Is this light meter good enough for me?

Redstreak

Redstreak

Active member
I'm a passionate filmmaker and photographer, have shot many films, but I've been working digitally ever since I started doing anything serious.

So I've always had my LCD to experiment with exposure, and I feel like that's limited the way I look at light around me - I only ever think it terms of "brighter" "darker" "too bright" etc. I want to learn to see and quantify light, "a stop and a half under key" "three stops darker in the shadows" etc.

So, I'm looking at getting a light meter, but some of them are REALLY expensive. This is just an educational purchase - I won't ever actually use it to calculate my exposure. Amazon sells these two:
http://www.amazon.com/Mastech-Digit...9W3W/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1308852519&sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.com/Sekonic-L-758...7?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1308852529&sr=1-7
I also found this one (used), which looks like something in the middle:
http://www.keh.com/camera/Light-Meters-Light-and-Exposure-Meters/1/sku-GM709991203920?r=FE

Can someone explain the difference between a $30 light meter and a $600 light meter, and whether it would matter for my purposes?

Thank you,
- David
 
the mastech meter looks like it only gives light in Lux. that won't be too helpful.

you can't really go wrong with anything Sekonic. I bought a used sekonic on ebay for like 50$ and it's been working like a champ for years. they have different models with different accessories and different functions. Just a basic meter with IRE and F/T stop metering is probably plenty good for most things.

the Bowens meter looks like a Sekonic clone. Don't know anything about the brand or the usage although it specifies it as a flash meter so I don't know if it has the ability to be used with constant lighting.
 
It's really not ideal to use a light meter when shooting digital. I mean you can, and I have, but it was only keep a consistant exposure in different parts of the room we were in. If you shoot with a dslr, you have a built in meter, if you use a camcorder, you can pretty much do the same thing with the zebras and or histogram. Dont get me wrong, I think it's beneficial to know how to use one. but not really necessary , thats all.
 
It's good for contrast ratios or for matching exposure for two different cameras with different dynamic ranges. On set last week, I used a Sekonic incidental light meter and a Minolta spot meter exactly for this.
 
Redstreak said:
I'm a passionate filmmaker and photographer, have shot many films, but I've been working digitally ever since I started doing anything serious.

So I've always had my LCD to experiment with exposure, and I feel like that's limited the way I look at light around me - I only ever think it terms of "brighter" "darker" "too bright" etc. I want to learn to see and quantify light, "a stop and a half under key" "three stops darker in the shadows" etc.

So, I'm looking at getting a light meter, but some of them are REALLY expensive. This is just an educational purchase - I won't ever actually use it to calculate my exposure. Amazon sells these two:
http://www.amazon.com/Mastech-Digit...9W3W/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1308852519&sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.com/Sekonic-L-758...7?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1308852529&sr=1-7
I also found this one (used), which looks like something in the middle:
http://www.keh.com/camera/Light-Meters-Light-and-Exposure-Meters/1/sku-GM709991203920?r=FE

Can someone explain the difference between a $30 light meter and a $600 light meter, and whether it would matter for my purposes?

Thank you,
- David
Click to expand...

The only meter that is 'in the ballpark', is the Sekonic 758, and it is an industry standard, at least the 'cine' version,
found here:

http://www.amazon.com/Sekonic-L-758Cine-Light-Meter-Black/dp/B000M3CCTM/ref=pd_cp_p_4

The first meter is probably for checking light levels for say, 'indoor gardening', where one wants to know what the lux/footcandles are and adjust lighting for optimum plant growth. I have a cheap one of those, but I do not use it for 'exposure', but for just checking what the footcandles are for a given light setup. There is a forumula for calculating exposure based on lux/footcandles... but that's pretty arduous.

The third meter is a 'flash' meter, and is used for still photography using flash equipment... not what you want for continuous light for movie (or stills...) photography.

The meter I have had for years, is a Minolta Spotmeter F. I don't believe it is manufactured any longer... the problem with it, relative to movie making, is it does not read out footcandles directly.

Why are lux/footcandles important... because most light output power is given varyingly in terms of 'watts'(almost worthless...), "lumens", sort of worthless, or "lux/footcandles at various distances', exactly what you need to be able to accurately estimate how much of a light you want to rent/buy.

