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Thread: How expensive is a photometer?

  1. #1

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    How expensive is a photometer?

    I wish I had one, all the guessing of the amount of light in the camera in manual mode is gone.
    I could work in the green house.
    I could take photography inside my home which has big window panels.
    I wish I had one.
    Catalina

  2. #2
    Stagecoach's Avatar
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    Re: How expensive is a photometer?

    Quote Originally Posted by Catalina View Post
    I wish I had one, all the guessing of the amount of light in the camera in manual mode is gone.
    I could work in the green house.
    I could take photography inside my home which has big window panels.
    I wish I had one.
    Catalina
    Hi Catalina,

    Here's the good news, you have one built into the camera and you can view it in the viewfinder. It's the horizontal bar with vertical markings with a + at one end and a - at the other.

    If you set your camera to 'Manual' mode lets say with an ISO of 400 and an Aperture of f5.6 if you look through the viewfinder at a reasonably lit subject adjust the 'shutter speed' until the exposure indicator is centred.

    If you then check your histogram and see that the image is under or over exposed you simply adjust either the Aperture or Speed to move the indicator off centre.

    I am not conversant with the D40 but have downloaded the manual and shoot a Nikon and use this method of exposure control very often these days. Let us know how you get on trying that.

    Edited; I would also suggest setting the camera to 'Matrix' metering whilst learning this procedure. This method reads a wide area of the scene and averages it, not perfect for every situation but a good mode to start with.

    Grahame
    Last edited by Stagecoach; 19th January 2014 at 06:45 AM.

  3. #3
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    Re: How expensive is a photometer?

    Quote Originally Posted by Stagecoach View Post
    ...Here's the good news, you have one built into the camera and you can view it in the viewfinder. It's the horizontal bar with vertical markings with a + at one end and a - at the other.

    If you set your camera to 'Manual' mode lets say with an ISO of 400 and an Aperture of f5.6 if you look through the viewfinder at a reasonably lit subject adjust the 'shutter speed' until the exposure indicator is centred.

    If you then check your histogram and see that the image is under or over exposed you simply adjust either the Aperture or Speed to move the indicator off centre...
    I use the on camera meter for most of my digital shots. Canon's metering is quite intuitive, and shouldn't be difficult.

    Should you desired an off camera meter, you can buy an older Gossen LunaSix or Luna Pro for anywhere between 20 and 100 euros. A new Gossen Starlite 2 runs about 600 euros. I swear by mine for my film and zone system work. But the Luna Pro does everything you need. I bought a Gossen Sixtino and a Gossen Sixtomat for 30 euros and they work quite nicely for averaging meter readings.

    As mentioned above, though, try to get use to the in camera meter.

  4. #4

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    Re: How expensive is a photometer?

    I have and sometimes use a light meter other than the one in my camera. There is one thing that the in-camera light meter cannot do and another that it does in a way that I find less helpful than a hand-held meter. The in-camera meter cannot function as an incident light meter, which is sometimes just what I want. And, for flash photography, the in-camera system doesn't do a very good job of sharing the information it acquires. What I want is for the meter to tell me what the ambient light is and what the flash illumination is. The camera collects that info, but just doesn't let me in on it very well. So I got a hand-held meter that would read incident light and would catch and hold flash readings. I should add, I also got one that could be used as a spot meter, which was a bit of a mistake. Your camera's light meter is a much better spot meter -- if you're using a 500mm lens and want to spot meter, the TTL camera meter can do that with no problem. But a hand-held's spot mode will be larger than the full field of view of your lens. So don't bother paying extra for spot capability on a hand-held. FWIW

  5. #5
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    Re: How expensive is a photometer?

    I have a very old Gossen Scout 2 meter and it and the camera's meter are usually matching in measurements. The Gossen meter can to as low as 6 ASA (ISO is current standard). I can set my Nikon P90 to ISO 64 but the results are usually no better than ISO 100 settings.

  6. #6

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    Re: How expensive is a photometer?

    If you want a decent "light meter" get a pre owned Weston Euromaster from ebay

  7. #7

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    Re: How expensive is a photometer?

    In the last 6 years...all my images have been captured with the exposure having been set in manual mode using the histogram to ETTR in live view mode which is available with Canon gear.

  8. #8
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    Re: How expensive is a photometer?

    I have a separate light meter, an older Sekonic Digi Master L-718, which I have owned and used for many years now.

    I actually, use my in camera meter for probably 95% of my shooting and probably about 100% of my reflected light measurement.

    The L-718 has very good incident light and flash metering capabilities. I purchased the L-718 years ago for about $100 U.S. Dollars, used on eBay USA.

    I use it mostly when I am working with studio flash. However, I have learned those lights so well that I can eyeball the exposure for most images.

    This old Sekonic doesn't have many of the bells and whistles of the newer exposure meters but, it does everything I need a meter to do. It can measure flash, incident and reflected light. There are also spot meter accessories (one came with my camera) available.

