Hi,
I want to get a hand held light meter, ambient/incident lighting is all that is
needed. No flash, no color, no studio and no spot required.
It will be used for two purposes, the first purpose could be met by just about
anything.
1) as the meter for setting an older camera (mid-1950s Voigtlander rangefinder
which is just fun, and whose Zeiss lens is wicked sharp) that doesn't have a
meter. (Well actually it does have a selenium array and needle, but it can't be
trusted or repaired -- I'm certain on both statements!).
2) As a means of making some more educated guesses for extended exposures at
very low light conditions with my OM. You can play games with the ASA speed,
but at the end of the day, most TTL metering just doesn't cut it if you are
shooting more in the range of many minutes at f11 or so, for a slow film.
(Maybe the 4T comes close ... but does its meter account for reciprocity
failure?).
The key constraint is that I would like to buy a used one ... and I don't want
to spend a great deal of money. I would be suspicious of anything I can get for
less than $70 as unable to cover #2 and probably unwilling to buy anything that
costs much more than $170.
I see KEH has a few Sekonic L-398Ms, a couple of Minolta III and even a pair of
Gossen Luna-Pro (SBC and digital) in that range, though the Gossens are at the
extreme high end of my price range.
It can be challenging to find info on light meters which aren't currently being
sold as new! What data I did find on the Sekonic suggests that it probably
comes up too short in the "low light" category. +4EV is not what I would call
low light! (-8 EV is more what I had in mind).
So, the questions:
1) Maybe my goals are incompatible? Maybe low light and < $175 don't go
together in any meaningful way?
2) Any good places to find detailed info on older, "no longer currently for
sale" meters that might help me sort out the useful from the useless on eBay or
other low-info venues?
3) Any specific inputs on the above meters -- or others I should look for? Keep
in mind the ability to actually acquire the thing is a constraint as well. The
fact that you got the perfect thing for $50, but they only made seven of them
and you aren't selling yours isn't helpful. :-)
Some quite old postings (1997) on photo.net rave about something called a
"calculite" but I don't see them for sale new anywhere and nothing like that
has sold on evilBay recently ...
Anyway, looking for some low light help, having been inspired by Lee Frosts'
book which contains all kinds of shots whose near dark conditions are the kind
I would like to try.
Stuart
< This message was delivered via the Olympus Mailing List >
< For questions, mailto:owner-olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx >
< Web Page: http://Zuiko.sls.bc.ca/swright/olympuslist.html >
|