[ZombieArmy]

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I was thinking of getting one because I've been doing more and more film photography lately but I think I had a mini heart attack looking it up on ebay and looked at the prices.

Is there anything available that's accurate and doesn't cost more than most of my lenses?

[BigMackCam]

It depends on what you mean by "reasonably priced". There's a Minolta Auto Meter III with Spot adapter for sale here in the UK on eBay for £85, which seems like a good deal. These old Minolta meters are very good... You might be able to find one on your side of the pond?

[mir]

Try search for minolta auto meter III on ebay. You should be able to find one either with the spot meter attachment included or you can find one without the spot meter and the buy one as a separate purchase. You should be able to get one for $100-150.

---------- Post added 02-03-22 at 11:43 AM ----------

It depends on what you mean by "reasonably priced". There's a Minolta Auto Meter III with Spot adapter for sale here in the UK on eBay for £85, which seems like a good deal. These old Minolta meters are very good... You might be able to find one on your side of the pond?

The price has apparently gone up? ;-) £106.25

[niels hansen]

I was thinking of getting one because I've been doing more and more film photography lately but I think I had a mini heart attack looking it up on ebay and looked at the prices.

Is there anything available that's accurate and doesn't cost more than most of my lenses?

Consider the measuring angle, it must not be more than 1 degree

[tuco]

I think finding an older Minolta or Sekonic (90's era) lightmeter that has a 1 or 5 degree attachment might be your least expensive route for a digital version.

If you were considering the Pentax one-degree Digital Spotmeter because it is 'digital', I'd say its use is not much different than using the cheaper and bulky Pentax Spotmeter V except for size. That big analog dial on the Spotmeter V is actually nicer to use than a LCD display on, say, a Sekonic L-398A lightmeter with a spotmeter attachment, IMHO. I find the ability to see all the combinations of exposures and the dynamic range of the scene at once on a scale in front of you easier than flipping through modes on a menu to get the info.

The Pentax 'digital' one-degree displays an EV value seen in the one-degree circle with a red, vector-style light in lieu of a needle on a scale like the Spotmeter V. You still need to look at an analog scale on the meter of the Pentax Digital Spotmeter with the EV value as the argument to the scale just like the Pentax Spotmeter V.

[BigMackCam]

Try search for minolta auto meter III on ebay. You should be able to find one either with the spot meter attachment included or you can find one without the spot meter and the buy one as a separate purchase. You should be able to get one for $100-150.

---------- Post added 02-03-22 at 11:43 AM ----------


The price has apparently gone up? ;-) £106.25

Maybe an exchange rate / import duty thing? It's still showing as GBP £85 + £3.85 shipping for me. If I hadn't already bought a Gossen Digisix 2, I might have bid on that Minolta - not for the spot capability, but for general incident and reflective metering., They're pretty bullet-proof meters...

[mir]

Maybe an exchange rate / import duty thing? It's still showing as GBP £85 + £3.85 shipping for me. If I hadn't already bought a Gossen Digisix 2, I might have bid on that Minolta - not for the spot capability, but for general incident and reflective metering., They're pretty bullet-proof meters...

I do not think it has something to do with exchange rate/import duty. See attached screenshot.

Attached Images

 

[BigMackCam]

I do not think it has something to do with exchange rate/import duty. See attached screenshot.

Possibly automatic VAT, then...

[disconnekt]

For anything new, there's the Reveni Labs spot meter thats available for preorder for $225 CAD (~$177 us): https://www.reveni-labs.com/shop/p/reveni-labs-spot-meter-pre-order

[Kobayashi.K]

I buy almost all my stuff here:

Dealer: Secondhandcamera.nl
Country: Netherlands (Europe)
Language: Dutch or English
Communication: via e-mail

Light meters

Shopping | Minolta | Minolta light meters/color meters
Minolta light meters/color meters | Secondhandcamera.nl

Shopping | Other brands A-M | Gossen
Other brands A-M | Secondhandcamera.nl

Shopping | Other brands N-Z | Sekonic
Other brands N-Z | Secondhandcamera.nl

[seventhdr]

I was thinking of getting one because I've been doing more and more film photography lately but I think I had a mini heart attack looking it up on ebay and looked at the prices.

Is there anything available that's accurate and doesn't cost more than most of my lenses?

There is always the Pentax Option 750Z camera which has a built in spot meter function. Nice little camera all round.

Regards

Chris

[PKMike]

It depends on what you mean by "reasonably priced". There's a Minolta Auto Meter III with Spot adapter for sale here in the UK on eBay for £85, which seems like a good deal. These old Minolta meters are very good... You might be able to find one on your side of the pond?

I have had one of these (mine is Minolta auto flash meter II or III, same meter but also measures flash) with the 5 degree attachment for about 35 years. It has been accurate and reliable. Very handy for measuring flash or ambient light with the white dome. However the 5 degree attachment has never been very useful to me. Just too wide. My opinion is a spot meter should be 1 degree. Pentax has made some 1 degree meters in the past. Spot meter V comes to mind. I'm sure there are other brands as well. My 2 cents.

[BigMackCam]

I have had one of these (mine is Minolta auto flash meter II or III, same meter but also measures flash) with the 5 degree attachment for about 35 years. It has been accurate and reliable. Very handy for measuring flash or ambient light with the white dome. However the 5 degree attachment has never been very useful to me. Just too wide. My opinion is a spot meter should be 1 degree. Pentax has made some 1 degree meters in the past. Spot meter V comes to mind. I'm sure there are other brands as well. My 2 cents.

Thanks, Mike... I've no experience with spot meters other than those in our DSLRs, so I've learned something useful here. Given the price of those Pentax meters, I wonder if the OP mightn't be better off using an inexpensive older mirrorless camera and lens for spot metering. I know a couple of our members do this for more general evaluative metering, but it should work perfectly for spot too...

[officiousbystander]

Don't ignore the available light meter apps. They only cost a few dollars. Your phone has a better lens and more computing power than stand alone light meters.

https://shootitwithfilm.com/best-light-meter-app/

[BigMackCam]

Don't ignore the available light meter apps. They only cost a few dollars. Your phone has a better lens and more computing power than stand alone light meters.

https://shootitwithfilm.com/best-light-meter-app/

Do they provide spot metering, though? My experience in using a couple of them is that they offer evaluative reflected scene metering and, to some extent, can be used for incident metering - although for the latter, strictly speaking, you need a semi-transparent dome to cover the lens. Until I bought my Gossen Digisix 2, I used my phone for incident metering (without a dome) and it was accurate enough - but I'm pretty sure it doesn't do spot.