WEIN 5008 - Oh Great Ones, did I buy a pig in a poke ?

Just got a fabulous deal on a Wein WP-5008 flash meter. Grand total of 20 bucks shipped... off of eBay.

Now...... it was a last minute purchase to go towards my strobist work, did I totally screw up ?

I know this is OLD stuff..... but I really thought that it would still work for digital flash work..... I hope !

I used one years ago of my dads.... seemed to work fine, not sure if it was the same model or not...

This one is "SUPPOSEDLY" a solid 9.5 on a scale of 10 for condition... says the seller....... or is it the spider to the fly....

ANY comments.......

Thanks............ Scott

The one I'm finding - still available at Adorama for $89 - is an analog meter. I've never used one and don't know how it would give you a reading for flash.

The price was great!

Incident only so no it won't help you with your strobistfication.

Do you mean WP-500B? As I recall, they measured the flash, then you made aperture settings based on ISO and a chart on the back. I'm not sure how the 500B differs from the 500, but if it works, use it. I think it would measure ambient as well, but it presumed 1/60 sec shutter speed. (I see the 500B presumes 1/250) I suppose they were pretty hard to kill since there are plenty of them on eBay. It's just a basic incident flash meter. It measures the light when it is on and sees a flash. It relies on your brain to do anything fancier. I got an old WP-500 for free thrown in with some stuff I bought. I played with it for a few days to make sure it worked, then gave it to someone who didn't have a flash meter.

cdifoto wrote in post #7054121
Incident only so no it won't help you with your strobistfication.

Are you confusing incident with ambient? It does measure flash, but not as a reflected light meter.

Jim M wrote in post #7054196
Are you confusing incident with ambient? It does measure flash, but not as a reflected light meter.

D'oh!

Adorama even has it listed as an "Incident Flash Meter" @ myself.

Think nothing of it. I made a mistake once, myself. (Ahem!)

I blame lack of coffee, even though I've had 3 cups today.

Well, the post said 5008.. don't know myself, I either just blew 20 bucks or got a good deal.

So, if one were to purchase a flash meter, what one would one reccommend.....

Here is the picture on the eBay ad, doen't look like a stock photo, so I am assuming it is of the one I did purchase.

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I have a Sekonic L-358 but it cost a helluva lot more than 20 Benjis.

Sekonic L-358 here. It does far more than I'll ever need. But it was 12x the price of yours.

Scott Vogan wrote in post #7055606
Well, the post said 5008.. don't know myself, I either just blew 20 bucks or got a good deal.

So, if one were to purchase a flash meter, what one would one reccommend.....

Here is the picture on the eBay ad, doen't look like a stock photo, so I am assuming it is of the one I did purchase.

Thanks for your help !!!

Scott.

That's the same one for sale at Adorama....

Ah well, it's only $20, if it doesn't work, then it's nothing to WEIN about
hahahahehehehohoho, I kill me :P

Scott Vogan wrote in post #7055606
So, if one were to purchase a flash meter, what one would one reccommend.....

Scott.

It really depends on what you want to do. If you like buying old stuff on eBay and you don't mind analog, a used Gossen LunaPro F would be a reasonable meter for very few dollars if you don't just go nuts in a bidding war. Before they came out with the LunaPro F, I bought a LunaPro SBC with a flash attachment and it's still going strong. I bought it new when it was the hot deal more years ago than I care to imagine. I almost wish it would give up so I would have an excuse to by a shiny new toy.

I'd see how you like the Wein. With digital, you can futz around with electronic "Polaroids" to fine tune things and the Wein should get you to a good place to start futzing.

I have used a Wein 500B on older studio type flash units many times and it nets very good exposure information.

I recall from the manual that it expect a flash duration of about 1/500 second, that is close to older studio flash gears flash duration. But many newer studio flash units and definitely hotshoe based flash units are magnitudes faster than this.

So, I am unsure if the accuracy I enjoyed with the older studio flash gear would transfer to newer gear.

I recall testing the Wein 500B against several high dollar units in a side by side match up and the Wein was just as accurate as meters costing 10 times more (again using older studio flash gear).

Enjoy! Lon

So, how'd it work out? Does it have any limitations relative to what you want to do?