| A handheld meter is good for taking "average"reads (in most cases)
It can take reflected metering (light bouncing from the scene)
or incident metering (light falling in the scene)
Incident is very useful for scenes with large expanses of white/black while reflected is useful for most other scenes
[dis-]advantages have already been mentioned, and I'll second a cheap Sekonic as an all-purpse lightmeter
There used to be some Minoltas with flashmeter as well that were absolutely awesome!
For more info I'd recommend you find a copy of Upton PHOTOGRAPHY book, any of the Time-Life series (Light and Film is the best for htis) or some other photgraphy book (Horenstein on-line, etc) |