What is the best light meter for Red?

[Clint Lealos]

That's just not true. When you're scouting a location you don't have the RED ONE with you. When you prelight a set your RED ONE may not be there yet. A nice light meter is still a very valuable tool.

I recommend the Sekonic L-758C Cine Light Meter.

+1. I also have the L-758C... love it.

 

[Clint Lealos]

On the Sekonic L-758 cine are you guys adjusting Compensation preference in Custom Settings? I've had to adjust mine by -1.1 for both incident and reflectance readings to make it match up to the gray card reading. I'm using the RED 18-50mm lens.

My testing method was to use the RED's spot meter and meter off 18% gray (Sekonic Profile Target)... adjusting the aperture to get a spot reading of 50%. I also verified this with the waveform on the Panasonic BT-LH1700. I look at the cameras aperture and make a note of it. To get the same aperture reading on the Sekonic light meter I had to compensate -1.1 in Custom Settings.

In post I test the results in RedCine and Photoshop and the RED's spot and Panasonic monitor waveform metering seems accurate.

I haven't adjusted anything on my light meter (yet), but I have noticed the same thing. If I set my exposure with the histogram, false color, and exposure check on the Red monitor, I always notice my light meter to be off by about 1 stop. I thought it was just me

 

[Mark Collins]

I'm a relatively new filmmaker here using a hdslr. Just shot two shorts recently using my camera and monitor to gauge light....what a disaster. I'm now in the market for a good light meter. I think I will pick up the sekonic L758 cine

Exposure probably was not your problem...

 

[Pietro Impagliazzo]

They also have a great little piece about WHY you should use a lightmeter with video...

http://www.spectracine.com/Spectra_Pro_4_artical_3.html

jb

This text does not take into consideration digital means of measuring light intensity, like false color. With false color, for example, you can know the light intensity at the same ISO and f-stop from take to take.

The argument however is VERY valid regarding the flexibility of the light meter for pre-lighting and when you're just doing a preliminar visit on the location.

I just wish there was a more affordable color and light meter. As a matter of fact, I don't even know an expensive one.

 

[Patrick Miao]

Ha Ha Mark, very funny (One day, I will be a film god like you).
If you want to see the two videos my filmgroup shot, check out this link. When we were shooting "The Mark", I noticed there were big differences between the clips in terms of exposure. One of the problems was the speed we were shooting at (it was a 72hour competition - write story, film it, edit it). Because the light was dramatic, sometimes it would fool the camera and give us an underexposed clip. Although I salvaged the clips by pushing the gain a bit, the noise levels really shot up. I really needed something that I could use to check the light intensities quickly. Cameras suck doing this (especially when mounted on a tripod with a field monitor on top).

By the way, reading everyone's replies, I picked up a Sekonic L758 Cine this week. What an awesome meter. Ran a few test and realized I should have brought one of these things years ago. It is so much easier to check the lighting from multiple sources and create more artistic lighting backgrounds. I can't wait to use it on some green screen projects I plan in the near future. Our first film "Sneezus - the image of Christ", was a green screen project. I had a minor problem with uneven lighting in the background, managed to save it using super tight junk mattes in post-processing.
Thanks guys!

 

[Häakon]

Because the light was dramatic, sometimes it would fool the camera and give us an underexposed clip.

Hi Patrick,

Were you using autoexposure? What do you mean when you say the lighting would "fool the camera?"

 

[Patrick Miao]

I was shooting manual exposure and using a smallHD monitor (also metered using the camera metering, although not consistently). The problem is that sometimes the image looks correct on the monitor (using the camera meter) but when viewing the clips in post, you can see a big difference in exposure between them. Definitely will not be relying on the monitor to judge exposure again. Hence the need for a light meter to see how much light is actually hitting the subject (this isn't fooled by sweat or bright spots on the subject). The same goes for the green screen, needed something to see how much light was actually hitting the screen in different spots but also the talent.

 

[Pablo Villegas S.]

What camera is that? I can expose perfectly with the meters Red One Mx and Epic cameras have.

