Hello everyone. I have been toying with the idea of buying a hand held meter for quite some time to use with my Realist, Vivid or Sputnik. As a present to myself (just graduated with my MFA), I want to get a "Sekonic L-398A Studio Deluxe III Light Meter". The reviews I read say that it is a "standard" in the field. Would this be the way to go for ease of use?

David Damico
Houston, TX

David Damico wrote:

>
> Hello everyone. I have been toying with the idea of buying a hand
> held meter for quite some time to use with my Realist, Vivid or
> Sputnik. As a present to myself (just graduated with my MFA), I want
> to get a "Sekonic L-398A Studio Deluxe III Light Meter". The reviews
> I read say that it is a "standard" in the field. Would this be the
> way to go for ease of use?

Congratulations on the MFA.

I had a Sekonic L-358 meter that was stolen and when I replaced it I
got a Sekonic L-308S. I was looking for a smaller, less complicated,
and less expensive meter. They are both accurate meters.

I wanted a flash meter so I didn't get a L-398A, but in hindsight I
don't use the flash meter function very often and the L-398A could do
everything I want in an ambient incident meter.

--
Brian Reynolds | "It's just like flying a spaceship.
reynolds@panix.com | You push some buttons and see
http://www.panix.com/~reynolds/ | what happens." -- Zapp Brannigan
NAR# 54438 |

I had a Seconic, which I was happy with.
Then I just started using my DSLR as a light meter.

Especially in uneven lighting (like shooting at night) I can get
closer to the exposure I want than I would if I were using a light meter.

espressobuzz wrote:

>
> I had a Seconic, which I was happy with.
> Then I just started using my DSLR as a light meter.
>
> Especially in uneven lighting (like shooting at night) I can get
> closer to the exposure I want than I would if I were using a light
> meter.

I have also used a DSLR as a light meter, but there are times when I
don't want to drag the DSLR around just to take meter readings.

A DSLR and lens is also much more expensive than a hand held meter.

--
Brian Reynolds | "It's just like flying a spaceship.
reynolds@panix.com | You push some buttons and see
http://www.panix.com/~reynolds/ | what happens." -- Zapp Brannigan
NAR# 54438 |

David Damico wrote:

> . . I want to get a "Sekonic L-398A Studio Deluxe III
> Light Meter". The reviews I read say that it is a
> "standard" in the field.

What will you be photographing, David?
How will you be using it?
Your tools should fit your needs, not the needs of some
generic user in some ill-defined "field".

> Would this be the way to go for ease of use?

After reading through the manual on this one, I think it
could take me several weeks to figure out how to drive this
meter. I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer so you will
probably do better than I.

fwiw, I currently use a Sekonic L-208 because it is lighter
and easier to carry than my Weston. My Weston, however, was
even easier to use than the L-208.
--
John Thurston
Juneau Alaska
http://stereo.thurstons.us

Thanks to everyone for their remarks. To answer your question John, I shoot mainly landscapes but as time permits, I want to experiment with interior still lifes, possibly with my SLR rather than stereo cameras. I have been looking for a basic light meter for some time but life has been busy and shooting had taken a back seat other than some highly experimental pinholes for a class which require no meter. I checked out the L-208 and it does indeed meet my requirements as does the Gossen Digisix GO 4006. I'm leaning towards the L-208 now. What is the battery life like? Is the battery easy to replace?

David Damico
Houston, TX

On Tue, May 13, 2008 at 1:29 PM, John Thurston <juneau3d@thurstons.us> wrote:

David Damico wrote:
> . . I want to get a "Sekonic L-398A Studio Deluxe III

> Light Meter". The reviews I read say that it is a
> "standard" in the field.

What will you be photographing, David?
How will you be using it?
Your tools should fit your needs, not the needs of some
generic user in some ill-defined "field".

> Would this be the way to go for ease of use?

After reading through the manual on this one, I think it
could take me several weeks to figure out how to drive this
meter. I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer so you will
probably do better than I.

fwiw, I currently use a Sekonic L-208 because it is lighter
and easier to carry than my Weston. My Weston, however, was
even easier to use than the L-208.
--
John Thurston
Juneau Alaska

David Damico wrote:

> I'm leaning towards the L-208 now. What is the battery
> life like? Is the battery easy to replace?

Simple enough to replace the battery. You use a coin to
twist the battery cover off, replace the battery, and twist
the cover back on.

I've had mine for . . . three years? (I bought it the summer
of '04 as my Weston was too heavy for the backpacking trip I
was making.) I'm still on my original battery but I'm not a
heavy user. I suspect if I was using it all-day, every-day,
it would be dead by now.
--
John Thurston
Juneau Alaska
http://stereo.thurstons.us

David Damico wrote:

> I checked out the L-208 and it does
> indeed meet my requirements as does the Gossen Digisix GO 4006.

fwiw, back when I bought my L-208, I was considering the
Digisix. At the time, it was receiving (what I considered
to be) very poor scores for longevity. Comments like "It
quit after six months but what do you expect for such an
inexpensive meter" turned me off. That was several years
ago so those reports could well be irrelevant now.

As I recall, it was also more complicated to switch ISO
settings. I often travel with different speed films
(sometimes loaded in two different cameras) and wanted to be
able to alter the ISO setting without clobbering my meter
reading. Yes, I know I could accommodate the different ISOs
by mentally adding or subtracting a stop, but I'm a visual
learner and I wanna see the numbers too.

The manuals for these meters are all available as downloads.
I'd suggest grabbing each and reading through the basic
instructions for them. Think about how the different
processes will fit into the photographic activity you will
be doing. It's how the tool works for you that matters. If
it doesn't fit in your work-flow, it doesn't matter how neat
the tool is or how much someone else likes it.
--
John Thurston
Juneau Alaska
http://stereo.thurstons.us