Hi please forgive a lightmeter newb question. I recently bought a L608 second hand. I am using it with a Nikon D750 DSLR (24/70G and 50mm 1.4D lenses normally)and am having problems with the incident light readings in ambient light which seem to consistently overexpose in a wide variety of situations. I have calibrated the meter as much as I can (1EV) but its more like a full stop out. The spot seems to be about right though. Is it possible the meter is defective or maybe its more of a film than a digital meter? If anyone can shed some light, it would a real help. Thanks Toby
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Sekonic L608 reading overexposed
- Thread starter Toby43
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- nikon d750
I assume you have an instruction book.
If not: https://www.sekonic.com/united-states/downloads/l-608_english.pdf
The first thing I'd do, if the weather was nice, would be to go out on a nice sunny day and take an incident light reading.
If it said ISO 100, 1/100 of a second, f16, I'd know my meter was capable of working properly.
If it was not with half a stop of that up or down, I'd know the meter was broken.
BAK
If not: https://www.sekonic.com/united-states/downloads/l-608_english.pdf
The first thing I'd do, if the weather was nice, would be to go out on a nice sunny day and take an incident light reading.
If it said ISO 100, 1/100 of a second, f16, I'd know my meter was capable of working properly.
If it was not with half a stop of that up or down, I'd know the meter was broken.
BAK
photolando
Senior Member
What are you using as a test target? When we tested new film batches we had a board that consisted of a MacBeth Color checker, Several things with various colors and tones and even my hand close to it. You need KNOWN values to compare the reading. Not just "a shot of something".
Your basis of comparison is the D750. What metering mode? Matrix mode exposure values don't always relate directly to light intensity as it tries to expose for what it thinks is important in the scene.
Also comparing incident to reflected light readings is best done by measuring a test surface or scene with the reflectivity the incident meter is calibrated for. How are you doing it?
So the L608 would be overexposing by around 2 stops when its Calibration Compensation is set to zero? That's a factor of 4 in measuring the light intensity.
The L608 has independent Calibration Compensation for incident and reflected modes. If it agrees with D750 spot metering of the same area I would leave reflected Calibration Compensation alone.
In determining the strength of the light film vs digital doesn't matter although used film era gear is more likely to have age related deterioration/abuse issues.
I get about a stop variation in readings with my 3 incident meters and how they rank varies with the ambient level. Perhaps you can compare your L608 to another incident meter.
The problem with having more than one light meter is you are then never quite sure how bright the light is.
- John
"[If you don't sweat the details] the magic doesn't work." Brooks, F. P., The Mythical Man-Month, Addison-Wesley, 1975, page 8.
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Hosko
Leading Member
Get an 18% grey card, they are real cheap. White balance the cameta to the card and take a reading with the meter and use those settings in your camera and take a photo of the grey card. Take the photo into Photoshop or whatever you use and the grey should read 128 for all rgb values. If they aren't 128 you need to put some exposure compensation into the meter and repeat until you have the meter calibrated.
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Your basis of comparison is the D750. What metering mode? Matrix mode exposure values don't always relate directly to light intensity as it tries to expose for what it thinks is important in the scene.
Also comparing incident to reflected light readings is best done by measuring a test surface or scene with the reflectivity the incident meter is calibrated for. How are you doing it?
So the L608 would be overexposing by around 2 stops when its Calibration Compensation is set to zero? That's a factor of 4 in measuring the light intensity.
The L608 has independent Calibration Compensation for incident and reflected modes. If it agrees with D750 spot metering of the same area I would leave reflected Calibration Compensation alone.
In determining the strength of the light film vs digital doesn't matter although used film era gear is more likely to have age related deterioration/abuse issues.
I get about a stop variation in readings with my 3 incident meters and how they rank varies with the ambient level. Perhaps you can compare your L608 to another incident meter.
The problem with having more than one light meter is you are then never quite sure how bright the light is.
- John
Thank you. Will try this.
Hosko
Leading Member
Actually the camera and lens make a big difference. Most camera companies cheat with their ISO values. Their ISO 100 is a much lower value, that way there is less noise in the image. The lens also lists F stops not T stops which is the actual transmission of light. Ideally you calibrate every lens and body.
Yes I can see that my primes let in more light than the zoom at the same focal length.
photolando
Senior Member
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