Info on Gossem light meters.

[icicle]

I just got a Gossem Luna-Pro Digital F meter off of craigslist for $75 and I wanted to know are they any good or did I just waste my money?

[icicle]

Shamefull bump.

If this site has over 50,000 members then why doesn't any one post a comment or other helpfull info on products.
Dang I know I may not be highly like for doing reptile photography.
And I still maybe new to photography all together.
Just seems like this site is dead.
Sorry for the rant.

[Xia_Ke]

Shamefull bump.

If this site has over 50,000 members then why doesn't any one post a comment or other helpfull info on products.
Dang I know I may not be highly like for doing reptile photography.
And I still maybe new to photography all together.
Just seems like this site is dead.
Sorry for the rant.

1. This is a forum and not a chat room so you can not expect an instant answer. The people here are very helpful and friendly but, we do have lives. Give questions a day or 2 and someone will help you out.

2. 99.9% of the members here, I'm guessing, don't use handheld meters. Most use their camera's internal meters so this is going to drastically cut down on the number of people able to help you.

Okay, done my rant

The Gossen meters are excellent and very accurate. If you do not have a manual CLICK HERE. Keep in mind though, that a meter is only as good as the person doing the metering and their equipment. I'm assuming since you bought this meter that your camera does not have an internal meter or it's not quite up to snuff. Due to slight variance in shutters, meters, film speeds, and development methods, you will need to do a series of test shots to "dial in" you meter. What are you using for a camera? For film (if not digital)? If film, are you developing yourself and if so what developer and what's your process? Are you having a lab process it and if so do you go to multiple labs or one in particular? All of these can have a big effect on the final shot and influence your metering. Let me know the specifics of your shooting and we can help you get dialed in.

Happy Shooting,
Aaron

[icicle]

I have a Canon Rebal Xt, and yes it has a buit in meter.
I usaly print all my own photos but the ones I want very nice I take to a photolab.
I basicly bought it to get more precise readings and to spot meter.

[Xia_Ke]

Are you having problems with the in-camera metering? Did the Gossen come with the spotmeter attachment? Honestly, while the Gossen meters are nice, I think it was an unnecessary purchase for you. The Xt has a pseudo spot mode, "Partial metering at center (approx. 9% of viewfinder)" according to the camera specs. Unless you are having issues with the camera's meter, the only way you could get more accurate would be to use the 1 degree spot attachment for the Gossen. Do you shoot RAW or jpeg? Any photo editing programs? If you get a good basic exposure, a lot can be compensated for in editing when shooting RAW. Another cheap, easy method is to get an 18% Gray Card. You simply put this card into the same light as your subject, and meter the card. The cards create a constant in your work flow so that once you get your exposure dialed in where you like it for the card, you can use it in any situation to get the exposure you want it also aids in white balancing.

[Franglais]

I just saw your post (which was posted at 2am my time). It is now 10:40pm and I only just got home, having had a full day doing other things.

I have two Sekonic meters from my film days, one of which is a spotmeter. Gossen Luna Pro users speak highly of it, but personally I wouldn't buy it:

- the readout is analog (a meter with a coil spring which inevitably goes off in time)
- I believe the meter cell is CDS which is less reliable than the Silicon one in the Sekonics. I don't believe the Goossen can do flash metering, for instance

I've used spot metering but I find it's easy to make mistakes. Most of the time I leave it up to the 3D Matrix metering in my Nikons. It effectively does the same thing by taking 1005 points of the image then tries to figure out what it could be. With my Sekonics I use incident light metering most of the time, which is a useful feature of hand-held meters. Check it out

Have you tried to get batteries yet? The Gossen used Mercury batteries - no longer made due to pollution - which have been replaced by some rather expensive non-Mercury ones.

Bottom line - nowadays I stick with the camera meter except for use with strobes in the studio

[Greg McCary]

Aaron is right. Not to many probably use a hand held. I have used a couple of hand helds but never one this fancy.
Your Xt's meter will be extremely accurate. In fact when I shoot with my Mamiya I often use the meter in my E3.
Good news is there is a good market for meters. If you decide to resell you can easily get your money back. Many of us still use older cameras and are always in need of a good meter.
Our classifieds here at PR are free, by the way.

[Xia_Ke]

Charles, the meter he's referring to is a newer digital version with a silicone photodiode cell and uses AAA batteries.

[icicle]

Charles, the meter he's referring to is a newer digital version with a silicone photodiode cell and uses AAA batteries.

This one has only one AA battery in it.

[Xia_Ke]

This one has only one AA battery in it.

Sorry about that, I was going off a spec sheet I found. Regardless though, the meter doesn't used to no longer made mercury cell batteries, so you won't have to deal with voltage compensation issues when using substitute batteries.

[icicle]

I don't believe the Goossen can do flash metering, for instance

Bottom line - nowadays I stick with the camera meter except for use with strobes in the studio

Thanks for the info. This is another reason I bought this one I can test my flashes and get them close to each other.

I did test it out and the one flash had a reading of f/11.6 while the other one showed a reading of f/22 from the same distance. I did help to dial the one flash in.

Aaron is right. Not to many probably use a hand held. I have used a couple of hand helds but never one this fancy.
Your Xt's meter will be extremely accurate. In fact when I shoot with my Mamiya I often use the meter in my E3.
Good news is there is a good market for meters. If you decide to resell you can easily get your money back. Many of us still use older cameras and are always in need of a good meter.
Our classifieds here at PR are free, by the way.

I also have an older 35mm with no fancy read outs in it.

The thing I don't get is why does my camera show one setting for example, in full auto mode it showed me a shutter speed of 20 with a f4.0
and my meter using the reflected light shows me shutter speed of 15 and a f/4.0

[icicle]

Sorry about that, I was going off a spec sheet I found. Regardless though, the meter doesn't used to no longer made mercury cell batteries, so you won't have to deal with voltage compensation issues when using substitute batteries.

Right, Just 1.5 volt stanard AA bat.

[Franglais]

Charles, the meter he's referring to is a newer digital version with a silicone photodiode cell and uses AAA batteries.

Right. I missed the new version. That looks good - silicon cell, works with flash, modern batteries..

Just one thing - he did say "spotmeter" and I don't see any mention of a spotmeter attachment for this thing.

[Greg McCary]

The thing I don't get is why does my camera show one setting for example, in full auto mode it showed me a shutter speed of 20 with a f4.0
and my meter using the reflected light shows me shutter speed of 15 and a f/4.0

That little bit of difference really won't matter that much. At that point you have to decide for yourself what to shoot. Is your subject back lit? Is your subject against a dark back ground. Or you could be shooting a snow scene. All of theses situations require compensations from what your meter is reading to get proper exposure. The meter is just a guide. I never shoot in Auto for this reason. You wind up with just to many throw aways. I think a good cheap book on exposure would help you a lot. Look for "Teach yourself Photography" at Amazon. It is an easy afternoon read and it is really cheap. Learn to shoot in manual and you will never look back.

[Xia_Ke]

Right. I missed the new version. That looks good - silicon cell, works with flash, modern batteries..

Just one thing - he did say "spotmeter" and I don't see any mention of a spotmeter attachment for this thing.

You are correct. I thought they made spot attachments for the whole Luna series but, looks like they stopped when they came out with the digital meters. Probably didn't want to take away from their dedicated spotmeter that they came out with. Between the 2 of us we'll get this meter figured out...LOL

[icicle]

Opps. No it did not come with a spot meter attachment. Sorry I miss read someplace about a spot meter.