[PenPusher]

My little Sekonic selenium exposure meter that I have been using since I bought it for around £5 in the 1960's lost its indicator needle, I have been using it with my unmetered film cameras for years, I have two other selenium meters which work but are now wildly inaccurate, so what to do.

Well I'll just buy another one - well maybe not, as far as I can see there are three that would suit my method of working, the Sekonic L-208 Twinmate, the Gossen Digisix 2 and the Voigtlander VC Meter II, thereupon a snag arose, the Sekonic is around €110 if you buy from Hong Kong - maybe not, the Gossen starts around €150 on e-bay and the Voigtlander, the one I'd really like, is around €288 from dealers, this is not what I had in mind.

I could of course buy a second hand one off e-bay where there are hundreds on offer but nobody seems to guarantee accuracy and it could go belly-up the day after I bought it.

I had seen somebody mention phone apps and there quite a few on the net for both Apple and Android phones.

A few months back I was badgered by my family into buying a smart phone, I was quite happy with my €29 button operated Nokia but apparently this would not do. So if I have to buy a smart phone I'll buy the one I want and not the one on special offer. After surfing around a bit I discovered the Huawei P9, not the latest all singing all dancing model by a long shot but it has two 27mm Leica Summarit H F2.2 ASPH lenses , one for B & W and one for Colour, combining the two images in software apparently gives a more detailed colour image, to be honest I haven't examined the images to see if this is true.

For those who don't know Leica terminology the quality of the lenses goes from Summarit to Summicron to Summilux and if you can afford €10,000 odd a go, to Noctilux. I have a 50mm Russian Jupiter 8 F2.0 €37 on my Leica IIc made around 1951 so I'm definitely not in the top Leica league.

Anyway there is a pretty comprehensive exposure calculator in the phones software which partially gets over the problem of no exposure meter, partially because like all mirrorless cameras in bright sunlight, a rare phenomenon around here, you can't see a damm thing on the phones screen.

Sunny sixteen here I come.

[TwoUptons]

I have an exposure app on my iPhone that works really well.

I had several on my old Android, and they never worked as well. It’s harder for developers to match the hardware on so many phones. You might have better luck 🙂

I have a Leica lens on a compact Panasonic. I expect the phone lens quality will be similar—nowhere near what you get out of a M lens... but not horrible...

But I wouldn’t bother with a stand-alone meter unless there was a very specific need...

-Eric

[TomB_tx]

I use both a Digisix and VCII, depending on whether I need an accessory viewfinder in my IIIf, and whether I want an incident reading.
BTW, I find the quality of Leica M lenses is quite uniform, regardless of the model. The higher prices reflect faster glass, bulkier size, and desire for more status. Although I used Summicron and Summilux for decades, now the f2.5 Summarits (the less expensive model) are my favorite lenses on my M10. The size and weight of a Noctilux on an M is ridiculous.

[stevebrot]

Sunny sixteen here I come.

I works unless one is interested in placing exposure or needs an actual reflected light measurement. Too bad the Sekonic L-208 is out of reach price-wise. It is a nice unit (mine is always in the bag) and the least expensive meter available new. As for the phone apps, I tried a few a couple of years back and was unimpressed. I found the readings to correspond poorly with known good dedicated light meters. Sunny sixteen is probably as good or better.


Steve

[Ray-uk]

My little Sekonic selenium exposure meter that I have been using since I bought it for around £5 in the 1960's lost its indicator needle, I have been using it with my unmetered film cameras for years, I have two other selenium meters which work but are now wildly inaccurate, so what to do.

Well I'll just buy another one - well maybe not, as far as I can see there are three that would suit my method of working, the Sekonic L-208 Twinmate, the Gossen Digisix 2 and the Voigtlander VC Meter II, thereupon a snag arose, the Sekonic is around €110 if you buy from Hong Kong - maybe not, the Gossen starts around €150 on e-bay and the Voigtlander, the one I'd really like, is around €288 from dealers, this is not what I had in mind.

I could of course buy a second hand one off e-bay where there are hundreds on offer but nobody seems to guarantee accuracy and it could go belly-up the day after I bought it.

I had seen somebody mention phone apps and there quite a few on the net for both Apple and Android phones.

A few months back I was badgered by my family into buying a smart phone, I was quite happy with my €29 button operated Nokia but apparently this would not do. So if I have to buy a smart phone I'll buy the one I want and not the one on special offer. After surfing around a bit I discovered the Huawei P9, not the latest all singing all dancing model by a long shot but it has two 27mm Leica Summarit H F2.2 ASPH lenses , one for B & W and one for Colour, combining the two images in software apparently gives a more detailed colour image, to be honest I haven't examined the images to see if this is true.