Using False Color, the Histogram and the noise and cliping bars and lights. You don't have to rely on the inage you see in the monitor, but rather on what those meters are telling you.

Don't expose in RAW, unless you want 320 iso.

I have not used my Color meter or my Light meter in ages while shooting, only when location scouting.
I'm always in low budget fast shooting jobs, so no much pre work, I almost never pre Light or I do it by eye and experience.

 

[Patrick Miao]

Hey Pablo,
I was using a Nikon D7000 HDslr. The problem is that the camera doesn't have many features found in video cameras (it is primarily a still camera with some video capabilities). Although the SmartHD monitor does allow some of the features, the menu selection to use all the features can be time consuming (push and scroll buttons with sub-menus) and is cumbersome doing it while mounted on my tripod mounted camera. It would be nice to have a touch screen monitor like the epic but maybe one day if they come out with the epic-s, I'll be able to join the ranks of you guys.
I just started testing the sekonic L758 Cine and I love it. So much easier to take quick readings from multiple light sources, figure out lighting ratios and use it with my flash photography (can't do that with a Red).

 

[Pablo Villegas S.]

Oh, I see... The you do need a lightmeter, even though the histogram in some still cameras works in video mode as well.

I still use mine while shooting stills and lighting with strobes.

 

[Michael Panfeld]

That's just not true. When you're scouting a location you don't have the RED ONE with you. When you prelight a set your RED ONE may not be there yet. A nice light meter is still a very valuable tool.

I recommend the Sekonic L-758C Cine Light Meter.

I totally agree. A light meter weighs a few ounces, runs on a small battery, and doesn't need cables, or support gear.

More importantly, I agree with the Sekonic L-758 - Cine. You can buy the Sekonic exposure target II and, use it to create a RED/EPIC custom profile of the sensor's light sensitivity. Load that custom profile when you go to a location scout and you can see eaxctly how it will react - with the extra rental fees for a Red/Epic or dragging a bunch of gear around. Already on a shoot, hand the meter to your gaffer and he can pre-light the next shot using that profile.

 

[Patrick Miao]

Unfortunately, no live histogram feed in the video for the nikon D7000 or the SmallHD monitor. But even if there was, I think I would still get a light meter anyway.

 

[Michael Panfeld]

There's a new color meter by Sekonic:
http://www.sekonic.com/news/c-500R.asp
Has anybody experiences with it?

Its great. Note that if you buy a used one, there was a recall for the early serial numbers. The fix is free and takes less than a day. Its hard to find, but its on the Sekonic website.

The 758C-Cine, the C-500, and the Arri Flicker meter are always with me. Learning how tio use them, and then actually using them, will solve many issues before they get expensive to fix.

 

[Matt W.]

A lot of people don't like the sekonic 758cine since the spotmeter is susceptible to spill and thus inaccurate, particularly at longer distances, and the incident meter is less accurate than the spectra meters. That and the spotmeter is calibrated to 12% gray, not 18% gray...

I am happy with mine since the spot meter is nice for shooting slides (though I need to get it calibrated if I want to use it in a professional capacity for motion pictures), but most professional gaffers and DPs prefer the spectra incident meters to the sekonic dual meters since they are more accurate and the industry standard. For my purposes, though...I am very happy with this thing and recommend it for what it is. For motion pictures I almost never use the spot meter, for stills I almost never use the incident meter. So a spectra and pentax spotmeter might make more sense for a professional in either field.

The red's original sensor has totally wonky ISOs, about a stop slow in my experience, so that's another factor. I shot a bit with the MX (admittedly very little) and it seems to be closer to what it claims.

 

[Stephen Williams]

A lot of people don't like the sekonic 758cine since the spotmeter is susceptible to spill and thus inaccurate, particularly at longer distances, and the incident meter is less accurate than the spectra meters. That and the spotmeter is calibrated to 12% gray, not 18% gray...
.

It really does not matter what the grey calibration is because it never changes, how you use a light meter can make readings change by more than a stop.

 

[Philippe Van Horebeek]

Has anyone have a word on the Gossen Starlite ?