Spotmetering with Sekonic 758 (or others)

My Minolta F Spotmeter does pretty much the same but lacks the incident meter feature which, for the price difference was the deal breaker for me.
The ability to analyse the scene, store different highlight and shadow points , average the scene, easily identify the SBR makes either of these meters indispensable for LF sheet photography for me.

Andrew


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
It's surprising what you can do inside your head. Thinking is good for you and doesn't need a battery. Is it a coincidence that there are ten fingers and ten zones?
On the other hand, I do covet the latest Sekonic meter even though I shall never need to measure flash duration or profile my sensors. I shall have to stick with the Pentax.
 
David M said:
It's surprising what you can do inside your head. Thinking is good for you and doesn't need a battery. Is it a coincidence that there are ten fingers and ten zones?
On the other hand, I do covet the latest Sekonic meter even though I shall never need to measure flash duration or profile my sensors. I shall have to stick with the Pentax.
Click to expand...

It's possible to use any hand held meter with the Zone System in reflective mode to measure highlights and shadows, I started with a Weston Master V or Euromaster, however a Spotmeter makes life easier, I now use a Mimolta Spotmeter F, however I also use Gossen Luna Pro meters (one's an F) and have two 7º/15º Spot attachments these work really well in practice.

My back up meter is a Leningrad 4, it's small, light and surprisingly accurate, it gets used more when I'm off shooting with my TLRs or rare outings with a 35mm camera when I have no backpack.

Ian
 
I also have the 758Cine, plus a couple of Pentax Spot Meters (V and Digital), a Sekonic L-478 and a Gossen Sixtomat Flash (a nice little meter). Whilst the 758 is very helpful for video and flash work, and has enabled me to get better shots with a digital camera, I still prefer the Pentax V as I've owned it since 1983 and know how it works. I've added a simple paper sticker to give me the Zones, as per the instructions in The Negative. I much prefer it to the Digital, even though it's bigger, as the analogue needle is much quicker to assess where the reading is on the scale - is it nearly a half stop or 3/4?
The Gossen Starlite 2 looks very similar in functionality to the 758 and the new 858 (a sort of Swiss Army Knife of metering), but it does actually include a specific Zone System display.

https://gossen-photo.de/wp-content/...tung/STARLITE_2/BA_Starlite 2_GB_20140822.pdf

Page 21 of the manual gives details of how it works.

Nick
 
I have the 758 too, but prefer my Pentax Digital Spotmeter.....it's simple, reliable and takes a Zone sticker.......all i need really!

Mike
 
I like the Pentax Digital, too. Simple to use, light and compact and, asMike says, takes a Zone sticker. Only one button so no clicking up, down and sideways is involved. The only thing I don't like is that the 1° measuring circle is very fine and sometimes disappears agains a dark background. I did post a PDF of a sticker that can be printed out if anybody wants one.
A Weston will do almost everything that you really need, but there's no doubt that a spot meter adds a good deal of convenience.
 
".....and sometimes disappears agains a dark background"

My L488 spot meter has an illuminated circle which is very useful, but the rest of the design is very poor, such as having to manually switch it off and on with a tiny switch (not easy to use with gloves on) and a screen-printed comparator scale thats very hard to read.

Mike
 
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