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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

What is the best light meter for Red?

ibloom said:
So I've been testing this meter.

It seems the spot and incident disagree by a full stop, straight out of the box. On a chroma dumond chart.

Anyone else had this experience.

Ian
Click to expand...

Sounds about right to me. Its always been my experience that there is about a 3/4 to 1 stop difference between an incident meter and a spot meter. Its just the difference between reflective and incidental readings. I use a Pentax digital spot and a Spectra IV A and that is always the case when metering a grey chart under the same lighting. Your test is interesting to me because I've never liked that particular meter and find it comforting that you are seeing those results....


Patrick Donnelly
Director/DP
www.patdonnelly.com
www.divergencethefilm.com
 
ibloom said:
So I've been testing this meter.

It seems the spot and incident disagree by a full stop, straight out of the box. On a chroma dumond chart.

Anyone else had this experience.

Ian
Click to expand...

How is it wrong ?

You mean you're metering off a chart in spot mode and the reading is wrong ? There can be lot's of reasons that it would be different. The actual angle of the chart and where you take the reading on the chart counts for a lot. How old is the chart ? Is it dirty ? Which chip are you using ? Is the meter receiving any other light that might *flare* the glass in spot mode ?

jb
 
Also, what are the relative distances between camera, chart, and lightsource. If the light is near the camera, that could account for it?

Graeme
 
Graeme Nattress said:
Also, what are the relative distances between camera, chart, and lightsource. If the light is near the camera, that could account for it?

Graeme
Click to expand...


Yes. When using a grey card to *meter you're scene, to take account of the spectrality of the chart, you're meant to put the chart at 45Deg towards the light you're metering. Changing the light's angle to a squared off chart will be cause the same thing.

jb
 
ibloom said:
So I've been testing this meter.

It seems the spot and incident disagree by a full stop, straight out of the box. On a chroma dumond chart.

Anyone else had this experience.

Ian
Click to expand...
If you're getting a full stop more on spot metering it would seem to be chart reflectance. If your reading more footcandles then footlamberts off your chart, then you've discovered a blackhole, or something? Footlamberts = footcandles x reflectance (%). I'd check your reflectance material (it should be 100% diffuse material) & I'd also check metering technique as suggested.

The difference between candles & lamberts is reflectance.
 
Reading from a Kodak Gray Card in direct sunlight. Then placing the incident meter in the exact same position with the bulb retracted. I get a reading off by a stop.

This doesn't happen on my older Sekonic.
:pinch:

Don't tell me this brand new meter has to go to Quality Light Metric...
 
Just checked it against the Spectras and a Sekonic L-508 with Jendra and Trillpix. My spot is a stop over everybody else. Incidents match up pretty well.

Is it possible there is a setting off that I'm not seeing.
 
ibloom said:
My spot is a stop over everybody else.
Click to expand...

that's handy - you'll need less lights than other cameramen. :wink:

There is usually a setting on the back of these things (try opening the battery compartment and you might see a small dial which will allow you to calibrate the meter - although as a temp measure only - I suggest you send it in to get checked (a stop off means it may go more off progressively and suggests something is awry).
 
jtm said:
that's handy - you'll need less lights than other cameramen. :wink:

There is usually a setting on the back of these things (try opening the battery compartment and you might see a small dial which will allow you to calibrate the meter - although as a temp measure only - I suggest you send it in to get checked (a stop off means it may go more off progressively and suggests something is awry).
Click to expand...

I'm just thinking a digital setting is off in the meter menus. I'll send it in to get calibrated or take it back I think.
 
ibloom,

My 758C produces almost exactly the same reading when spot metering and incident metering a grey card. So I suppose yours really needs to be serviced. Sorry for the troubles...
 
ibloom said:
So I've been testing this meter.

It seems the spot and incident disagree by a full stop, straight out of the box. On a chroma dumond chart.

Anyone else had this experience.

Ian
Click to expand...

I've told Ian this already, but in case anyone else is interested, I took the DP Master Class in Rockport Maine several years ago and we had 10 DPs in a room, comparing light meters. More than half the people had the Sekonic combo meter and for te majority of them, the spot meter disagreed with the incident meter in the same meter! No one else had this problem with their meters, using the same metering techniques/positions. I warned another DP about this before Ian and he checked his and had the same problem.
 
I doubt the meters are all bad. Incident and spot measurements are different. Relective light, aka, footlamberts = footcandles [incident] x reflection %. If the reflection enhances the incident light it will be an increased spot reading over incident reading. Candles & lamberts [as the calculation shows] are not the same, so a difference will occur.
 
I actually have two analog meters, Spectra II which works great, and an older Sekonic model that looks like the L-398A but I don't see a model number on it. Both of them are in great working order. I did want to get a spot meter at one time but I was unsure if it was absolutly needed.
 
One more vote for Sekonic L-758C "Cine"
 
The Sekonic C-500 Color meter is really useful. Picked one up recently and tested against others in category and it was surprisingly the most accurate. I've found it particularly helpful as the Red LCDs I've used have been very misrepresentative of what actual color temp has been. Auto-WB the camera with a card has been decent - but manual adjust to the correct WB has been useful when dealing with first impression clients who don't really understand the cool aspects of it being a RAW camera and being able to change WB to whatever you want. I have a Sekonic L-558 Cine - forerunner to 758 and its held-up really well.

But I'd definitely recommend getting something like the new 17" Panasonic Waveform / Vectorscope monitor which is absolutely phenomenal.
 
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.
 
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