Cheap selenium meter vs Sunny 16

[Francis in VT]

Weston Master II Cine light meter.
SNIP <<<
I could use an explanation as to how it is supposed to work. I never fully understood how it works.

Bob;

I spent over 40 years explaining equipment to customers, possibly I could help. What model do you have? The number is on the back.
Do you know anything about Weston meters or should I start in the very begining

[vintageslrs]

Francis

it is a model 736...

if you could clear this up for me...I would appreciate it.

Thanks
Bob

[kiev4a]

Peter is right. One of the primary reasons old selenium meters, both hand-held and on a camera, don't work isn't that the cell is bad' It's the connection to the cell. For some reason they seem to break down more quickly tan other wiring.

[PeterW]

Wayne,

It's the connection to the cell. For some reason they seem to break down more quickly tan other wiring.

I think maybe it's because the current involved with selenium meters - fractions of milliamps? is so small that even a slight increase in resistance in the circuit is enough to smother it. With CdS meters the current is probably high enough to get through even if the meter gives a low reading.

Peter

[wolves3012]

I used to play a little game with myself - guess the exposure before turning the camera's meter on. That quickly taught me a lesson - I'm absolutely useless at judging light levels! I'd always used TTL meters till recently and always been guided by them, with a bit of judgement for non-average scenes. Even though I normally use transparency, I usually get it close enough.

Having recently bought some older non-metered cameras, however, I got a Weston Master III (which, incidentally, agrees 100% with the meter in my X-700). I've just recently run my first roll of transparency film through a Zorki 1, using the Weston. Except for a couple of "accidents" and some under/over bracketed shots, every frame has come out near-perfect for exposure. I'd have to be very lucky if the meter was wrong and the camera was correspondingly wrong on every frame, so I'm assuming that both are close enough!

The only downside to the Weston, as with all seleniums, is that they aren't very useful in low light but at that point it's hard to read a scale anyway! Saying that, when they run out of usefulness I tend to be in situations there where 5 or 10 seconds makes little difference! The Weston's do seem mostly to work or be dead though, from what I see on eBay there are few that "react slightly to light". I've heard Peter's trick of cleaning the contacts to revive dead Westons too.

[jennyandernie]

A lot of the cameras in our collection have selenium cell meters and many of them work very well; in fact overall the old selenium cell meters work better than the old cds cells. Though as Peter says in some cases that is due to the mercury batteries no longer being available.

We have a number of hand held meters picked up along the way; some of them work some of them don't. However the one I always carry is my Weston Euromaster; would't be without it. I find it the most accurate hand held meter I have ever used for film work with vintage cameras.

Like most photographers who started out a long time ago I am not bad at guessing the correct exposure; had to in those days lol.

Ernie

[keith201]

Try this for size!
THE ULTIMATE EXPOSURE METER
www.fredparker.com/ultexp1.htm
Remember the ‘Sunny f/16 Rule’? “On a bright, sunny day, the correct exposure for any subject is f/16 at the shutter speed nearest to the reciprocal of the film speed (ISO).”
This takes this rule to its logical conclusion, enabling you to assess the exposure without using your camera’s meter.

[Berndt]

I just used an old Canonet ( the very first model ) as a camera with inbuilt selenium light meter yet. It even has a selenium meter based auto exposure function and it works surprisingly good. I shot about 10 films during my holiday last summer and the success rate has been >90 percent. That's something, considering that this camera is made in 1961 and not using any battery. I think, those cameras have truly been technical marvels.

[mickeyobe]

I still occasionally use the ☀16 rule. It still works for me even though my batteries are not as strong as they used to be.

I used it recently with my revitalized Kodak Medalist I and got 7 out of 8 useable exposures.

Mickey

[grenouille]

For all my meterless cameras, I use the Sekonic Twinmate L-208, pretty accurate.

Hye

[33dollars]

Mar 21, 2012 11:56:48 GMT -5 grenouille said:

For all my meterless cameras, I use the Sekonic Twinmate L-208, pretty accurate.

Hye

Me too. I like the L-208. I also use a LV-vi. Just aquired a LC-2 & plan to right up a manual for it. Down here in Australia if its after 10am & before 4pm your usually right with sunny 16.

[Deleted]

This thread goes back a ways. The poster Kiev4a was me when I first joined. The hand held selenium meters seem to hold up better than that type of meter built into a camera. The meters on old Soviet gear seem to have a lot more meter failures than German and Japanese gear.

W.

[dee]

A selenium meter is precisely why I am awaiting a Kontax IV from Ukraine - the pleasure and quality of a genuine 1930s Contax III body plus the convenience and ease of use of a 1957 Kiev top plate and meter with new cell .
I second the Leningrad 4 meter too , though I have several working Westons .

dee

[Deleted]

The Westons never seem to quit working. Probably because they were built like tanks.

[dee]

I guess with Westons it's ' Tanks for the memory ' groan .