Light meters?
 

Hi, I have been trolling through some catalogues etc drooling over things I cant afford.

There is a plethora of light meters out there, and I was wondering.

Given the sophistication of TTL metering in Digital cameras, is it necessary to have a seprate light meter?

And if so what do they bring to photography that the TTL can not?

I assume if you are using manual settings they could be useful but again surely the camera's metering system etc is just as good?

Nogbad

Digital cameras can show you the image post exposure and more importantly show the histogram so you can judge how the exposure turned out. I have a small light meter (a rather nice but cheap Sekonic) but never use it now that I have gone to digital. There's just no point! Th eonly reason I can think of is that waving a camera around to take test exposures alerts others to the camera. Also previewing images uses up the battery. So using a meter is useful to a) allow candid photography, where you want to take the image quickly before the subjects realise they are being photographed and for some reason you do not want to rely on the cameras meter or b) to conserve the cameras battery for some reason. In case b) why not just carry a spare charged battery!

Leif

I wonder if this question was prompted by the exposure issue on your panaramic stitching. I agree with Leif, camera meters have made the external meter pretty well redundant these days. The only two things I can think may be useful for are a; checking the brightness range of the scene ( will the number of stops of light exceed the senor or film ) and b; multiple slave flash setup.

Hi Nogbad,

These days the only time I use a light meter is for studio set-ups to determine flash exposures.

For all of my outdoor stuff I trust the metering of my 20D implicitly.

While I do not regard seperate lightmeters as a must have accessory I feel they do have their uses, even today. I bought mine years ago and still use it today, mainly taking incident light readings of subjects I am shooting in manual mode. An example is the Winter Aconite in my gallery. In this case it was a lot easier than trying to use the camera meter. I readily accept that for telephoto work, built in metering is the only way to go.

I do think for anyone struggling to grapple with linking shutter speeds, aperture and ISO as described in Duncans thread - ' Manual exposure mode, juggling three balls. ' that a cheap analogue meter would be useful as it links the three.

For those viewing this thread that are unfamiliar with an anologue lightmeter display I am posting a picture showing todays not so glorious Norfolk light. The reading has been taken and all aperture / shutter speed combinations you can see lined up would give the same exposure. The effect on the total range of possible exposure combinations of changing the ISO setting would be immediately visible.

Don

Yes, I made this very point some time ago on BF - a secondhand analogue meter shouldn't cost more than a few quid and would be useful just to check out various situations whilst walking around. You wouldn't have to take any photos, just familiarise one's self with what combinations of ISO, shutter and aperture would be available for any given situation.

I suppose I am only repeating Don in a different way. The camera meter uses reflected light which is fine for average subjects. If you are photographing say a white swan against a darkish background you will probably loose detail in the over exposed feathers. Exposure compensation will take care of this if you guess it right! Agreed, the histagram will tell you if you get it wrong but how many guesses before you get it right. With an incident light meter reading exposure compensation is generally not necessay.

Hi thanks for all the tips. I had prolems on Saturday when taking pictures in the Natural History Museum, of some bronze statues. I was trying to use manual and program modes without resorting to flash. It was pretty hit and miss. More miss woth only 2 0r 3 passable shots out of say 20-30.

I guess a Light meter would have been useful then.

Thanks guys!

Nogbad

I was only thinking re light meters early on this week,and Adey,I think it was either yourself or Tracker who gave me some advice a couple of years ago,on BF.So does the light meter,tell you exactly which ISO,Aperture and shutter speeds one needs to set on the camera?.If taking a photo of ,say,a Swan,would one point the meter directly at the Swan,how about sunsets etc,I saw a used Grossen advertised in AP this week,and did think re buying.I am totally clueless re speeds etc,but if I have a machine which tells me which settings to put on the cam it would makes things easier,and in time one would know automatically.Would be useful ,I guess taking birds in water in the sunlight,or would it?.Before anyone mentions histograms,no,they mean absolutely nothing except lots of lines and graphs.

Same here ...

cheers,
jim