Underexposure and spot-metering

Easy! Just mount he SEI meter on a sturdy tripod, preferably with a geared head. That should make photography much easier.
With modern digital technology, it should be possible to devise a "tuneable" meter. In essence, the software would offer a histogram so you could adjust the output reading for each intensity of light and each wavelength. It might need a 3D histogram. Image stabilisation is a now very common technology so naturally it would be included to solve the half-degree problem.
Will anybody take up the challenge? I doubt it, but some mute inglorious App-writer might be reading this.

Half a degree is equivalent to a very long lens indeed. Here's a table of focal lengths vs angle of view. It stops at 800mm FL, – 2.6° on a 35mm camera.


I know some app writers. They are rarely mute ;)
 
Easy! Just mount he SEI meter on a sturdy tripod, preferably with a geared head. That should make photography much easier.

You're waxing sarcastic here, right? ;) Heck, I recently started using a Reveni Labs light meter (about the size of a sugar cube!) just so I wouldn't have to carry around my Pentax Digital Spot meter. ;)
 
You're waxing sarcastic here, right? ;) Heck, I recently started using a Reveni Labs light meter (about the size of a sugar cube!) just so I wouldn't have to carry around my Pentax Digital Spot meter. ;)

My backup meter is my phone with an app of all things. I calibrated it against my Zone VI Spot for "just in case" moments.
 
My backup meter is my phone with an app of all things. I calibrated it against my Zone VI Spot for "just in case" moments.

Yeah, I have one of those apps on my phone, too, but I just never warmed up to it.
 
Well, not sarcastic, but not wholeheartedly sincere either.
It solves the immediate problem of precision spot-metering, but perhaps doesn’t make photography either easier or better. We can sometimes take ourselves down rabbit holes, chasing an idea.
The programmable meter idea came to me while I was writing. It might even be useful.
Image stabilisation would certainly help my own spot-metering. I’m not up-to-date with the latest developments in metering, so it may already exist.
I don’t know anything about the Reveni Labs sugar cube. Could you say more? I like and use the Pentax.
 
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With the digital technology available today, I'm confident some very bright person could design and produce an SEI type "comparison-spot" photometer. I'm sure it would be rugged, accurate, linear, probably not prohibitively expensive either. Zero the LED source, forefinger switches the meter on, thumb rotates a knurled wheel to match the spot to the brightness; one hand - easy.

And I know the motion picture industry would welcome it. Those places used plenty of SEIs . . .

I like the Pentax 1 degree. Alan Ross recommends it too. But it doesn't have the bulk and weight of the Minolta spot meter. If I got pissed off at it, I'm sure it wouldn't fly anywhere near as far.

:cool:
 
I don’t know anything about the Reveni Labs sugar cube. Could you say more? I like and use the Pentax.

Not that much to say really...it does what it's supposed to do...measure light. Seriously, though, it reads about a 30 degree angle and when comparing it to my other light meters it's quite accurate. One thing you have to get used to is that it reads out the exposure in whole stops. Thankfully, Matt (brainchild of this meter) included an EV readout immediately after pressing the button to take a reading. Once I locked down my suspicion regarding the rounding it does, the whole stop readout only thing is a non-issue. It allows you to dial in exposure compensation values of -2 to +2 stops, change the length of time-out on the display, you can even modify the "factory set" calibration, if you so choose. Quite flexible, actually.

Though I own two other meters, I bought this one because 1) I wanted a small, light meter (like the Voightlander meter) to use on my folders when I want to travel fast-n-light, and 2) the price is certainly reasonable.
 
Not that much to say really...it does what it's supposed to do...measure light. Seriously, though, it reads about a 30 degree angle and when comparing it to my other light meters it's quite accurate. One thing you have to get used to is that it reads out the exposure in whole stops. Thankfully, Matt (brainchild of this meter) included an EV readout immediately after pressing the button to take a reading. Once I locked down my suspicion regarding the rounding it does, the whole stop readout only thing is a non-issue. It allows you to dial in exposure compensation values of -2 to +2 stops, change the length of time-out on the display, you can even modify the "factory set" calibration, if you so choose. Quite flexible, actually.

Though I own two other meters, I bought this one because 1) I wanted a small, light meter (like the Voightlander meter) to use on my folders when I want to travel fast-n-light, and 2) the price is certainly reasonable.


How cool is this thing! I just ordered one. Like you, I want something for the casual-serious days - say on holidays with family - where I want to drag around minimal equipment but still do it right. Thanks for the heads up!
 
Firstcall have them, plus a charming review. Made in Canada. More than just Mounties!
 
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