Light Meters
Note: Meters are not arranged by production date
Drem Instoscope (Late 1930's most likely)
I stumbled across this little item while browsing KEH.com's website and couldn't help myself and bought it along with a few other items. The Instoscope is an extinction meter, when you look through the eyepiece you can see a line of letters which get gradually dimmer depending on the strength of the light. You then take the dimmest letter, find the matching letter on the outside of the instoscope, and read the various exposure settings in the column below it.
Extinction meters such as this one were some of the first exposure aids that actually attempted to make a measurement of the light source. The problem is that it is somewhat subjective. The longer you look through it meter the more your eyes adjust, meaning you can make out even dimmer letters, which makes choosing the correct exposure somewhat inexact. The other issue is that this was made when film speeds were very slow compared to today's emulsions, the fastest speed on this meter is essentially 32 ISO.
In practice it actually works ok, compared to a modern meter I've found that it usually is off by about 1-2 stops, well within the exposure latitude of most modern films, although there are only a handful of emulsions that are slower than 32 ISO.
Bertram Chrostar (1950's)
I was browsing through a box of odds and ends at a camera show in Cincinnati when I came across this light meter. It was dead, but since I had never seen one like it before I decided to buy it anyway (for $1). I haven't been able to find very much information about it other than a brief description of its features. What I found interesting was how the top cover opens up in the same manner as a quality compass. It seems to be fairly well built, and once you figure it out it's not all that complicated to use, and the numbers are easy to read. The top ASA speed is 200.
I'm disappointed it doesn't work anymore, but at least it is different enough that it is interesting to look at.
Tower Light Meter (1950's)
The Tower name was applied to cameras and accessories sold by Sears back when they had a large camera department. The distinctive white color and shape indicated that this meter is a variant of the Gossen Sixtomat. I found this meter listed in an old 1956 Sears camera catalog with a price of $14.95, one of the cheapest on the page.
Gossen Pilot 2 (1970's)
This is the smallest light meter I own, my flash drive is longer than this meter. It's a simple, no frills selenium meter that doesn't require batteries. It can be used to take both reflected and incident light readings, but I've found that the flat incident panel isn't as accurate as a spherical dome.
I don't use it very often, but if I want to go out with a minimal kit, this is the meter I grab.
GE PR1 (1948)
General Electric made quite a few meters, they are quite common on ebay and at camera shows. This is probably the most iconic of the GE meters, the PR-1. It's a simple but heavy selenium meter. Mine in unfortunately dead.
Bewi Quick (1960's)
Bertram meters often have their own distinctive look, such as the Chrostar mentioned above. The Bewi Quick is more traditional in shape, but still looks good. It's a simple selenium meter but mine is still fairly accurate considering it's age. It's fairly small, not as small as the Gossen Pilot but it would still slide easily into a pocket.
Sverdlovsk 4 (1970-1980's????)
This was one of the first light meters I bought back when I was in college. It's another fine product of the Soviet Union, made by a mystery manufacturer that no one has been able to conclusively identify. The neat thing about this meter is that it can serve as a poor man's spotmeter. To take a reading you look through a viewfinder in the upper left corner, which allows you to take a reading of a small, specific area. The meter also came with a AA battery adapter that literally doubled the length of the meter.
I no longer own this meter, while the viewfinder was handy I found other meters to be a little easier to use.
For a more in depth discussion of the meter check out Alfred Klomp's old website.
http://cameras.alfredklomp.com/sverdlovsk4/
Sekonic Auto Leader 3 L-162 (1971)
Another selenium meter of mine which was accurate when I bought it but is now off by several stops. It's one of my smaller meters, not as small as my Pilot 2 but still easily fits into a pocket. You can't see it in the picture, but on the bottom there is a large booster cell that pops out when you need it. The booster helps a bit in low light conditions, but being a selenium meter it still works best when there is a bit more light.
Gossen Luna-Pro SBC (1970's-?)
The Luna-Pro series is one of the best known and longest running family of light meters that only recently went out of production. In my opinion, the Luna Pro SBC is one of the best meters ever made. While the older Luna Pro meters relied on the now illegal mercury 1.35 batteries, the SBC ran off a common 9v battery. The "null" metering technique employed by this meter is the most intuitive measuring method I have ever used. It is really easy to take multiple readings from a subject to compare how light falls on different parts of the scene. The silicon metering cell takes measurements very quickly, much faster than the older CDS or selenium cells. Due to these great features, the SBC is still very popular and commands a relatively high price for an analog meter.
There is only one problem with this meter, one that in the end I couldn't live with, it's size. The SBC is a massive meter, much longer and significantly larger than the regular Luna-Pros, its even larger than some of my cameras! It's really too big to fit into a pants pocket, and is a little heavy to wear around the neck. So even though I loved the null-metering system, I eventually sold it in favor of a smaller meter.
