexC3 Digital Back. Lens Board is the 3D printed one from Italy; quality pretty good for the low price, well worth having. Camera focused at about forty feet with this lens; the sawed-off medium Rail is good with the 240mm focal length

HANDHELD Baby View Camera Photography. Lots and lots of fun to use; I am trying things with this that are completely new to me. Great for determining compositions/instant feedback. Then I switch to 6x9 film. It does read out exposure TTL, but I still use my meters!!

SONY DSC by Nokton48, on Flickr

Results. Egad it's FUN to use; this is olde chrome barrel Sinar Norma 150mm f5.6 Symmar in barrel

[Tin Can]

Copy for our eternity

"https://archive.org/details/moviemak...?q=electrophot
A radically new type of exposure meter makes its appearance this month, operating on the light sensitive cell principle. The idea has been advanced theoretically many tiems and cine workers have been promised that this principle would some time be brought to their aid in solving the vexing problem of exposure but the firm of J. Thos. Rhamstine, 501 East Woodbridge Street, Detroit, Michigan, is to be the first to make this principle available to the amateur. The Rhamstein Electrophot is entirely automatic in its operation and requires no visual judgement whatever on the part of the user. It comprises a round, metal container about three inches in diameter and two inches in width, with a button at one end and a tube at the other which contains the light sensitive cell. The tube is normally closed by a cap but, when the cap is removed, the light sensitive tube pointed toward th object reflecting the the light and the contact button pressed, a pointer on a dial set in the face of the instrument immediately indicates the stop number to be used. Its scale reads directly from ƒ/1 to ƒ/32 and the needle readeing is "dead beat" i.e., does not vibrate after reaching the indicated stop. Energy for actuating th epointer is derived from two small dry cells of the "fountain pen" type which are easily replaced by removing three screws at the back of the meter. Since the energy consumption is extremely small, the life of these cells is said to be longer than six months, even in constant use. The meter reading may be adjusted through a reasonably wide range by turning a small post through an opening in the back. Succinct directions for its use and a condensed filter compensation chart are printed on the reverse side of the meter. A handy carrying case with strap of black leather is included with the meter. It is stated that the Rhamstine Electrophot will be made available during the month of October, as soon as final manufacturing arrangements are made.
1931"

[Tin Can]

I ruined my 1970 new bug starter, it failed in one year

Took it to dealer who replaced it and commented he never saw such a failure

I didn't tell him I was testing floatation in big puddles

The ads then showed floating bugs

LOL

My new 1966 Karmann Ghia's starter quit. While the dealer and VW argued who would fix it, my wife and I drove it 500 miles each way from Birmingham, Alabama to South Carolina and back over the Christmas holidays.

Park on a hill or be ready to push it to start. Those were the days - and we were young.

As to meters, I am impressed with my Gossen Digital Pro.

[Mark Sampson]

If you go back before the introduction of photo-electric light meters, say 1930, people worked differently. Photographers developed an "internal meter" based on experience. Plus film was slower and exposures longer... exact timing was not so critical. Then too, people developed by inspection, another experience-based practice. Add in the printing-out (self-masking) papers common then, in silver and other materials, and there was a whole bunch of self-correcting factors involved. Edward Weston's methods have been well described and are a perfect example of what I'm talking about.
The increase in film speed and color sensitivity, and the rise of "time-and-temperature" development methods, along with smaller roll-film cameras, required more precision in exposure and development; the introduction of light meters helped this "scientific method" along. Eventually this led to Ansel Adams and Fred Archer's "Zone System" and today's countless variations on that theme- all of which require an accurate light meter.