Sekonic l308s meters

c22w1

c22w1

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Chris
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Hi
I have a Sekonic L-308s flash meter and borrowed a friends meter which is exactly the same.
When using a flash in manual mode and both meters set exactly the same the readings differ. Mine always shows a wider aperture to be used ie for example, mine will show f5.6 and the other f7.1 or mine f8 and the other f9
To be clear both are set the same and both are in the same location.
Is there a simple answer to this please?
 
As for how do you know?

Take 2 photos, one of each setting, see which one is right.

The wrong one is the broken one.

Simple.
 
You might not be aware that the 308 has a calibration compensation routine built in whereby you can adjust the meter (in its various modes) by +/- 1EV (which is within the range of the discrepency that you're seeing).

Bob
 
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c22w1 said:
Hi
I have a Sekonic L-308s flash meter and borrowed a friends meter which is exactly the same.
When using a flash in manual mode and both meters set exactly the same the readings differ. Mine always shows a wider aperture to be used ie for example, mine will show f5.6 and the other f7.1 or mine f8 and the other f9
To be clear both are set the same and both are in the same location.
Is there a simple answer to this please?
Click to expand...

Could be simply a dirty sensor, or roundings (looks like you're in nearest 1/3rd stop mode), a reading/positioning error, flash output inconsistency, or a compound of lots of small differences. Or maybe one has just drifted over time, or been dropped. Not sure the 308 has a calibration feature, other than doing it manually by tweaking ISO.

Suggest you compare in good ambient light (too many potential variables with flash) with the flat Lumidisc pointing at a clear sky, set to read in tenth stops, side by side in exactly the same position/angle. If there's still a difference, finding out which one is right is rather more involved, but I wouldn't worry about it too much - consistency is more important than total accuracy and in practise exposure settings are always prone to more variation than theory might suggest, for lots of reasons. I always use the histogram and blinkies for final exposure setting - they show exactly what you've actually got on the sensor and automatically include other factors (eg camera's true ISO, lens transmission, vignetting, aperture accuracy) the meter knows nothing about.
 
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Canon Bob said:
You might not be aware that the 308 has a calibration compensation routine built in whereby you can adjust the meter (in its various modes) by +/- 1EV (which is within the range of the discrepency that you're seeing).

Bob
Click to expand...
Thanks everyone for your replies. Both meters are consistent in all settings and both are consistent with the difference between them.
I have looked everywhere to try to find out how to calibrate one or the other but can't find anything?
 
c22w1 said:
....
I have looked everywhere to try to find out how to calibrate one or the other but can't find anything?
Click to expand...
My appologies, it seems that it's only the 308x (the later version of the 308s) that has this feature.
 
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