| Author |
Message |
marcusvdt
Joined: 12 Feb 2009
Posts: 1204
Location: www.flashbackfoto.com.br or www.facebook.com/flashbackfoto
|
Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2011 8:55 am
|  |
I am searching for a good flash meter at low price, preferrably digital.
I found a good deal for an used Minolta Auto Meter IIIF, around $100.
I found also good reviews about the Shepherd Polaris SPD100, which looks more reasonably at $169 for a new unit.
Do you have any recommendations about a good one for low price? Would the analog ones be easy and fast enough to use on a day to day basis?
|
|
vclements
Joined: 20 Sep 2007
Posts: 2441
Location: http://www.vdavidclements.com
|
|
Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2011 11:07 am
| |
The autometer IIIf can be a little flakey at times.
Much better off with a used Minolta FlashMeter III for around $100-$120.
The Flashmeter also reads ambient.
If you want a slick meter that does about everything, the Sekonic L-358 is it. Around $300 new - which is a decent price if the budget allows.
|
|
marcusvdt
Joined: 12 Feb 2009
Posts: 1204
Location: www.flashbackfoto.com.br or www.facebook.com/flashbackfoto
|
|
Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2011 12:23 pm
| |
Thank you Vince!
I'm looking for the "minolta flash meter III" now, but I'm not finding a good Buy it now price. There are many "Minolta Flash Meter IV" instead, which I understand is an updated unit with more features, right?
There are some auctions for the "minolta flash meter III" which I will watch.
The Sekonic seems to be the best cost-benefit unit, but I cannot afford it now because I have other things to buy first, mainly to do external work, like social events and the like. So my plan is to buy a cheaper one now and then buy a better one in the future and keep this cheap unit as a backup.
My current equipment is ok for studio, and there some more equipment already coming. The flash meter really turned into a essential acessory that I need to get now because I need to be able to vary the lighting setup more consistently without losing my time with trial and error.
Anybody else has a recommendation?
|
|
hhltdave5
Joined: 20 Jun 2006
Posts: 24100
Location: Our Stock, Food & Portrait photography books at www.rindersmithphotography.com
|
|
Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2011 12:48 pm
| |
You may want to consider a used Sekonic L-358. That is the one that I have. I must say that I rarely use it. I thought it was going to be something I used all the time because back when I was doing film it was a vital piece of equipment. Now, with digital its use is not as important or as necessary.
Now you can do a basic setup of your lights, take a test shot and see what the results are. You can then make whatever adjustments necessary. Even with the meter you will have to make adjustments.
But, it does have its place when absolute accuracy is needed.
|
|
vclements
Joined: 20 Sep 2007
Posts: 2441
Location: http://www.vdavidclements.com
|
|
Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2011 12:48 pm
| |
| marcusvdt wrote: |
I'm looking for the "minolta flash meter III" now, but I'm not finding a good Buy it now price. There are many "Minolta Flash Meter IV" instead, which I understand is an updated unit with more features, right? |
The flashmeter iv has some analysis functions as well as highlight/shadow readings. Unless you can find one dirt cheap ($100-$130 us) with the iv you are paying extra for stuff that will never get used.
|
|
marcusvdt
Joined: 12 Feb 2009
Posts: 1204
Location: www.flashbackfoto.com.br or www.facebook.com/flashbackfoto
|
|
Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2011 1:07 pm
| |
| hhltdave5 wrote: | | You may want to consider a used Sekonic L-358. That is the one that I have. I must say that I rarely use it. |
Do you wanna sell it? ;-)
| hhltdave5 wrote: | | Now you can do a basic setup of your lights, take a test shot and see what the results are. You can then make whatever adjustments necessary. Even with the meter you will have to make adjustments. |
This is what I do today, and I have to say that I do it very fast and well today, even without a meter, because I know my equipment... But what makes me think I need a Flash Meter is:
My clients are usually normal people, families, children, couples, etc, and they are not usually prepared to wait too much for the trial and error. This kind of clients usually will think "this photographer is not good" if I make a little trial and error for the adjustments when I change the lighting... They want fast sessions and creative poses, even if the lighting is not that perfect.
For me, as a photographer, this may be boring and then I want to take the two things together, doing a fast and more artistic job by using different lighting setups with the help of the Flash Meter...
Am I wrong at all?
|
|
hhltdave5
Joined: 20 Jun 2006
Posts: 24100
Location: Our Stock, Food & Portrait photography books at www.rindersmithphotography.com
|
|
Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2011 1:40 pm
| |
| marcusvdt wrote: | | hhltdave5 wrote: | | You may want to consider a used Sekonic L-358. That is the one that I have. I must say that I rarely use it. |
Do you wanna sell it? ;-)
| hhltdave5 wrote: | | Now you can do a basic setup of your lights, take a test shot and see what the results are. You can then make whatever adjustments necessary. Even with the meter you will have to make adjustments. |
This is what I do today, and I have to say that I do it very fast and well today, even without a meter, because I know my equipment... But what makes me think I need a Flash Meter is:
My clients are usually normal people, families, children, couples, etc, and they are not usually prepared to wait too much for the trial and error. This kind of clients usually will think "this photographer is not good" if I make a little trial and error for the adjustments when I change the lighting... They want fast sessions and creative poses, even if the lighting is not that perfect.
