[Leica] Voigtlander clip on meter

["Kam" <kamm@netvigator.com>]

Hi all,

I have borrowed a Voigtlander clip on meter from a friend and used it for a
week.   It  is such a lovely thing that I have decided to buy one.  Here is
my report:

Construction - it looks like a plastic toy in pictures but it is very
solidly built.  It is made of metal with a surface finishing rather similar
to that of the M6.    A well-built solid but light weight (42g only) stuff.

Handling and ease of use - the design is excellent and very easy to use.
I'll be surprised if anyone on this list will need to refer to the manual to
find out how to use it (I only looked at the manual once to find out its
weight).  The two dials on the top are easy to use.  The aperture dial, much
to my liking, is stepless.  There is no difficulty whatsoever in reading the
LEDs, even under direct sunlight.  Under this head the meter will score a
full mark.

Accuracy - It can't be as accurate as a sekonic or minolta, that's for sure.
Having said that, in most cases (by most I mean over 90%) it produces the
same reading as my M6.  The silicon photodiode is fairly sensitive.  As it
is so small and can be used as a hand-held meter, you can take it up to your
subject and take a closer "spot" metering.  In one case I took a reading
from less than 12" away from the face of a lady, she just found it a cute
little thing to look at.  In terms of obstructiveness I guess it is even
less obstructive than a Leica.

Other uses - it may sound silly, but in the past few days I took the meter
to almost everywhere and compared its reading with my eye metering.  It was
fun.

Compatability - as there is no coupling device it can be used on any camea.
I have tried it on a M4-2, a IIIf and an Olympus SP which has a dead meter.
In all cases it does not cause any obstruction to operation.

Battery life - I used it very intensively in the past few days (and my 15
month old daughter played with it even more intensively - she just loved to
see the LEDs going on and off).  There has been no sign of battery drain
(though only fitted with alkaline batteries, it has been producing
consistent reading so I assume that there is no signficant drop in voltage).

My conclusion: although not cheap (HK$1,300, about US$160), my vote for best
accessory of the year surely goes to it.


Regards,
Kam