Light Meters

[ctribble]

What do they tell you? I was talking to a friend and he said they tell you what aperature, dof, etc. to use? If that is the case. what is a good light meter to buy and where can I find it?
Thanks

[KCMO Al]

uhhh, I think you already have one...in your 10D?

[coreypolis]

they tell you the ambient or the flash or the reflective exposure of a certain lighting scene.
you have a reflective built into the camera, the least reliable form of metering.

a handheld incident (ambient) meter will be much more accurate, assuming proper metering technique.

Sekonic is becoming the most popular choice.

you input the iso you want to use, the shutter speed you'd like to use and it give you the correct aperature and equivalent eqposures

[E-K]

they tell you the ambient or the flash or the reflective exposure of a certain lighting scene.
you have a reflective built into the camera, the least reliable form of metering.

a handheld incident (ambient) meter will be much more accurate, assuming proper metering technique.

A good spot meter with proper metering technique would give you accurate results as well ;)

Different situations call for different metering techniques. I would be hard pressed to get an incident meter reading on a mountain in the distance for example. Spot metering would also be more appropriate when trying to apply the zone system (granted ctribble appears to be using a digital camera, but a simplified version of the zone system can still be applied to digital).

Ideally you have a meter that can do both.

e-k