Heads up: great deal on Sekonic L-208 Light Meter

[digitalintrigue]

Special price ends July 20

[taskoni]

Hm, may be it's about time to buy and start using one... Thank you for the info!

[Sanders McNew]

Beware that the Twinmate dies if you drop it. To their
credit, Sekonic repaired two that I used whenever needed,
at no cost. But I got tired of boxing them up and sending
them off to NJ for repair, so I moved up to Sekonic's
Studio Deluxe (L-398) -- pricier but durable like a truck.
The Studio Deluxe is a great meter.

[semilog]

^--- I totes had the same problem with my M9 and 50/0.95 Noctilux so I replaced it with a Nikonos III. :P

[Vics]

Originally Posted by digitalintrigue

Special price ends July 20

Got one coming. Thanks for the heads up! I just lost my L308s and have been looking for an even smaller replacement. I like that it can mount in the shoe.

[loquax ludens]

That is a good price. I might buy one despite the fact that I eliminated it recently when looking for a small pocket meter in a comparison between the Sekonic L-208, L-308, and the Gossen Digipro-F.

I ended up getting the Gossen because of its better low-light sensitivity and because it can be set for shutter or aperture priority. The Sekonic L-308 has about the same sensitivity as the Digipro-F, but it is shutter priority only. Both of those meters run off of one AA battery, which is convenient.

The L-208 is a match-needle meter, and you can easily see the full range of aperture / shutter combinations at a glance. However, it's not a very sensitive meter in low-light, it requires a CR 2032 lithium button cell to power it, and it seemed like it would be more difficult than the other two to use one-handed. It does have the advantage of being very small. Many people have commented, though, that it isn't particularly sturdy or solidly built.

It turns out that the Digipro-F was not a good choice for me. It is bigger and more delicate than it looks, due to the rotating light dome cell. It is not sturdy enough to survive in your pants pocket. Well, not in mine, anyway. The rotating light dome will come off too easily, and occasionally the whole rotating pivot section will pop out. And then you'll have to pry it apart to put the pivot head platform back in, and in the process you might break one of the little plastic tabs that holds the front and rear parts together, and you'll have to tape it shut with gaffers tape. Don't ask me how I konw. I guess it might be OK in a shirt or coat pocket, or in its case.

The Sekonic L-308 seems more sturdy than the Digipro-F because it doesn't have articulating appendages. But it's also pushing the pants pocket size factor, and so the L-208 might actually be the best from that perspective.

[bhop73]

I have one of those. I like the small size.

[raytoei@gmail.com]

Hi,

+ Small, compact, is wearable over the neck.
+ Incident and reflective modes
+ Comes with option to attach to hotshoe
- Not particularly very accurate due to size.
I find that i usually have to average the EV number from
Incident + Reflective readings.

raytoei

[mathomas]

I like my L208. I like that it has an EV reading. I use it with one hand all the time. I wear it around my neck to avoid dropping it. Good stuff, good price.

[clayne]

I like their selenium meter even if it's a little more work. When the light gets low it's usually 1/30 and wide open anyways so lack of coverage down there doesn't bother me so much.

[Godfrey]

I have one of the L208s. It's a decent meter, but frankly the competing Gossen digital meter is better quality and much more robust. The Sekonic L328 is my standard meter, and has been for the past decade; i'd like to upgrade it to an L358. Some time soon. :-)

[Keith]

Hmmm $89.00 ... I just checked the shipping price to Oz ... $30.00! You folks in the US get free shipping I noted.

I can get the same meter out of Hong Kong for just over $100.00 and that includes shipping. (ebay)

[Ronald_H]

That's not bad... but I already own one and shipping rates to Europe are ruinous as well. Nice little thing, looks the business mounted on my Leica M2 or Werra 3 too. I much prefer it to the Gossen Digiflash I also own.

[traveler_101]

Originally Posted by Ronald_H

That's not bad... but I already own one and shipping rates to Europe are ruinous as well. Nice little thing, looks the business mounted on my Leica M2 or Werra 3 too. I much prefer it to the Gossen Digiflash I also own.

