I have been following Ansel Adams books and he suggests using an exposure meter when taking pictures. I believe this is a useful tool especially if using the Zone System to figure out the exposure setting.

I've done some research on meters, but don't know which to choose. Do you have any suggestions?

-- David Sinai (Dsinai@investran.com), August 23, 2001

Answers

Spot meters work best in zone-system calculations. Pentax digital or analog spot meters seem to be the most popular.

-- Keith Nichols (knichols1@mindspring.com), August 23, 2001.

Sekonic 508, or the new version with digital readout I think it is 608. You get both spot and incident. I have one and I love it, if you can afford it I know you will be pleased with this choice.

-- Jorge Gasteazoro (jorgegm@worldnet.att.net), August 23, 2001.

I agree with the others: if you are interested in using the Zone System, a spotmeter is almost essential.

Of the Pentax spotmeters, the digital is far more desireable, although, it's more expensive.

The Sekonic meters are very nice too. My one objection to the 508 model is there is no readout in the finder, so you have to take a reading, then look at the display on the side of the meter. This is very inconvenient. The new one--the 608--corrects that deficiency, but it costs $600! The 508's incident feature is occassionally useful, but if you use it, you might easily forget to switch it back, and if you do, it's very easy to make a huge mistake in metering. The only indicator as to which mode you are using is a tiny illustration in the display window, which is very easy to overlook. I don't know if the 608 addresses this problem. Otherwise, these are very nice meters and they are well sealed against dust and moisture.

Another very good alternative is the Minolta Spotmeter. It has a digital display in the finder as well as on the side. It's well made and accurate. You can also find them readily on ebay selling for about $250. A new one at B&H is about $400.

-- Ted Kaufman (writercrmp@aol.com), August 23, 2001.