Review 1 of 18
Price Paid:
$156.00
from From a Friend Summary: My friend who's a pro, wanted me to buy a Minolta meter. They were a bit big, and there were a lot of functions that I thought I'd never use. The meter I finally fell in love with was this Sekonic. It fit my four primary requirements:
1) Small enough to fit in my shirt pocket.
2) Uses AA batteries
3) Easy enough to use without an instruction manual
4) ACCURATE (After all, if it's not accurate, everything else is useless right?)
Well, a friend of mine wanted a meter recommendation, and I told him I was going to buy this one for myself. So he bought one. He felt the use of a meter too cumbersome, and so he decided to sell it. I bought it off of him for half price, and have been using it ever since.
It's small, and it does one thing and one thing only, gives you an accurate metered reading. That's exactly what I wanted. It is very accurate (tested it against a bunch of bigger sekonic models as well as Minolta models, and it yielded the same consistent results. So far, it's been near perfect. I would make a few adjustments, but overall, wonderful. I would have liked to have another button that would have let you switch between shutter priority vs. aperture priority. Also, I would have preferred a decimal vs. the bar system. I would have also preferred that the battery test didn't show up right away when you powered up, it does indeed, steal precious seconds. I would have preferred had you held the power button for a few seconds, it would show the battery level, or gives a warning when the batteries are almost dead. I have used this meter with slide film, and it gives accurate exposure. It's solid, no real moving parts, and have been very reliable, in fact, more reliable than my friend's other meters. It's got a leather case so you can carry it on the belt, but I usually carry it in the shirt pocket. One of the advantages of it's size. Repeatability of metering is excellent. I love the compactness and simplicity. It's easy enough for a beginner, but is pro level on all fronts. Strengths: Small, Light, portable, uses 1 AA battery (this is important, as you can get AA's pretty much anywhere in the world), runs forever on 1 battery (mine is about to be out of juice, but have been using it for over a year on the same battery!) and of course, very accurate. The Flash metering is accurate as well. Weaknesses: Lack of Aperture priority
Battery test comes up first, wasting time
Sometimes forget to read the bars, and so you might be as much as almost a full stop off. Similar Products Used: Minolta IV, Minolta V, Minolta VI. Customer Service: None needed thus far.
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