For those who don't know Leica terminology the quality of the lenses goes from Summarit to Summicron to Summilux and if you can afford €10,000 odd a go, to Noctilux. I have a 50mm Russian Jupiter 8 F2.0 €37 on my Leica IIc made around 1951 so I'm definitely not in the top Leica league.

Anyway there is a pretty comprehensive exposure calculator in the phones software which partially gets over the problem of no exposure meter, partially because like all mirrorless cameras in bright sunlight, a rare phenomenon around here, you can't see a damm thing on the phones screen.

Sunny sixteen here I come.

Penpusher, check your private mail !

[PenPusher]

I use both a Digisix and VCII, depending on whether I need an accessory viewfinder in my IIIf, and whether I want an incident reading.
BTW, I find the quality of Leica M lenses is quite uniform, regardless of the model. The higher prices reflect faster glass, bulkier size, and desire for more status. Although I used Summicron and Summilux for decades, now the f2.5 Summarits (the less expensive model) are my favorite lenses on my M10. The size and weight of a Noctilux on an M is ridiculous.

I've been looking at M models since the late 1950's and have read and reread "Theo Scheerer's The Leica and the Leica System" many times and that's as far as it went until my daughter in law lent me her late fathers M3, I was disappointed to say the least, I found it much too big and heavy and the delayed action made the grip very uncomfortable. I was puzzled and thought there has to be something about the Leica for it to survive so long so a couple of years later I invested €15 in a Zorki 1c, what a revelation, it was nice and small and lovely to handle with everything in the right place and nothing to irritate the fingers, no slow speeds and finish of course was nothing to write home about but it worked. Last year I bought a screw mount Leica IIc from Sammy's Camera someplace in California for €120, I knew it would need a CLA but that's probably the case for every screw Leica, Zorki and Fed out there. The finish is really lovely and it works fine.

The downside - I got stuck for 23% Vat + €10 For An Post to collect it accompanied by a note to say import duty on goods over €150 including postage charges is chargeable for items imported from outside the EU - they must be getting ready for Brexit, I foresee a sharp decline in photographic imports from the UK and a sudden interest in learning continental languages - I was raised in London and was once congratulated on speaking French with a perfect Brixton accent.

I don't have any Leica lenses, any Summarit will cost you the bones of €2,000 if not more and with two daughters accountants I know enough not to mention the word Leica, but I do think they're particularly nice lenses being small, tidy and lightweight and would be what I'd go for, at my age you like to be carrying the lightest outfit you can manage, there seems to be a lot more uphill than down around here.

It's interesting that you find uniformity between Summicron and Summilux lenses, the only reason I'd go for a Summilux would be the greater separation the F1.4 aperture offers, with the capabilities of current sensors I don't think such a fast lens is warranted for any other reason unless you cover sports or something similar which I would not use a Leica for anyway. I would have thought that the tiny depth of field with a 0.95 Noctilux wide open would make accurate focussing difficult.

I have often wondered how much of the Leica system was a status symbol, buying for that reason would be a wasted effort around here as all people seem to be interested in are Canon and Nikon DSLR's, a person with a Pentax is a definite oddity, a confirmed lunatic if you have several of them.

CD

---------- Post added 05-04-2018 at 10:14 PM ----------

Penpusher, check your private mail !

Will do.

[TomB_tx]

I agree the pre-M Leica models are wonderful tactile cameras, if slow in use. I bought my M4 Leica in college in the 1960s when it was still a mainstream make, and I was working at a Leica dealer, so I have 50 years of Leica habits. But I used a Pentax H1a at the time, and always felt the screw mount Pentax models felt the best in the hands. Over a few years I shifted to Canon SLRs for the FT meter and lenses, and then to a Leicaflex SL to get reliability like my M4. But in the 70s the MX and small M lenses brought me backup Pentax for SLR use, but my Leica M was always my main camera. In college I even shot sports with an M4 and 90mm lens, loving the way the viewfinder let me see all the activity around the frame to compose for the action. Now retired, my digital M Leica was my last splurge for a digital I could use exactly like my film cameras, with all my old lenses.

[Eyewanders]

Well I'll just buy another one - well maybe not, as far as I can see there are three that would suit my method of working, the Sekonic L-208 Twinmate, the Gossen Digisix 2 and the Voigtlander VC Meter II, thereupon a snag arose, the Sekonic is around €110 if you buy from Hong Kong - maybe not, the Gossen starts around €150 on e-bay and the Voigtlander, the one I'd really like, is around €288 from dealers, this is not what I had in mind.

The little Twinmate is a great little meter actually. I use it more and more these days. Accurate. Simple. And, so small and light I lose it a lot.
(My favorite full-fledged meter is a Minolta Flashmeter VI)