If you are only going to use the meter to check ratios, etc. and not have to be tethered to the camera or waveform monitors, you can get a used spotmeter for that purpose. I tend to use spotmeters over 'incident' meters, but other use the incident meter well enough...


I'd recommend searching the web for definitions on meters if those terms are not familiar to you.

As for the difference between the $30 meter and the Sekonic... well I think the Sekonic is in fact over priced... but the difference is based on two things. Accurate measurement of light, and given that billions of dollars worth of film has been exposed based on readings from the Sekonic, one would have to believe that the measuring ability is highly accurate.

Features. The Sekonic has both spot and incident light meter features that allow you to measure the light falling on a subject from all light sources (incident reading), or measure the light reflected from specific areas of the scene via the spot meter.

As I mentioned I have a cheap light meter that reads out in footcandles, and I think for readings above 50 footcandles it may be reasonably accurate, upto perhaps 5000. I'm just using it as a 'guide' rather than an accurate measuring device, so if it is non-linear, that is doesn't double the reading for every doubling of the light, etc... I'm not that worried.

If my spot meter behaved that 'lazily'... I'd have a problem and would have sent it back, or taken it in for repairs... or considered buying a new one...
 
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Unless your using an Alexa, a meter won't usually give you an absolutely correct exposure, but as mentioned, they're great for setting lighting ratios.

I have numerous meters, some very expensive, but the one that travels with me the most, due to it's compact size, is also the least expensive.

http://www.amazon.com/Sekonic-DigiCineMate-L-308DC-Photographic-Light/dp/B004I53EX8/

And even if you are using an Alexa, metering is practically an art form, & there are many variables to compensate for.

Best,
Bern
 
Either the Sekonic L308DC that Bern mentioned, or the L-398 that Hotwood recommended, would be my choices. In fact, I have both (well, technically, an L-28C2 which was the immediate predecessor of the L-398, but it is almost exactly the same thing).

For measuring lighting ratios, you need:

1) Incident light measurement with a large diffuse dome, switchable to a flat diffuser for measuring individual lights, and
2) Readout directly in footcandles (or lux).

Both those Sekonics have those features. The L308DC is a digital electronic meter with a silicon photocell and powered by a battery. It is very accurate and will work in quite low light levels. The L-398 uses a selenium cell that generates electricity directly from light. It won't work well below 20 fc or so and reads out on an analog meter with less resolution than a digital display. On the other hand, it's very small (although dense), does not require a battery, and is built, almost literally, like a brick. I've had mine since I was a student in the late 1970s and it's still going strong.

Either one will work fine for you if you put a little time into studying it and correlating the readings you see to the effects you can get on screen.

The meter manufacturers know a market when they see it, and usually charge more for "cine" meters that have direct footcandle readouts. Unfortunately, you really can't easily live without that feature when using the meter for lighting design. Displays that only show ISO, aperture and shutter speed (which includes that Sekonic L-758 you referenced in your original post) are very, very difficult to translate into absolute light level values, although there are tables for that purpose. Spend the extra bucks and get an official "cine" meter -- it's almost essential.

I don't use any external meter for setting the actual camera exposure anymore (although I did, in my film days). A waveform monitor or (less desirable) histogram display on the camera plus adjustable zebras or a "false color" monitor are more reliable for actually choosing the right aperture and shutter speed. But the handheld meter is invaluable when setting lighting ratios and for scouting locations to estimate what kind of lights must be added.

- Greg
 
Greg Smith said:
The meter manufacturers know a market when they see it, and usually charge more for "cine" meters that have direct footcandle readouts. Unfortunately, you really can't easily live without that feature when using the meter for lighting design. Displays that only show ISO, aperture and shutter speed (which includes that Sekonic L-758 you referenced in your original post) are very, very difficult to translate into absolute light level values, although there are tables for that purpose. Spend the extra bucks and get an official "cine" meter -- it's almost essential.

I don't use any external meter for setting the actual camera exposure anymore (although I did, in my film days). A waveform monitor or (less desirable) histogram display on the camera plus adjustable zebras or a "false color" monitor are more reliable for actually choosing the right aperture and shutter speed. But the handheld meter is invaluable when setting lighting ratios and for scouting locations to estimate what kind of lights must be added.

- Greg
Click to expand...

Right.

I got a mint used Sekonic Dualmaster L-558 Cine by shopping eBay carefully and patiently and it's a fine tool.
 
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