Good Light meter studio and outdoor

Doing some looking around, I see that Kenko have taken over the Minolta light meters. The K100 looks the same as the same as the Minolta flash meter IV which gets great reviews. It's also twice the price of the Sekonic L358. Is there much to be gained for a hobbyist that does occasional studio work?

I spend too much time reading reviews.

martinsmith wrote in post #5927326
Doing some looking around, I see that Kenko have taken over the Minolta light meters. The K100 looks the same as the same as the Minolta flash meter IV which gets great reviews. It's also twice the price of the Sekonic L358. Is there much to be gained for a hobbyist that does occasional studio work?

I spend too much time reading reviews.

I doubt that any meter could do better than the Sekonic L-358 in a studio environment, even if it cost ten times as much.

If you NEEDED a 1° spot meter frequently, then there are meters that would be better than the L-358 (plus the 1° adapter), but for everyday work the L-358 does everything I could imagine a meter doing for me.

Thanks Skip.

In what circumstances would you need a 1° spot meter?

martinsmith wrote in post #5927493
Thanks Skip.

In what circumstances would you need a 1° spot meter?

An example would be reflective spot metering a bird in a tree from a distance, or standing at camera position in the studio and getting a reflective reading off your background for a specific effect. If you were using 53" seamless and standing 10 feet from it, the 54° reflective disc on the L-358 would give you a field of view that is much too wide. The 1° spot metering lets you stand at a distance and still get an accurate reflective spot meter reading.

Thanks Robert

martinsmith wrote in post #5927326
Doing some looking around, I see that Kenko have taken over the Minolta light meters. The K100 looks the same as the same as the Minolta flash meter IV which gets great reviews. It's also twice the price of the Sekonic L358. Is there much to be gained for a hobbyist that does occasional studio work?

I spend too much time reading reviews.

I believe the Kenko is the Flashmeter V design, not the older IV.

I know I hated the older Sekonic displays (number for whole f/stop, read a simulated dialface for fractional f/stop) but the current Sekonics are fine (all numeric)...which style does the L358 have?
[edit] I just checked out the Sekonic website and see that the L358 has the all-numeric representation of fractional f/stops.

[another edit] One Kenko is based upon the 'Autometer V' and the other is based upon the high end 'Flashmeter IV' !

I paid $350 for mine, new. This seems like a good deal.

Find a use Minolta Autometer IV or V, or a Minolta Flashmeter

I did look at the Autometer IV and the Flashmeter IV. Seems the Flash meter IV is the more pro one and the Kenko 2100 looks the same.

The Autometer range looks like the tighter budget option, but a fair few on ebay. No luck on the Flashmeter IV, though a few are advertised as the Flashmeter but appear to be the cheaper Autometer.

Guys when do we need to use spot meter mode for the light meter?

Which situation the average metering failed?

I think Robert (TMR) answered this in post #19.

When you are at a distance from small subject.

danielyamseng wrote in post #5949758
Guys when do we need to use spot meter mode for the light meter?

Which situation the average metering failed?

In addition to the situation Robert described, another use would be if you projected a gelled light thru a background and you wanted to meter its intensity without measuring the surround area of the background.

Another use, applicable to photographers shooting for press print is to meter the darkest and the lightest zones in the scene, and adjusting lighting so that the brightness range fits within what offset printing presses can achieve (which is less than what photographic printing can achieve)

martinsmith wrote in post #5927493
Thanks Skip.

In what circumstances would you need a 1° spot meter?

Another situation is when you are using ND grads, you need a spot meter to select the strength of grad and set the exposure. I, like most people I guess, do not follow my own advice and guess the grad strength and use the cameras meter to set exposure through the Grad - works but I would prefer to do it properly but I can not afford the spot attachment for my Sekonic L-358.

I would not recommend this meter unless you are using it all the time, I bought mine 2nd hand - yes it can do almost everything but as a result it is also very complicated and as I said the spot attachments are pricey.

nwa2 wrote in post #5960802
..yes it can do almost everything but as a result it is also very complicated...

Not complicated at all. I think it is more confusing than complicated and much of that has to do with all the misinformation and methods of (mis)metering.

And once you understand how to use a hand held spot meter you'll find it makes things easier and allows you to work quickly and accurately, which in turn allows you to be more creative without being bogged down by checking histograms and checking the back of your camera.

The cool part is that if you work exclusively with strobes then you can set up the meter, leave it in the correct mode, and then just pick it up, hit the measure button, and you're there. In my opinion it doesn't get any easier or uncomplicated than that.

I've switched from L358 to a universal meter. Spot, flash, ambient and flash spot in one chunky package - L508 or 558. Whichever zooms.

The L358 is a bit too big for what it does IMO, I'd like it to be about 2x smaller.

EDIT: And don't be fooled by people telling you that you don't need one. Flashwork is impossible to learn properly without one and you owe it to yourself to spend at least a year shooting with ambient metering to find out how it works. Then you can shoose not to shoot with it, if that's you style but you'll gain experience and you'll know your craft better at that point.