Exposure Meter

[Steve B]

I was hoping I could get some help with this old exposure meter from some of the professionals on here.

I have this old meter that I am trying to learn how to use properly. Warning - Please be advised, I have never taken a photography class in my life and I get easily confused with the lingo.

I have done some research and I found some okay information on the web but I lost the web page and I have forgotten what it said to do to measure footcandles.

It was something about set the AMA to 200, then rotate the dial to match the arrow to the black line and then take note of the fstop where the 250(?) on the dial is and then there was a chart to convert this to footcandles.

Am I even close?

Thank you for any help you can offer.

Cheers,
Steve

[digitalgate]

sound ok. what do you need to know? remember to put the light meter on a white piece of
paper when you measure. That way you get consistent result. This also eliminating the guess
work to do know if you have correct light on the plant.

[mayres]

Set the film speed at ASA 25.
Set the shutter speed at 1/60th sec.
Like digital said, point at white paper or cardboard which is at the location of your plant.
f-stop reading will translate to footcandles
f/2.8 = 200
f/4 = 370
f/5.6 = 750
f/8 = 1500
f/11 = 2800
f/16 = 5000

[Steve B]

I'm sorry, which number on the dial is the shutter speed? I don't see anything that says 1/60th?

Steve

[mayres]

That is a "tricky" little tool you got there! I'm not 100% certain, but it looks like the numbers that go something like 1000, 500, 250, 125, and then a mark that would be 60 are the shutter speeds? Maybe a camera buff will read this and confirm? You can actually do this same process with any camera that has a shutter priority mode by setting it on 1/60 sec. and with film speed 25 - look through the view finder at a 8.5x11 white sheet of paper at a distance that the paper just fills the viewfinder and get the same result.
note: you can get some pretty good light meters on the internet at places like ebay that read directly in footcandles - I got one for about $20 including shipping! It is an older model but works fine. Some of the members on this forum have been purchasing a digital model for around $50.

[JLu]

Lot simpler to use your camera Steve. Realize that you are using a reflected light meter (also if you use the camera). Incident light meters are more accurate if you plan to make many measurements. The reflected light meter is very sensitive to the angle of measurement as well as the angle of the reflective surface to the light source. You can get an idea what you have, but a cheap incident meter is better.