Help a noob understand his sekonic 308b

Never used a light meter before but just bought a used Sekonic 308b to mess around with.

I want to use it with my Bowens Gemini and Canon 5dII.
I understand that I set the ISO to match my camera (100 ATM), but when I try to set the shutter speed it wont allow me to set it on anything between 1/125 and 1/250. I usually set the camera on about 1/160 sec.

The instructions aren't great (or I don't understand them).
What does the DOTS mean when trying to find an aperture setting.

Can anyone offer any tips or help?

dont use a 308, but i bought mine 358 used as well. there should be a sekonic manual on the website online. i'm sure you can find it there.

not sure why it is limiting you on setting shutterspeed, but what mode are you using the meter in?

If your metering for flash then your shutter speed doesnt matter
the DOTS your referring too.. sorry i dont really know what your talking about but im gonna have a punch at it
Its the meter metering in 3rd or 10th stops but i could be way off

Check out page 19, you can switch from full stops to 1/2 or 1/3 stops.

Manual


Btw
I use the same meter. Mostly for flash so never paid much attention to the shutter setting.

I have the instruction book but its not really that helpful to be honest (to someone who has never used one before).

Yes the dots do correspond to 1/3 - 1/10th of a stop.
The manual shows that 1 full stop is shown by 9 bars (dots).
So, set it to 100iso, 125sec and took a light reading of f11 and 2 bars, so what should i use? and why doesnt it just show that?
If not set correctly i could be as much as a stop out in exposure.

SPK64, that manual is for the 308s, where mine is the older 308b, so it doesnt work holding the mode switch down as you press the power button.

Here is the PDF to mine... http://www.cameramanua​ls.org …ic_flashmate_l-308bii.pdf

Sorry missed that detail.

PCthug wrote in post #12579390
So, set it to 100iso, 125sec and took a light reading of f11 and 2 bars, so what should i use? and why doesn't it just show that?
If not set correctly i could be as much as a stop out in exposure.

You would set your camera to 1/125 F11 or f13. F13 is f11 minus 1/3. Figure 3 dots as 1/3. Not exactly but close.
It is telling you F11 minus 2/10.
If you want to use other shutter speeds and the meter does not have them in 1/3 stops, you are going to have to do the math.