 Aimeedphotography D. |
Good Light Meter? I shoot with a D70 and have recently been advised to purchase a light meter since I am now advancing in Studio Photography. Are there any suggestions on a good quality light meter, within a reasonable budget, that you would recommend? There are so many to choose from I just don't want to purchase an expensive one and have it be poor quality.
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Christopher A. Vedros |
If you're doing studio work, you will definitely need a meter that measures flash as well as ambient light. I've read great reviews of the Minolta AF IV F, but I don't know if it's still available, since Konica-Minolta has sold their photo operations to Sony. Sony supports the older products, but I don't know if they are still selling meters. I've also read great reviews of the Gossen Digipro F. You can get it at bhphotovideo.com for $258.95 Chris A. Vedros
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Jon Close |
It looks like Kenko has picked up the light meters from Minolta and will be reintroducing them in June: Their KFM-1100 looks identical to the Minolta AF V F: http://www.thkphoto.com/news/news-pr-kfm-1100-0407.html. Sekonic also has a good line of ambient/flash/spot meters.
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Sharon Day |
Are there such a thing as meters that will measure the color temperature of light? I think that would be neat. With the D200 I would just set the color temperature to match what a meter says. Yeah, I know I can use the pre set thing, but I never can remember what to do when wanting to set it :o)!
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Jon Close |
Yes, there are color temperature meters. Kenko is introducing one in June - KCM-3100, a reintroduction of the old Minolta Color Meter III F: http://www.thkphoto.com/news/news-02.html. I believe Gossen and Sekonic also make these, but they are much more expensive than light meters.
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Mark Feldstein |
Hi Sharon ! Compared to the cost of just a color temp meter, the cost of a set of color correction filters will rock your world for sure. In that sense, they practically give you the meter, but charge astronomical prices for the filters...assuming you're still talking film shooting, of course. M.
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Mark Feldstein |
Hi Sharon ! Compared to the cost of just a color temp meter, the cost of a set of color correction filters will rock your world for sure. In that sense, they practically give you the meter, but charge astronomical prices for the filters...assuming you're still talking film shooting, of course. M.
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John H. Siskin |
Hi Aimeed, I know this is a minority opinion, but I don’t use my meter much anymore. I have an instant proof image on my camera, and a bigger one on my laptop. In addition to the image I have a histogram, which tells me things I want and need to know. When I shot in the studio with film I would use a meter and then I would shoot Polaroid, maybe a lot of Polaroid to get all the lights to where I wanted them to be. The meter just gave me a starting guess. With the digital camera I start with a guess, it really doesn’t matter if it is a good guess, and make changes based on the information in the image, just as I would have made changes based on the Polaroid. I knew people who only used Polaroid back in the day, but this could be costly as a single exposure of Polaroid material was around $3. for 4X5 images. Now a digital test is free, so why spend a couple of hundred bucks on a meter? I do use a meter when I do copy work, so if you are doing this or some other specialize application I withdraw my opinion. Another opinion, I rent a color temperature meter about once every other year and check my strobes. This helps me to maintain an accurate color space, but I only need to do this every other year, strobes don’t change very quickly. I do have a huge number of wratten gels I don’t use much anymore. Thanks, John Siskin
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Debby A. Tabb |
LOL,LOL John, I sent Aimee a email on this,just so another "To buy a Meter or Not to buy" debate didn't ensue. But since you've put it out there,lol. I do NOT use mine anymore either, hadn't since I went Digital, years now. I test and correct if need be. and I recommend puting money in to other things first. I do hope this helps, Debby
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