Spot meters

Since there is no real spot meter in any EOS model, except of the professional bodies, I'm curious - how many people here use hand-held meters ? Are they accurate ? Which models are recommended ? How do you know where exactly the meter is pointed, does it have some kind of view-finder ? Are analog meters any good, or do I have to start saving for the expensive digital one ?
Sorry for so many question

I have a couple Pentax Spotmeters...a digital and an older analog version. They both work well, but the digital seems to be a lot more consistent. I'd bite the bullet and buy digital just for the peace of mind that comes from the knowledge that you're getting more current technology.

They are very useful when you're really concerned with exposure, but I personally never saw anything wrong with bracketing, at least in a digital camera. Film is a slightly different story.

Tom

Hand held meters are a must for studio flash and for complex lighting situations. I have the Sekonic L358(flash/incident/re​flected) and L558(flash/incident/1 degree spot).

For a primer on using a meter:
http://www.kodak.com …umer/products/p​df/af9.pdf

Regards,
Scott

Olegis wrote:
Since there is no real spot meter in any EOS model, except of the professional bodies, I'm curious - how many people here use hand-held meters ? Are they accurate ? Which models are recommended ? How do you know where exactly the meter is pointed, does it have some kind of view-finder ? Are analog meters any good, or do I have to start saving for the expensive digital one ?
Sorry for so many question

I know even less about this then you do, so here's my stupid question for the day. What is wrong with the spot meters the EOS models?

There's nothing wrong with it if you can afford a 1DMKII :P
The lower models don't have it.

thanks - not sure I'll be doing that any time soon :P
What sorts of metering does the 10d have then?

It's "Partial area", covering about 12-15% of the viewing area. Handheld spot meters cover about a 1 degree field of view, allowing precise metering of selected spots.

Gotcha. Thanks Jon!

Thanks Tom.
I see it this way - with all the digital cameras I've had so far, the best method of getting the correct exposure was the following : shoot, evaluate the histogram, correct the exposure, shoot, avaluate the histogram ... Sometimes this process can take quite a long time untill you reach the best exposure, not to speak about complex lighting situations with high contrast areas. With a spot meter I had on my Olympus E20 I was able to check the whole range of stops in the scene, so I could decide on best exposure settings much quicker and more correctly.

Scott - the Sekonic L-558 Dualmaster costs $500 at B&H !

Olegis wrote:
Scott - the Sekonic L-558 Dualmaster costs $500 at B&H !

Are you getting paid by the hour, or by the job? Scott's a pro, and getting the job right, fast, is money in the bank. Equipment, he can depreciate. If I was photographing (as Roger Hall says about writing) "for the sheer joy of getting paid" (not attributing this motive to Scott), I'd be using a spot meter religiously, too.

Olegis wrote:
Since there is no real spot meter in any EOS model, except of the professional bodies, I'm curious - how many people here use hand-held meters ? Are they accurate ? Which models are recommended ? How do you know where exactly the meter is pointed, does it have some kind of view-finder ? Are analog meters any good, or do I have to start saving for the expensive digital one ?
Sorry for so many question

You don't need a spot meter to use with a digital camera.

Your meter in your camera will get you very close and then an examination of the histogram will let you decide whether you want to modify the exposure. All you can do is to expose on, expose under or expose over. With film, as I written before, you were in the prediction business and a spot meter - in the right hands - let you predict a bit better than the camera's meter. But now you are in the review business.

Prediction was obviously needed for film but review is the happy reality of digital. I mean even if you did use a spot meter, think about your workflow. You'd set up the camera as the meter suggested, take the picture and then (unless you are a complete moron) you'd still check the histogram and bias the exposure based on that!

The only use for a hand held meter now is if it's an ambient flash meter and you use it to set lighting ratios with strobes.

I'm not a pro, unfortunately. My main job is electronics engineer, photography is just a hobby ...

Not a direct answer to your question, but I hope this will be helpful....: 8)

I've been struggling with my 10D a lot to get the exposure right. I used to use matrix metering all of the time, and often I've been disappointed because sometimes the camera seemed to go wild: on one photo the exposure was more or less OK, and on the next one of the same subject it suddenly overexposed and blew out a lot of the highlights, for example.

I've found out that I can get a much more accurate and consistent exposure with partial metering, by metering the highlights. I first meter the brightest area in the image by putting it in the center of the image (in the faint circle you can see in the viewfinder) and pressing the "*" (asterisk) button. Then I set exposure compensation, depending on how bright the area is. If it's very bright I set it to +1 1/3 or +1 2/3. If the bright area is smaller than the circle in the viewfinder and there are also some darker things in the circle, I set it a bit lower - remember that the camera takes the average brightness of what's in the circle. If the brightest area has average brightness I leave the exposure compensation on 0 or for a low-key image I even use negative exposure compensation. After setting the exposure compensation, I lock the exposure by pressing the "*" button again, then I re-compose, focus and shoot. Note that after pressing "*", the exposure is locked for about 6 seconds or so, so the camera won't re-meter when you half-press the shutter release button.

A spot meter will probably make it even more accurate, but I've found that using the partial meter this way gives me a close enough exposure most of the time. Ofcourse I check the exposure with the histogram afterwards and I look for the flashing blown out highlights indication.

Thanks Jesper, I'll give your method a try in my next photo-shoot tomorrow

ive got the "baby" sekonic (308BII) and it works great.