Topic: Reflected Light Attachment vs. Spot Meter (Read 4030 times)

Prismpic · « **on:** March 16, 2006, 11:22:03 am »

Does anyone here have either one of these?

What is the difference between these two? Or are they the same?

Hank · « **Reply #1 on:** March 16, 2006, 11:55:04 am »

If I understand what you're asking, some models (especially older ones) require addition/removal of the white dome to convert between incident and reflective meters. There are variations, such as the interchangeable (domed versus flat) covers on my old Minolta III and the retractible dome on the Sekonics. In my experience these handhelds are only useful as relfective light meters when they can be accurately "aimed" as in the old Pentax spot meters and the current line of Sekonic. Basically if you aren't looking through an eyepiece on the meter in order to carefully select the spot you are metering, it's very difficult to use a reflective meter accurately, especially at distances such as in landscape shooting.

Prismpic · « **Reply #2 on:** March 16, 2006, 01:46:55 pm »

Ok. I get what you're saying. Spot and Reflected ARE 2 different things.

Does this mean Reflected light and Incident light are the same?

bob mccarthy · « **Reply #3 on:** March 16, 2006, 02:10:17 pm »

Most meters (the ones w/o the big white domes) whether in a camera, or hand held meter are reflected type meters. Pointed at a object, scene, face, etc. they measure the light being reflected off of the object. My old luna Pro has a dome that will slide over the meter port which converts it to an incident meter, which measures the light source.

A spot meter is a subset of the general class of reflected meters. Some reflected meters allow one to add optics that would narrow the field of view the meter "sees". Sort of converting it into a quasi spotmeter. I took it to be what your question was about... Yes they are the same with limitations.

I say quasi because a true spotmeter is "very" narrow in view. Typically 1 degree, The typical "addon" doesn't typically narrow down to 1 deg but as I recall to the range of 3 to 5 degrees.

The newer Sekonic and Gosen multifunction meters do it all.

Bob

Hank · « **Reply #4 on:** March 16, 2006, 10:03:34 pm »

What Bob said.

61Dynamic · « **Reply #5 on:** March 16, 2006, 10:13:10 pm »

Sekonic has a good write-up with visuals:
http://www.sekonic.com/IncidentVsReflect.html
http://www.sekonic.com/BenefitsOfIncident.html

Anon E. Mouse · « **Reply #6 on:** March 19, 2006, 08:52:18 am »

I use an attachment on my Gossen. It is 15 or 7.5 degrees and there is a loss of sensitivity with the two measuring fields - an optical finder shows the measuring area. I also have a Minolta Spot meter which has a 1 degree field of view. Both work well. Both are slightly different.

If this is your first meter, get one that can take an attachment. The spot meter is very specialized and more limited. Since my Gossen is more sensitive than the Minolta in the first place, the loss of sensitivity from the attachment is not a problem.

Author Topic: Reflected Light Attachment vs. Spot Meter (Read 4030 times)