dSLR as a light meter

[Matt Erck]

I'm attempting to get everything ready to actually go out and shoot with my new (old) GVII. I have yet to buy a light meter and am considering using my Canon 10D in place of one. I have not read too many discussions on whether or not this is reliable. Can anyone shed any light on this, or proper procedure to follow for consistent results?

[Dave Wooten]

At a Per Volquartz workshop awhile back in Zion National Park, there was a lady photographer that did a lot of 4 x 5 transparency work for magazines like Sunset etc. And a lot of personal work-southwest landscapes. Her color landscapes were some of the most beautiful I have ever observed. I believe she used her Nikon F3 as her light meter.

[Daniel_Buck]

You'll need to match your digital camera's ISO to your usual metering ISO. By that I mean, the exposure you meter for with your light meter may not be the same as the exposure on the digital camera. I tried this, the readout from the light meter works well for the film, but for the digital camera (at the same ISO, shutterspeed, and aperture) was not well exposed. You just need to find out what ISO offset works for the correct exposure. So, you know that for 400ISO film, you need to shoot your digital at either 600ISO, or 200ISO, or whatever gets you closest to the correct exposure. Or use an exposure compensation, like +2/3 or what not.

make sense? Once you have that down, it should be pretty close.

[Alan Davenport]

An SLR, be it film or digital, is larger, heavier and more complicated than a standalone light meter. Other than those caveats, it will work fine. Exposure is exposure.

[Matt Erck]

Well, I just picked up a Sekonic 428 less than $20. I know its old, but I figured for $20 how bad could it be?

[mrladewig]

I use my DSLR as my light meter because I still want to use it for snapshots along the trail and for shots that I might not want to setup the 4X5. Works OK in Av for transparency as long as I have the ISO and aperture correct (yup, forgot that once or twice). I'm not sold on it for B&W.

[Scott Knowles]

I use a Sekonic light meter along with my 5D for the different metering modes and histogram. So far, the 5D is handy and informative to see what happens under different exposures using a 35mm lens with Schneider 120mm and 50mm for the Schneider 150mm lens. It's good for the range of exposures, but normally I use the Sekonic's incident and spot readings. And I can compare both the 4x5 scan and digital image.

[Darren H]

You can use the DSLR. I usually carry an XTi as a backup (and for quick images) and I find it useful to compare what it gets with what I have metered. They are usually pretty close and that makes me feel a bit more confident in my chromes. I find the DSLR a great help in very low light or night images. That is when the histogram really shines.

I also have a Soligor spot meter that is my main way to meter a scene. It was $5 at a garage sale and it is spot on(yes a bad pun). I rely on it but use the Canon as a backup way to verify.

[roteague]

Well, I just picked up a Sekonic 428 less than $20. I know its old, but I figured for $20 how bad could it be?

It would depend upon what type of photography you are going to do. For color landscape photography, you would be better off with a spot meter than the meter you purchased. While I will sometimes use a 35mm SLR as a light meter - mostly when the light is changing too fast for good spot metering - I much prefer using a spot meter. The use of a spot meter allows me to get a better idea of the dynamic range of the scene (and where), allowing a better determination of whether to use a split neutral density filter or not.

I prefer an SLR to a DSLR for metering. I don't know Canon cameras, but Nikon DSLRs tend to underexpose the highlights a bit more than I like; see Daniel's excellent response.

[butterflydream]

I think it's a good idea. A good, compact point & shot digital camera like Ricoh GR-D would be nice, which has aperture priority and shows histogram on LCD.