    BTW: Here is one at about $50 U.S. Dollars. This store ships internationally!

    http://www.ebay.com/itm/SEKONIC-DIGI...item4d17b3b70c

    A manual and a quick guide for the L-718 can be downloaded here:

    http://www.sekonic.com/support/instr...edownload.aspx

  9. #9
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    Re: How expensive is a photometer?

    Quote Originally Posted by JR1 View Post
    If you want a decent "light meter" get a pre owned Weston Euromaster from ebay
    The selenium cell Weston meters are now so long in the tooth that the reliability of the cell is a crap-shoot. Replacing the selenium cell is a custom repair and costs more than a used Seconic or Gossen meter.

  10. #10
    kintatsu's Avatar
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    Re: How expensive is a photometer?

    Quote Originally Posted by GrahamS View Post
    The selenium cell Weston meters are now so long in the tooth that the reliability of the cell is a crap-shoot. Replacing the selenium cell is a custom repair and costs more than a used Seconic or Gossen meter.
    That depends. My Sixtino and Sixtomat are both working great. No selenium replacements, just working meters. The issue is environment and exposure. An overly humid environment leads to contact corrosion, an overly bright storage environment leads to cell decay. A replacement cell or cleaning isn't too bad if one looks at the right shops or on Google.

  11. #11

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    Re: How expensive is a photometer?

    Quote Originally Posted by chauncey View Post
    In the last 6 years...all my images have been captured with the exposure having been set in manual mode using the histogram to ETTR in live view mode which is available with Canon gear.
    I am suitably impressed! Do cameras other than Canon have the same option?

    Just kidding, Willum, I think it was the gratuitous Canon-mention that did it

  12. #12
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    Re: How expensive is a photometer?

    Quote Originally Posted by chauncey View Post
    In the last 6 years...all my images have been captured with the exposure having been set in manual mode using the histogram to ETTR in live view mode which is available with Canon gear.
    As a general rule, I would suggest that most of my shots are done using the camera's meter; and I will have a glance at the histogram.

    Pretty well any portraiture or product work using manual flash, I use an incident flash meter (Sekonic L-358), especially when I use multiple light sources. I will sometimes use it for backlit scenes when I shoot outdoors as well. I have a 1° spot meter attachment for it that I will use in tricky lighting situations. I find I want a solid, repeatable measurement to work off of and the historgram and trial & error can be a bit too much of a blunt tool.
    Last edited by Manfred M; 20th January 2014 at 03:55 PM.

  13. #13

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    Re: How expensive is a photometer?

    Just kidding, Willum, I think it was the gratuitous Canon-mention that did it
    I am not a Scott Kelby fan in spite of once being a NAPP member but...I did find this interesting. He does tend to babble a bit.
    http://www.photographybay.com/2014/0...ography+Bay%29
    It's highly doubtful that the associated costs of switching had any effect on him.

  14. #14

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    Have a guess :)

    Re: How expensive is a photometer?

    Quote Originally Posted by chauncey View Post
    I am not a Scott Kelby fan in spite of once being a NAPP member but...I did find this interesting. He does tend to babble a bit.
    http://www.photographybay.com/2014/0...ography+Bay%29
    It's highly doubtful that the associated costs of switching had any effect on him.
    Pure magic

    In summary, Canon loaned him a 1D X - he loved it so much he wouldn't give it back. The loaned him a 5D3 - he loved it so much he wouldn't give it back either. And he hasn't used his Nikon cameras since.

    Of course we Canonites knew this would happen

    Great link by the way!

  15. #15

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    Re: How expensive is a photometer?

    You can use your camera as a meter so long as you remember the settings the camera chooses and then modify them for you own purposes ... apart from a Weston Master purchased recently for nostalgic reasons, I started with one, I have not used a separate meter for decades.

    Perhap over simplified for a newbie as you need to learn how to use a meter before you can use the camera as one.

    The easiest approach is to point the camera and let it take a photo. Then examin the result and remembering the settings it used adjust them to suit your needs .... this is the beauty of digital's "Instant feedback"

  16. #16
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    Re: How expensive is a photometer?

    I use a light meter app on my phone, works for me!

  17. #17
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    Re: How expensive is a photometer?

    Quote Originally Posted by xpatUSA View Post
    I am suitably impressed! Do cameras other than Canon have the same option? ...
    OTOH, only Canon bodies can use Magic Lantern to do auto-ETTR, based upon a RAW histogram.

  18. #18

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    Re: How expensive is a photometer?

    The easiest approach is to point the camera and let it take a photo. Then examin the result and remembering the settings it used adjust them to suit your needs .... this is the beauty of digital's "Instant feedback"
    If you're examining the images on that LCD screen, remember that those images are a jpeg rendition which are based on your in-camera settings and will not equal the RAW image.

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