Cheap way to measure light?

[vizteller]

I don’t want to spend hundreds on a lightmeter.

I wonder if there’s a way around it. You can purchase very inexpensive ones that simply give you lux reading.
You can’t put in ISO or shutter speed, nor does it recommend your F-stop.

Could these calculations be done by me?

If so, say I had 100 ft-candles (~1,000lux) on the subject.
How would I compute what shutter/F-stop combos I can go with (for instance, if I wanted 1/30 shutter)?

Thank you,

Vt

 

[VictorS]

you could buy an analog light meter on ebay. Just test it to see if it matched a digital light meter before you start using it on the field.

 

[vizteller]

So there isn't a way to calculate your camera settings from just a lux reading?

 

[ZeroContent]

The calculations are probably in the American Cinematographer Manual.

 

[filmat11]

Borrow a friends 35mm still camera and use the camera's meter to put you close to what you need/want.
You can buy a good light meter from WWW.KEH.com or ebay for under a hundred and 50 bucks.
A great workhorse of a meter is the Sekonic L-39...

 

[j]

If I were going to try and do some on-the-cheap light meter reading, I'd probably just use my DVX as a spot meter, figuring it's rated at 320 or so.

Anything more precise, and I'd want a real meter. You can buy a sekonic incident for $180 new. I'd be wary of buying one off e-bay without having it re-calibrated.

 

[vizteller]

Thank you all for input. A digital lightmeter can be had, new for about $30. I have heard different things about exposure-measuring usefulness for DV.

I want to buy the $30 (if there is a way to compute the camera settings myself) and see if I will use it much or at all before committing to the $180 kind...