Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

Something abnormal going on there. I have tested CC many times VS Gossen and Sekonic. CC tracks every 1/10f change perfectly all the way down to f 1.0'0.

Before you buy, take a look at what Will Crockett has to say about the Digipro F at shootsmarter.com. I attended a training class that Will put on a few months back,,, great class very good, down to earth information, and he answers your e-mails.

I have (3) AB 1600's in my home studio. I use the Seconic L308s and it works great for me. Small, light weight and easy to use. Also, I recently wired my studio with overhead switched sockets on a separate circuit. I also went with the Cyber Sync and really like it. Now no more cords laying on the floor and I can switch on or off the three units. Makes it easier to turn on or off a unit when it's inside a soft box or such.

One thing to remember, a light meter is just that -- a meter.
It you have two meters they have to be calibrated to one another if you want them to provide the same output.

Accuracy and repeatability are the two things I look for in a meter voltage, light or otherwise.

I have an old Minolta meter that does a great job. I am planning to get a Cyber Commander when the Es are available.
The first thing to do is calibrate them to one another, then validate repeatability and accuracy.

Best final accuracy test for a meter is to shoot a Color Checker and then validate exposure in Lightroom, Adobe Camera Raw, or whatever post processing software.

Meters are tools, there are a lot of good ones but none that are smarter than the photographer, or dumber :)

Another thing to keep in mind is that each of your lenses might need to be calibrated as well, since different lenses can have the same f/# but transmit different amounts of light. Hollywood solved this problem by switching to T-numbers, which take into account the transmission of the lens. If your meter reads "5.6' 3", one lens might give you a proper exposure, and another one might absorb a tenth or two of a stop. Basically, what you need to do is get a gray card that you trust, take an incident meter reading on it, and then shoot it with all of your lenses. Figure out the exposure adjustments you need to make in Lightroom (or CaptureOne, or Aperture, etc) to make all of the images the same brightness value. Then go verify your adjustments by re-shooting at the new settings and comparing the numbers again.

It usually doesn't really matter that much, but if you care about a tenth of a stop difference in exposure, you should keep that in mind.

sekonic L358 is the way to go with your bees

Thanks Luap. That is good to know. I will do more testing and contact tech support if I find that mine is not working properly. I am opening a studio in an old 1930's building and the roof is leaking so testing will have to wait. :roll:

-D

Congrats on the new studio! With a building that old, be darn sure the electrical system is clean and well grounded!

TS

I wouldn't be without my Sekonic L-358. I use it not only for studio setup but outdoors for all kinds of photography. It's set up for measuring in incident mode 99.99% of the time - something that cannot be done with any meter built into a camera. Using the L-358 with my camera in manual mode provides me a very efficient workflow.

Skip Douglas

I use a mix of Nikon SB flash and X3200 monolights. I bought a used Minolta V flashmeter from eBay for about $125 and it works great. The Minolta IV flashmeter is also great and even cheaper. Both meter ambient, corded, and non-corded flash. I almost always am in non-corded flash mode.


BTW, I am very pleased to see Paul brought back the forums! They are a tremendous resource for me.

Kent in SD