For me, as a photographer, this may be boring and then I want to take the two things together, doing a fast and more artistic job by using different lighting setups with the help of the Flash Meter...
Am I wrong at all? |
What I do is get everything set up and balanced before the clients get there. Then once you get it set we recommend writing down the settings and repeating them when necessary. After doing them time and time again you pretty much know what to set them at.
As I said, even with the flash meter all that will do is give you the readings. If your clients are there you will still have to make adjustments if they are not set right.
|
|
bigrock
Joined: 15 Aug 2008
Posts: 396
|
|
Posted: Wed Nov 02, 2011 6:50 am
| |
I have the IV and it works just great.
Had a Gossen Mastersix for years, which worked great for ambient lighting, but I couldn't get reliable flash exposures.
The Minolta can be found new under a new name, Kenko.
Exactly the same meter.
But as already said, for digital you don't really need it. But if you're in a hurry you can rely on it to get you within 1/5 stop within a second. --- (within 1/2 not 1/5.... ;-)
I recently had to hurry my setup for a portrait on location and exposure was on target as metered and 5 min later it was in the box and the lady could catch her flight.
It does help getting the stress levels down to have a good meter, but you can do without.
Last edited by bigrock on Wed Nov 16, 2011 3:17 pm; edited 1 time in total |
|
greenfield54
Joined: 21 Jun 2009
Posts: 2620
Location: Philippines
|
|
Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2011 2:49 am
| |
quote]
What I do is get everything set up and balanced before the clients get there. Then once you get it set we recommend writing down the settings and repeating them when necessary. After doing them time and time again you pretty much know what to set them at.
As I said, even with the flash meter all that will do is give you the readings. If your clients are there you will still have to make adjustments if they are not set right.[/quote]
I remember a very old photograper attached strings to all his strobes with knots to represent the distance and opening.What he does is draw out the string to touch his subject and set his camera to whatever opening the knot represents.This way he does not need to estimate the strobe to subject distance for each particular set up.But I guess it's very messy having all those strings dangling from exh strobe.I just can imagine how a 5 light set up would look like.:)
|
|
hhltdave5
Joined: 20 Jun 2006
Posts: 24100
Location: Our Stock, Food & Portrait photography books at www.rindersmithphotography.com
|
|
Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2011 8:15 am
| |
| greenfield54 wrote: | quote]
What I do is get everything set up and balanced before the clients get there. Then once you get it set we recommend writing down the settings and repeating them when necessary. After doing them time and time again you pretty much know what to set them at.
As I said, even with the flash meter all that will do is give you the readings. If your clients are there you will still have to make adjustments if they are not set right. |
I remember a very old photograper attached strings to all his strobes with knots to represent the distance and opening.What he does is draw out the string to touch his subject and set his camera to whatever opening the knot represents.This way he does not need to estimate the strobe to subject distance for each particular set up.But I guess it's very messy having all those strings dangling from exh strobe.I just can imagine how a 5 light set up would look like.:)[/quote]
Dang you could accidentally hang yourself doing something like that! LOL
One thing that I found to be true that after you do these setups over and over again you know exactly where to put your lights and what settings to use with just minor adjustments.
|
|
marcusvdt
Joined: 12 Feb 2009
Posts: 1204
Location: www.flashbackfoto.com.br or www.facebook.com/flashbackfoto
|
|
Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2011 10:10 pm
| |
| hhltdave5 wrote: | | One thing that I found to be true that after you do these setups over and over again you know exactly where to put your lights and what settings to use with just minor adjustments. |
I'm almost there. I find most times I "feel" what the light will be before I take the photo, when I'm positioning the lights around the subject.
But sometimes things go wrong, because I'm human and tend to make mistakes sometimes.
Main situations I need to solve:
1) One of the main problems that I have today, is the need to dearrange all the lights, background, etc on the end of every day. But how this affects my work?
I will explain: Most of my sessions are made with blown white background. My studio is mounted on a place where I can't leave the equipment arranged for the day to day work. So every day I dearrange everything and in the next day I will arrange it back. Every single day.
Then, sometimes I may position the background lights differently without the oportunity (lack of time) to make some shots bringing them to the computer to check if the background is really blown. In this case, sometimes I get surprises when I load the photos from the sd card to the computer, finding that the background is not completely blown because today I positioned the background lighting slightly different from yesterday.
2) Sometimes, on uncommon lighting setups, ie when not using the traditional 2 lights at 45 degree each to the subject, I loose some time making the adjustments (trial and error), until I get the right lighting on the subject.
3) Another situation... on the rare oportunity where I am using a black background, I would benefit from the flash meter to detect and measure the amount of light which may be touching the background and then eliminate it with the right aperture.
The result for these mistakes is too much Photoshop work, which is completely undesired.
I believe the flash meter would help me a lot in these situations specifically. Will the flash meter really help?
|
|
kenny123
Joined: 13 Aug 2005
Posts: 6079
Location: Masterton,Wairarapa, New Zealand
|
|
Posted: Mon Nov 21, 2011 7:39 pm
| |
polaris 11 around $120.00 USD
| Description: |
|
| Filesize: |
43.63 KB |
| Viewed: |
3239 Time(s) |
|
|
|
| |
|
Log in