The U.S. Postal Service has increased rates apparently. I bought the L-208 last year when I acquired my IIIF and I paid $126 for it. $89 is a damned good price. To anyone considering buying it and doesn't wish to mount it on the camera, I would repeat one of the earlier comments: It is extremely light and small and is meant to hang from your neck below the camera. This virtually eliminates the possibility of it falling and makes it very accessible. The battery lasts for a long, long time. It is cool--produces analog readings giving you a range of shutter speed/aperture combinations; it seems appropriate to an old camera.

[Joakim Målare]

I've had one for a while. It's a good lightmeter if you don't want any fancy stuff. I use it mostly to check my guessing by taking incident readings now and then. However I'm not that fond of slow interaction with technical stuff, so I improved the design a little, described in this post over at photo.net:

http://photo.net/filters-bags-tripod...s-forum/00YFiE

Some got the idea, others didn't. If you like it, the files are still there.

[Mablo]

Bought one of these many moons ago having had an idea to mount it on a Canon P. I don't think I used it mounted more than maybe a few rolls. I didn't like it at all. Used normally by hand it's a good performer and has never failed me.

I downloaded Joakim's clever EV sheet. Thanks, Joakim!

[loquax ludens]

I like the Voightlander VC Meter II better for a camera-mounted meter.

[bean_counter]

I have one, but never had good results with it, particularly with incident readings and low light. One nice feature - it has hash marks (dots? can't remember) corresponding to "old" Leica shutter speeds. Handy for working with my IIIf, about all the use it gets any more.

Moved on to a L-308s, I get much better results - love it. I hang it from my neck, or put it in a shirt or pants pocket, it's just small enough to get by with.

[Argenticien]

Everything is relative. As meters go for hand-held use or for space consumed in a kit bag, the L-208 is small. As Things Other Than Flash go for mounting in an accessory shoe, it is large. Perhaps worse, it's horizontal. (Far larger flashes are vertical, at least where they attach to the shoe, so they get out of the way.) I find that the L-208 in a shoe (including, as Mablo tried, that of a Canon P) can get in the way of making settings on the lens. Anyway, still, I'd recommend it. It's a great meter for the money, very nice used hand-held, and not that fragile. I have had it in my jeans-pocket and it survived. I think I have dropped it on a wood floor, and outdoor ground, and had it survive unscathed. I would not attempt dropping it on concrete.

--Dave

[micromontenegro]

I also have one. Hate that unrealiable, inaccurate thing. The ISO dial has a mind of its own.

[coelacanth]

True story.

[Ronald_H]

Originally Posted by coelacanth

True story.

And that, kind Sir, just totally made my day

[Vics]

Originally Posted by loquax ludens

The Sekonic L-308 seems more sturdy than the Digipro-F because it doesn't have articulating appendages. But it's also pushing the pants pocket size factor, and so the L-208 might actually be the best from that perspective.

That was my experience with the L-308s. I've become clumsy in my old age, and dropped it many times onto hard surfaces. It never even showed a scratch, and just "kept on ticking." Very sturdy indeed!

[robbiechad]

I have 3 light meters all Western Masters , one IV and 2 Vs all work perfectly and are very accurate, cost me a lot less than 90 dollars!

[Ljós]

Originally Posted by Joakim Målare

I've had one for a while. It's a good lightmeter if you don't want any fancy stuff. I use it mostly to check my guessing by taking incident readings now and then. However I'm not that fond of slow interaction with technical stuff, so I improved the design a little, described in this post over at photo.net:

http://photo.net/filters-bags-tripod...s-forum/00YFiE

Some got the idea, others didn't. If you like it, the files are still there.

Joakim, that's genius, very nice. While I had my 208 I sort of memorized the EV values of the needle in relation to "landmarks" already printed on the standard scale. And I considered a mod similar to yours, based on my most used EI of 400. Eventually I settled on using the Gossing Digisix. But my hat is off to you, your solution looks very nice and certainly speeds up the readout process considerably.

Greetings, Ljós