Re: [Leica] Spot meter in my future?

[Mark Rabiner <mark@rabinergroup.com>]

Peter Klein wrote:
> 
> I mentioned shooting a couple of chamber music concerts last weekend.
> 
> The bad news is that on Sunday night, the lighing was so harsh and
> contrasty that I have a lot of blown faces.  There was no way to meter
> beforehand, as the stage lights were not on until the performers came out.
> I used my old trick of metering off the light-colored stage floor and
> closing down a stop, but it wasn't enough for Neopan 1600.
> 
> Since I enjoy shooting concerts and theatre, I think there's a spot meter
> in my future. I wish Gossen made a spot meter attachment for my Luna Pro
> Digital, but I don't believe they do.
> 
> Can anyone recommend a reliable make of spot meter that's available used?
> What might I expect to pay for a spot meter?
> 
> --Peter Klein
> Seattle, WA
> 
> --


Hi Peter! This performance situation you're describing is the only
situation I'd use a spot meter with 35mm photography.
I generally use it with medium or large formats where I'm more prone to
use a tripod for one and the camera doesn't already have a meter in it
for two.

I turned a little screw in my Minolta Spot Meter F so it agree's
perfectly with my Leica's which agree with most of my Nikons coincodently.

So there is no intrigue between the readings with my Minolta and my
Leica's.   .... old saying: person with one meter knows how much light
is there. Person with two meters is not so sure. (Nice paraphrase?!)

I think of meter's i think Gossen. But Gossans spot meters was expensive
and big an awkward.
No big deal because just as I and a lot of people think of Gossen as
"the" meter a huge percentage of working photographers think of Minolta
as "the" meter and would not think of getting any other. Everyone they
know use only Minolta meters.

I'd have gotten the Pentax which is far more compact and cheaper and the
standard of the industry for the large format zone six types.  The zone
VI people had a version which was adapted to the zone system and had
added filtration and baffling for true color readings. Oh so important
in black and white photograpy!

Gossen made a spot meter attachment i used to use on my Luna Pro F in
the 80's for 3 and 15 degrees but it was awkward to use and you need one degree.

I have used cameras and lenses but I'd never buy a used meter.  Or a
used flash. That's just me.
You could get yourself a meter which works great Monday, Wednesday and
Fridays during the daytime but not on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays
at night. They you can spend a year and rolls and rolls of film and
blown shots figuring that out. "Oh so THAT"s why they sold that meter!"
It's amazing how cheap excellent and compact the new meters are.

It's no longer Gossen and Minolta anymore. Modern Electronics have
gotten all kinds of companies you've never heard of making perfectly
adequate meters which are a real buy with all kinds of memory features
you could choose to use. Or not.


Mark Rabiner
Portland, Oregon USA
Photography

Web Sight: http://www.rabinergroup.com
Email: mark@rabinergroup.com
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