Good Light meter studio and outdoor

What 's is a good light meter for studio and outdoor shoot? Just one something perfect for the above job.

Sekonic L-358 is highly regarded on the forums. I have one, and use it for studio work, and love it.

The camera's histogram and the money in my pocket.

I've used the L-308 and it's a good tool. I may invest in one one day.

Not sure I'd use one outdoors though.

I use my Sekonic L-358 for all sorts of situations, indoors and out. Most often, I use it in the incident mode - measuring the light falling on the subject - as opposed to the reflected mode.

I do have a 1° spotmeter attachment for the meter which I use on occasion.

I'm a believer in light meters. The guesswork is gone with a meter and you can have repeatable, reliable results with perfect exposures. No more test shots, no chimping.

Whether in the studio or outside the hand held light meter has become one of the most valuable tools in my kit and one I can say is well worth the money.

If used correctly, the information displayed allows you to balance strobes for specific ratios as well as balancing flash with ambient light. The concept of highlight and shadow will make more sense, not just visually but from the standpoint of setting exposures.

Many will tell you you don't need a meter and that's cool. Determine whether you need and want a meter rather than letting someone else tell or convince you based on what they do.

If you're in situations with constantly changing light and you're working for clients the need for a meter becomes more apparent. Personally, I think the light meter is a great educational tool as well. If you use the information creatively as opposed to just knowing your taking aperture you'll gain a lot of insight into exposure and complex lighting with mixed exposures.

That being said... the Sekonic line of meters seems to have become the most popular but there are other alternatives out there. They all do the same thing and some of the older Minolta meters are considered among the best.

One of the most popular meters is the Sekonic L-358 and if you need/want to go cheaper and give up some of the features you can go with the L-308S. If you want an amazing (and more expensive) meter you can step to a used L-558R or a new L-758DR.

My US Nickel's worth.

I guess even if with 1DsmkIII built in metering won't match with the light meter incident metering?

With light meter I can straight away use the reading from it(without EC) even for white/black subject?

Can I say the reading from the light meter is better than the camera one even though I bracket it the shoots? To the extreme is it possible even thought I bracket up to 7 exposure( starting point EC+0) would not get the correct exposure as from light meter?

With studio shoots using flassh, how does the light meter know the distance of the camera to the subject ?

TMR Design wrote in post #5914051
If you're in situations with constantly changing light and you're working for clients the need for a meter becomes more apparent.

Good post and a point not many consider; I'd never chimp for an exposure in front of a paid client.

danielyamseng wrote in post #5914702
I guess even if with 1DsmkIII built in metering won't match with the light meter incident metering?

Reflective metering will rarely match an incident reading... one is measuring the reflected light and one is measuring the light that actually falls on the subject.

Yes, if you measure in incident mode and stand where the subject should stand.

The point with a meter is you won't have to bracket. If you're bracketing for HDR then you don't really need a meter unless you want the information for your own benefit.

It doesn't need to; it measures the light actually falling on the subject (as you hold the meter up in front of where the subject would be).

I have a minolta V F, and a minolta meter II. Both are great and well worth it.

There are a few cheap Minolta meters on ebay. Which are the ones to buy for studio use?

martinsmith wrote in post #5913699
The camera's histogram...

Handy thing, I use mine often. But, it's not a substitute for a light meter and was never meant to be.

danielyamseng wrote in post #5913597
What 's is a good light meter for studio and outdoor shoot?

Gossen Luna Pro F, if you can find a good one (discontinued). And,no,mine is not for sale.

jr_senator wrote in post #5916132
Handy thing, I use mine often. But, it's not a substitute for a light meter and was never meant to be.

Granted. A lot cheaper though!

For outdoor shooting, light meter is not really that suitable 'coze the lighting might change, right?

danielyamseng wrote in post #5920806
For outdoor shooting, light meter is not really that suitable 'coze the lighting might change, right?

If one notices a change in lighting a retake would certainly be in order. Through the years I have used a meter outside many times more than inside.