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Reviews
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Date of last review
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1
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2139
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Mon February 18, 2008
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Recommended By
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Average Price
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Average Rating
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100% of reviewers
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None indicated
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8.0
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supersize
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Description:
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Sekonic L758DR Digital Light Meter
Are light meters making a come back? I don’t want to enter into the light meter versus histogram debate, rather just give you my experiences so far with my new light meter.
I have been a reasonably happy owner of a second-hand Minolta IV F lightmeter for a number of years. I used it mostly in studio conditions but sometimes outside for it’s incident ability. I was never 100% confident that it was giving me the correct reading and do recall reading somewhere that meters can drop out by as much as two thirds of a stop over time.
When I read about the new Sekonic I was enthused by a couple of its features.
First the ability to calibrate my camera and upload the data into the meter, therefore enhancing the accuracy of the readings for my camera (or up to three cameras as it turns out).
Secondly it has a 1 degree spot reflective capability built in. (The Minolta has an add-on accessory which I didn’t own… fairly expensive if I remember right). To switch from ambient to reflective is only a quarter turn of a dial plus a couple of button presses away. 10 seconds or less as you become familiar with the process.
Like all new electronic gadgets I have had the LCD display flash various errors at me. When the brain clears it reminds me that I am on the wrong setting for the mode selected.
The third benefit for me was the trigger for my pocket wizards.
But here lies an interesting issue.
I bought the meter from a leading US retailer as it was hundreds of dollars cheaper than I could obtain it in Australia. What I didn’t know, and let this serve as a warning to the overseas readers of this forum, is that it came shipped with an FCC 344Mhz compliant trigger module. Works great in the US and I believe in the UK, but not in the rest of Europe or Australia. Here we use the CE 433Mhz compliant trigger. It’s definitely a Caveat Emptor situation. There is no mixing and matching. If you have bought your initial pocket wizards from the US, then you must stick with the FCC models if you decide to buy more (and vice versa of course). You may need to check with your own Government’s radio and telecommunications department if they know which frequency is applicable in your region. Try googling on the respective government website. The Pocket Wizard manufacturers give no guarantee of compliance with your local requirements.
All is not lost in my case though as apparently the trigger module is available as a spare part from the importer for your country. It isn’t user installable however as some tweaking has to be done to the meter as well as the chip replacement. I’ve recently discovered that this is an expensive exercise ($250 plus Aus dollars)
How does it perform
The L758DR meter is easy to use with a clear illuminated display. Two ISO settings can be recorded. I find that useful if I change lenses and have a polarising filter on one. I can set one ISO as the norm and one at approximately two stops less. One and two thirds stops seems to work for me. Take the reading as for the normal ISO and then press the ISO 2 button and there you have the new reading. Don’t know about you but I was never great at my one and two thirds times tables. This is much quicker that my brain can cope with. OK so all you young readers out there are saying, “what’s a times table?”
The meter can record up to 10 readings into its memory and then give you an average reading. In a mixed lighting environment it will tell you the percentage of ambient light as compared to the contribution by your flash lights. It gives readings in shutter or aperture priority and in EV. It displays in digital at a tenth of a stop accuracy as well as displaying an analogue scale in half or third stops.
The dome is retractable for more accurate readings when recording a 2 D surface such as in copy work…documents or artwork.
Calibration
Back to the calibration for the camera. The manual tells you in the best Japanese English tradition how to do the shooting of the Sekonic test chart (an optional extra at US$99). This can be photographed using ambient light, if it is consistent over a reasonable period of time, or in studio conditions. The latter is to be preferred for its consistency of output.
The process took me 9 hours over two days. When I had finished I calculated that about 45 minutes should have been enough if the instructions had been easier to translate.
The end result is a spreadsheet-like table of minor deviations over every ISO setting and every aperture from 2.8 through to 22. I started at ISO100 and worked through to 1600 as per the manual. That’s a lot of shots only to later find a little tucked away piece on a Sekonic web document that states that you only need to do 2 ISO settings. The software will calculate the rest of the spreadsheet based on the deviations contained in the much smaller sample.
When the table is complete, attach the meter to your computer using the USB cable that is supplied. Start up the Sekonic software, click the transfer button, choose which camera (1, 2 or 3) and which lighting and metering mode you used of the four options available: ambient incident or reflective and flash incident or reflective.
If you only did one mode this time, it is just a repeat exercise to add another mode. This is when it is good to know that you only need to test shoot for 2 ISO settings.
Bottom line: are the readings more accurate? Good question but I am not knowledgeable enough to give a definitive answer. However the theory looks impressive. Perhaps you could throw it out there in after dinner conversation by stating that you’ve had your dynamic range adjusted and your clipping points have been recorded. On second thoughts though, maybe not on a first date!
Virtually every setting on my Canon 1DMkII had some small shift from the camera meter reading. I should emphasise that the shifts do seem to be relatively small and probably nothing to be unduly alarmed about.
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Keywords:
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lightmeter digital pocket wizard transmitter camera calibration multiple ISO
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Author
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michaelnotar
Lifetime Member
Registered: October 2006
Location: Idaho, USA
Posts: 850
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Review Date: Mon February 18, 2008
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: None indicated
| Rating: 8
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i got this meter because my 608 meter went down and traded it in towards this from sekonic. i wish it had the zoom spot meter like the 608 did, seems this feature was removed from all the new meters.
well its a light meter, a meter, thats it. the profile/range features seem neat, but not needed, a bit much. a great meter non the less, no exactly a tool that needs 300 features in it.
i do like that the spot meter has the readout in the viewfinder, not on the outside main lcd (huge drawback on the 508). also in individual calibration for the reflected/incident reads is good (sync up the reflected off a gray card to the incident or both to your old meter).
a great meter, well built, good selection of modes and triggering options. i would recommend it.
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Michael
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