Weston lightmeters

fontmoss

fontmoss

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Ok Joxby recommended weston I, II or III as a light meter for my bronica. There are a couple of IIIs on fleabay both are bit vague about how accurate or well they work, are they known to be a bit hit and miss? one is £14 posted and the other is without a bid but £4 postage (assuming no one else bids on them)

Had a dig through the forum and sekonic and a few other expensive ones are mentioned but ideally id got for one of the westons as they're cheap as chips
 
Weston meters were very well made and at one time, used by almost everyone.

They are getting a bit old now though and the cells will probably be putting out less voltage than when new. This will cause you to over-expose.

There is a company in the UK called Megatron who calibrate these meters and replace the cells if needed.

http://www.megatron.co.uk/homepage.html

At the bottom of the page:

Our experienced exposure meter specialists also recommend a wide range of repairs and servicing to all Weston Master & Euromaster exposure meters: Calibration check - £22; Recalibration, servicing and minor adjustments - £36; New photocell fitted, recalibration & servicing - £42; New movement fitted, recalibration & servicing - £55; New photocell & new movement fitted, recalibration & servicing - £66. All prices include UK carriage and VAT.

I have a Master III which is very accurate but I think it has had a new cell fitted in the last few years. If you can get one guaranteed to be accurate then go for it. Otherwise it is a lot of extra expense to get it repaired.



Steve.
 
cheers steve. hmm i wonder if with it makes more sense to go for something newer then, dont want to get it then have to send it away.
 
Learnt on a master II back in the 70's . Still got it somewhere along with the Halina 35x. Never gave any problems then but was a long long time ago.

A lot of folks use them still.
 
Have a look at the gossen ones too. The lunasix pro is just as good as the weston ones and you cant lose the cone for incident readings either.
 
cheers guys, but cheaap! l-358 is a shade more than £15...

EDIT: it doesnt need to flash meter btw
 
fair enough cherryrig

maybe ill take a punt on of the cheapo ones and try and compare it to my fuji, should give an idea if it works i guess

EDIT: completed listings shows that weston V and IVs sometimes go cheap, maybe ill hang fire
 
One thing to bare in mind though is that some of the older light meters used to use Mercury batteries. Which you can't get any more cos of harming the planet when being put onto landfill sites.

There are ways around this by getting different holders for the battery to stop a lower the current of the new batteries as it's said that they give either under or over exposed readings.

So defo have a read into what battery the meter takes as a cheap meter might be more pain than it's worth ;)
 
cherryrig said:
One thing to bare in mind though is that some of the older light meters used to use Mercury batteries. Which you can't get any more cos of harming the planet when being put onto landfill sites.

There are ways around this by getting different holders for the battery to stop a lower the current of the new batteries as it's said that they give either under or over exposed readings.

So defo have a read into what battery the meter takes as a cheap meter might be more pain than it's worth ;)
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They were good in their time but very dated now, and as others have said may not now be accurate - and digital photography requires accurate metering.
Also, quite hard to read, with a lot of (useless) info displayed in very small print.

Interesting that there are people who repair them. Even their makers, Sangamo Weston, just used to bin the ones that went back with faults.
 
Garry Edwards said:
and digital photography requires accurate metering.
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We are talking about film photography here. If it's transparency film then yes, it does need to be accurate. If it's negative film, it's not quite so critical.


Garry Edwards said:
Also, quite hard to read, with a lot of (useless) info displayed in very small print.
Click to expand...

All of mine are easy to read with all the necessary information being available.



Steve.
 
fontmoss said:
Ok Joxby recommended weston I, II or III as a light meter for my bronica.
Click to expand...

You did say cheap ! :LOL:
Imo, there's nothing more worth a punt at £10 than a Weston selenium meter.
Selenium meters are only supposed to last 10 years, but things were over engineered back in the day, its a toss a coin job.
They look complicated but really aren't at all, very simple to read and use, no lcd display but waddya want for a tenner.

I liked my digi 6....when I had one, it was tiny and thus in danger at all times in my hands...doh
 
yeah bit worried about getting it then finding it's a dud and being so far from a decent (and cheap) supplier. Been offered a Zeiss Ikophot meter so think i might opt for that
 
fontmoss said:
yeah bit worried about getting it then finding it's a dud and being so far from a decent (and cheap) supplier. Been offered a Zeiss Ikophot meter so think i might opt for that
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I have three Ikophots all different all seem accurate but the shutter scales are different on them all.
The earliest has 1/25 1/50 .... series
The last has 1/30 1/60 .... series
and the middle one has both scales.


I also have a weston 2 3 and 4 They are all up to 1 stop out as they are pretty old now.
I have two not working fives both dropped.
Just about all westons are fixable as in the above post.

The most useful are the V and euromasters as mostly they are very accurate.

The 2 and 3 are not calibrated for ISO speeds as they had their own weston speed in those days. it was the same as ASA but was 1/3 stop different up the range.

If you buy one, make sure you get the invercone with it It pegs the highlights which is great for digital use, and transparencies.
 
I used a Weston Master V years ago. It was a very useable meter and felt like a quality piece of kit. You could still get one fairly cheap and it would be worth getting it calibrated and the cell replaced if necessary. You could also use it for incident light readings with the invercone.
 
fontmoss said:
Been offered a Zeiss Ikophot meter so think i might opt for that
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I have a Zeiss Ikophot meter which my father gave to me.

Mine is accurate enough to use for transparency film. This can't be taken as a guarantee that the one you have been offered will be as accurate but they are/were capable meters.

Does it have the case and the slide in diffuser for ambient metering?




Steve.
 
yup, it's from ekimeno of this parish. He says it all works beautifully so i figured it was worth paying the cash for, paid £20 posted.
 
I'm just waiting for a fleabay zeiss - £7. I understand that you can calibrate the westons yourself - theres a big screw (presumably on a potentiometer).

I was thinking test against the digital camera and adjust as needed?
 
Why does everybody assume that bacause its a prac you need a light meter. Having used 3 different models of this camera, they all had light meters. Not a very good system, but they worked.
 
This topic is in reference to a Bronica which I assume doesnt have a meter.

There is another thread about getting a couple of Practikas which were stated to have non-working light meters.
 
I have just got two praktica s and one has a working (and shockingly accurate compared to digi) meter the other has a dead and as yet unrepaired battery considering a meter anyway.....
 
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