A good light meter for digital production?

[Shawn Nelson]

As per title, what do people recommend for a good, but not extravagant, light meter for use in digital production? Like with a Red for example.

[chuck colburn]

As per title, what do people recommend for a good, but not extravagant, light meter for use in digital production? Like with a Red for example.

Hi Shawn,

This is a classic light meter. Drop in the asa grid you want and it reads straight out in stops. Not as fancy as some, but very durable and NO batteries required.

Chuck

http://www.henrys.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ItemsDisplay?currency=USD&affiliate=froogle&storeId=10001&departmentId=10407&itemID=172501&catalogId=10101&ddkey=SetCurrencyPreference

http://cgi.ebay.com/SEKONIC-LIGHTMETER-STUDIO-DELUXE-III-L-398A-NEW_W0QQitemZ130114946648QQihZ003QQcategoryZ88669Q QcmdZViewItem

[Jeff Kilgroe]

I like my Sekonic L-358. It handles various metering tasks for still photography rather well and it also has a cine mode with settings up to 350fps. I've found it to be quite useful with my HVX... I don't use it really at all any more for still photography -- my D2Xs has all the metering and info I need right onboard.

[Alexander Nikishin]

I'd recommend the newest and best to date Sekonic, the L-758C, it does everything but shoot 4k!

NEW FEATURES: Frames per second; from 1 to 1000 fps
Shutter Angle: from 1°to 10° (in 1° steps), 15° to 270° (in 5° steps)
Footcandles; 0.10 to 180,000fc.
Foot Lamberts; 0.07 to 190,000
Extended analog scale; f/0.5 to f/64
Seventeen Custom Settings

http://www.filmtools.com/l758c.html

Also, if you do pick one up, I'd recommend buying it over seas for just about half price...

http://cgi.ebay.com/Sekonic-L-758C-L-758-Cine-L758C-Light-Meter-New_W0QQitemZ200109997088QQihZ010QQcategoryZ3319QQ tcZphotoQQcmdZViewItem

[chuck colburn]

Wow!
And only $670.00

[dalemccready]

I used to use a dual sekonic till it got stolen, but I also have a full Spot meter so I bought the 358 incident to replace the dual. It's great. I was worried that it didn't display low enough (it's offest for stills so goes up to from 1 to 90) but I've never found it an issue. It's cost effective, small and light yet durable. I often to TVCs with it just in my back pocket (sick of tool belts).

[dalemccready]

that said, a dual meter is really handy in a chopper where you can have spot and incident around your kneck on a lanyard in one device.

[David Mullen ASC]

I managed to get through film school and then shoot twenty features with just a basic Minolta incident meter, before I bought a spot meter (I used my Nikon still camera as a rough reflected meter when I needed to measure a sunset sky or something).

Eventually I got a Spectra Pro incident meter and kept the Minolta as a back-up. As long as it meters the light, it doesn't really matter what meter you get.

[Sanjin Jukic]

Sekonic Dualmaster L-558 Exposure Meter review(Link) (http://www.olegnovikov.com/technical/sekonic558.shtml)

http://www.sanjinjukic.com/extras/seconic_L558c.jpg

Official
http://www.sekonic.com/main/

[Priyesh P.]

Sekonic Dualmaster L-558 Exposure Meter review(Link) (http://www.olegnovikov.com/technical/sekonic558.shtml)

http://www.sanjinjukic.com/extras/seconic_L558c.jpg

Official
http://www.sekonic.com/main/

We´ve bought the sekonic l-558 cine, too , after fighting with a Spectra V.
It´s worth every penny !

[Poi Boy]

Any meter that WORKS FOR YOU is a good meter, spot or incident. Having said that, if you are financially challenged and planning to shoot with red, then by far the best thing to do is buy a nikon or canon dslr with a zoom. You get a directors view, an extremely sophisticated light meter and stills for your production, a no brainer.
Aloha
-A

[martinnoweck]

Any meter that WORKS FOR YOU is a good meter, spot or incident. Having said that, if you are financially challenged and planning to shoot with red, then by far the best thing to do is buy a nikon or canon dslr with a zoom. You get a directors view, an extremely sophisticated light meter and stills for your production, a no brainer.
Aloha
-A

I second that.

I am using a Minolta Spotmeter F and a Gossen Incident Meter. Not state of the art, but works fine for me.

Martin

[laguun]

on some recent sets, i saw more and more dp/crew without lightmeter...

... i really didn´t know what to think, but was curious - they basicly were using vector/wave instead of the lightmeter.

what do you think? bad trend? or makes sense? maybe i am just a little bit to oldschool, but i am sceptical regarding works w/o lightmeter.

p.s. was on the sets as production/co-production/supervisor and didn´t want to discuss the issue with the dps on the set, so i don´t have any info why they worked that way.

[Chris Gearhart]

I don't think Sekonic sells the L-558 anymore. Seems it's replaced by the 758.

[martinnoweck]

Hi laguun,

interesting topic - i was thinking about this myself and I am curious what will be the solution offered in the red evf ... i know, i know waveform, histogramm, etc. - but how will affect the real production habits, production speed etc.

IMO most of the time the setup was either to expensive or slowing down (laptop based), so I use the zebra to find the correct exposure for the key light and then the spotmeter for the ratio.

Other thoughts?
Martin

[donatello b]

take a look at used Minolta Auto Meter IVF ( not Minolto Flash IV)... they were around $250 new .. many are on Ebay ...

Spectra's are the standard in Hollywood ...

[dalemccready]

It is a really nice thing to not have to be tethered to a camera to work out your exposure. Depending upon your shooting situation of course. You might be pre-lighting a set, or the camera could be getting set on a steadicam etc. Meters can come in really handy.

With work I've done on HD I've tended to still go back to my meter to light the scene, but once I've done that I'm then on cameras looking at waveforms, and thats a nice workflow for me, and I might change the actual camera expoure at that point to use the dynamic range better.

[Poi Boy]

That is my flow as well, start with a meter and then fine tune with scopes.
Aloha
-A

[T. Glen Phelps]

I was recently involved (as an extra) on the upcoming Micheal Bay film "Transformers" and the DP (whom I had a million questions for) was using a Nikon Digital still camera as a light meter and to get a test shot.

[dalemccready]

Thats fairly common on commercials too, I use my 20D constantly to check the exposure, and it's handy getting reference shots too that I can grade and take to the telecine as a starting point. But I'd imagine once you're using a camera that has a good output monitor the stills camera might get a bit redundant.

As a funny aside, I had a friend who went out with a girl that constantly told us how she was a dp (she may not have realised she was talking to two dps) and she thought that spot meters were way cooler than incident meters. We kept our mouths shut. :)

[dalemccready]

She was also a loader on a short film at one point and got called up by the Producer on Sunday afternoon asking if she'd dropped the film into the lab on Friday night... it was sitting in the sun in the back of her car.

Thankfully my friend got over her and is now married to a great lady.