Seeking Light Meter Recommendations

[Roget]

It's a bit of a hybrid, but for my money, the Gossen Luna-Star F2 has worked out beautifully. Hybrid in that it can be used as an incident, reflective, or spot meter (& flash too). I guess most would consider this a still photo meter, but you can meter for a wide variety of motion picture speeds and fps -- incl. Super-8 ASA & shutter specs.

It's set up for a 180 deg. shutter, with no beamsplitter, so it will generally recommend overexposing by an f-stop or two. The trick is to make a series of test shots at different f-stops, which lets you determine a compensation factor and program it into the meter. This mimics the exposure gains & losses of an XL shutter or beamsplitter in the viewing system.

Unfortunately, the price has risen over the years to around $415.00 -- well above your self-imposed threshold. They are available on eBay for $200 - $225. Being a robust German product, they are exceedingly rugged, which means those that show up on eBay work perfectly well.

There is also the earlier Luna Star F model, but I don't know specifically what the differences are.

[rcroster]

I'd like to purchase a digital cine incident light meter, but on a budget (e.g. no more than $300.00). Does anyone have any recommendations? Thanks.

[rcroster]

Roget,

I will definately look into the Gossen Luna Star F2. I didn't know Gossen light meters were still being manufactured.

I guess I'm out of it, that's the problem after becoming too accustomed to using video exclusively for acquisition... the knowledge needed to shoot film well, especially with regard to exposure, is indeed a perishable skill.

I would very much like to be pointed in the right direction with tips and tricks regarding the best ways to determine overall best exposure of reversal films like K-40, Tri-X and Plus-X using primarily an external light meter, but also using the camera's internal light meter if necessary. Most of the film I shot (years and years ago) was negative stock where exposure latitude is lot wider. The few times I did shoot reversal film and used an external incident light meter the results were usually an overall underexposure of the footage. I know I need to experiment and test but advice from the school of hard knocks is always welcome.

Thanks

[Greg Crawford]

SPECTRA makes a nice meter for about $365 from B & H in NY. It's incident meter with foot candels, F-stops shutter angles ...along with an averaging feature and a ratio feature. Does not do flash or reflective. They may make a spot attachment for this meter I'm not sure. I've been thinking of getting this model.


SEKONIC has incident meter at about $239.00 - $300, Its a still meter, but it does not handel flash. I think it has Cine speeds.

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ May 31, 2004 08:28 PM: Message edited by: Greg_C ]</font>

[rollemfilm]

I picked up a great older Sekonic Studio Deluxe for $95.00. Although it's not digital, it certainly is a very professional meter. It has worked perfectly with excellent results. If you can deal with the small printing and stop needle design you can save a bundle.

The meter I used before this one is a Sekonic but much older. It does not have the locking needle but I only paid $10.00! But it too works great and very accurate. I still keep it around for a backup.

These were "the" meters for cinematograpy for decades. Still a great tool. Both of the ones I have are passive.

[Roget]

Internal camera metering trick: if you're shooting outdoors, meter off green grass and lock the exposure. Grass is pretty close to 18% gray, and keeps the sky from overly influencing the exposure, making the foreground dark.

Locking the exposure is only necessary with an autoexposure system. It's much more professional to not have the exposure changing within a shot as you pan from one direction to another.

If you're shooting Kodachrome 40, I highly recommend underexposing it by about 1/2 stop. Colors are much more saturated. I project my films, so this is the right strategy for me; if you're going to telecine, this may not be work out as well.

Test, test, and test.

[rcroster]

Roget,

Neat trick with the grass, I never heard of that and I will definitely try it. If I had a gray scale I assume I'd use the camera's internal meter on it versus the grass or, use an external meter in a reflective mode and take the reading off the gray scale (right?). Anyway, as I thought about gray scales a memory hit me and I opened up my old and long unused film grip case and at the bottom of all the crap in it I found a Kodak Color Separation Guide and Gray Scale. I got really excited at first but it turned out it was just the sleeve, the actual color guide and gray scale was no longer inside it. Damn! But the good news is I'll be visiting NYC soon so I'll visit B&H Photo and check out thier Luna-Pro, Spectra-Pro and Sekonic light meters and try to figure out which one I want to purchase. I'll purchase a new color separation guide and gray scale as well. I wonder how much they cost now? The Kodak sleeve of the one I used to own indicates $10.00. However, I purchased that one circa 1979!

Thanks to everyone for all the good advice

[bigmasi]

I learned that you can measure the lightning without the greycard from a treeline of a forrest? I guess green grass is the same thing?

[rcroster]

For anyone interested, I ended up purchasing the Sekonic Studio Deluxe II L-398M. B&H Photo had a special on it recently for $161.00 so it fit within my alloted budget. It's a real old fashioned type meter, no digital readouts on this model but I think it's just the ticket to re-learn the basics. It's good for still photography and has a cine scale for motion picture shooting. One day, when I'm proficient using it and shooting consistently well exposed footage I'll splurge for one of those fancy digital combo meters with spot metering capability (Sekonic has some really nice meters, check out thier website!)