Originally posted by timw4mail But if I want an actual proper light meter, what should I look for/ avoid?
It depends on your needs. For instance, Gossen Variosix F (very nice meter btw) has removable dome for incident light - if you need to frequently switch between incident and reflected light, this is not particularly convenient. Spot metering is available by means of attachable adapter - again, it is not really convenient if you switch modes often. Besides, it is not really 'spot meter' because sensor covers 5 degrees, and the adapter is usually sold separately. Does it mean that Variosix F is poorly designed and basically useless? Not at all! I use it with spot adapter virtually all the time and don't even remember whether I used other adapters. To summarize, if I were buying another light meter, I would look for following properties:
an integrated device without attachable adapters (Sekonic usually builds meters this way),
flash/incident/reflected light metering,
aperture priority, time priority, EV modes
flash metering without cable,
selectable sync speed for flash
digital display only, no 'old school' dial,
ability to measure contrast of a scene easily,
ability to set correcting factor for filters.
You may also consider weather resistant case (makes sense only if the meter will be used outdoor with WR camera and lenses), compatibility with Zone System, and cine mode. Personally I would stay away from any old meters which run on mercury batteries and need some sort of power adapter.