Anyone know where to get a decent cheap lightmeter?

[s162216]

Hi,

I am doing to some macro photography of small electronic components for a book using extension tubes and film as I don't have/can't afford a DSLR (and find film funner anyway) and asking around, others have reccommended me getting a handheld lightmeter as I don't have TTL metering and the selenium photocell on my camera is not the most accurate.

See my other thread for more info,

http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=147178

Does anyone know of where I can get a cheap but properly working handheld lightmeter for under £20? Ebay seems to have lots of them but most say they are unsure of how effectively working they are.

 

[vmlopes]

Can you not borrow one.......???

£20 is not going to get you much or reliable

 

[raathistle]

unfortunately the unreliable selenium photocell in your camera is problem the same thing thats in most of the cheap meters around on eBay

The Sekonic L308s is what I bought as my first foray into handheld meters, a great little bit of kit that does incident (useful) or reflective metering. It can be had new from about £120 ish I think, or 2nd hand from about £90

You probably know this anyway but dont forget when using the extension tubes to calcualte the extension and factor that in to the exposure.

 

[s162216]

My dad thinks he may have the light meter he used to use in the 70's in the loft.
Do you think it will be more accurate than the built in meter after so long?

The cheapest new meter I found was about £70, way way too much for me to spend.

 

[raathistle]

If you are using negative film then you have a good deal of lattitude anyway. The only way to be sure is to test it I'm afraid.

Where abouts in the country are you? you may be able to pop along to one of the meets and check it against someones camera/meter if you don't have anythig to calibrate against. Alternatively you could just bracket 2 stops under and 2 stops over, that would give you about 8 stops either way where you will have an acceptable exposure on neg film, you can pretty much guess the exposure within that range