Weston Master (1939-45)
Even a small light meter collection such as mine would be incomplete without at least one of the famous Weston meters. Weston meters are fairly easy to find, finding a working one is a bit of a challenge. My master has had a rough life, but still works just fine. Unlike most other meters, the selenium cell is located on the "back" of the meter, which requires you to hold the meter vertically. The dial is rather complex compared to some other meters, but once you figure it out using it isn't difficult.
For a more complete history of the Weston meters see the following site.
http://www.westonmeter.org.uk/
Weston Master V (1960's-1970's)
An evolution of the Master line, the Master V is quite heavy for it's size. I bought mine for a couple bucks from KEH. It worked for a little while just fine before suddenly going dead, as old selenium meters are prone to do. Unfortunately I don't have the matching "Invercone" for taking incident readings.
Weston Master VI (1970's)
The Weston 6 was not made by the original Weston Company, but rather by a different company that acquired the name. This one was made in Japan, possibly by Sekonic. It works, but feels cheap and flimsy, I actually think my little Gossen Pilot 2 feels more solid. I have absolutely no idea where or when I acquired this meter, it just sort of showed up in my collection.
Polaris meter (Still in production)
I bought this meter when I was experimenting with multi-flash setups. I managed to convince myself that I needed a light meter that could measure flash.
I learned two things from this meter.
1. I do not need a flash meter
2. I do not like digital read-outs
I quickly resold this meter, and will stick with analog meters from here on out.
Norwood Director Model D (Early 1950's)
This was the meter that taught me how to measure incident light, which is the main method I use for getting light readings today. Made in the USA, the Norwood Director meters were the first in a family of meters that continues to be produced today.
When my Norwood Director died I immediately bought one of it's successors.
James Ollinger has a fantastic write-up of the Norwood Director meters and their legacy at his site listed below.
http://www.jollinger.com/photo/meters/other/norwood-article1.html
Sekonic Studio S (early 1950's-1970's)
This for a long time was my meter of choice. The Norwood Director name was bought by Sekonic sometime in the early 1950's, which shifted production to Japan. This is my favorite of the Studio meters, I actually preferred it over the later revisions, although I'm not entirely sure why. It was definitly an improvement over the older Norwood Directors, as the calculator dial is easier to read.
My Studio S remained accurate, matching new meters even though it was at least forty years old. But it suddenly started to become inaccurate in late 2011, so it is now retired to the shelf.
I'd buy another one, but since the Studio S is pretty old I don't think I'd have much luck finding one that is still accurate.
Sekonic Studio Deluxe L28C
At one point I've owned both a Studio Deluxe L28c. and one of the later Studio Deluxe L-398. I'm pretty sure this is a photo of the L28c. Both times I bought these meters I thought they would be a good replacement for my Studio S. But I found that for whatever reason I didn't like them as much as the older model, so I ended up selling both of them.
The latest version of the Studio Deluxe meter is still available new, and still has the basic shape of the original Norwood Director.
Gossen Luna-Pro S
When my Studio S started to die, I began to think about what meter I would take it's place. Since I found that I didn't care too much for the newer Studio Deluxe meters, and since sometimes a reflected light meter is preferable over an incident only meter I decided to get a Luna-Pro.
The Luna-pro meters have been around for a long time, but I decided to look for the relatively rare "S" model, which was the last of the Luna Pro's. I'm not sure when it was introduced and discontinued, but it's listed in BHPhoto's last Pro 35mm Source book which I received sometime around 2003 with a list price of $399 (I paid about $60 for mine).
The great thing about the S model is that it has a calculator dial with much more information on it that the dial on the older Luna-Pros. While still a large meter, it is significantly smaller than the Luna-Pro SBC which makes it easier to carry around. While it has a CDS measuring cell and thus requires a battery, unlike selenium meters it is usable in very low light.
The one problem with the Luna Pro meters is that they were designed to take the obsolete 1.35v mercury batteries, which have no true replacement. Gossen does sell an adapter that will convert the voltage of modern 1.55v silver oxide batteries to the correct voltage, but the adapter costs $40.
However, some, but not all, of the Luna Pro S models came from the factory ready to take the modern 1.55v silver batteries. My meter is clearly marked on the back "takes 1.55v batteries.
Or does it? In actuality when you open up the battery compartment you see that it is the same size as the compartment on the older Luna Pros. It looks to me like Gossen didn't really change the meter to take the modern batteries, they simply started to include the adapter with the meter. I confirmed this by removing the adapter and popping in a couple of hearing aid batteries (which have a voltage that is close to the original mercury cells), and the meter gave the correct reading.