I've just received the B&H tome (yes, it's a tome) in the mail. I've been trying to determine which spot meter to buy. In the tome, they have the usual array of meters including the Pentax Digital Spot meter.

They also have a digital spot meter from Soligor for about half the price. The basic specifications seem quite similar. Has anyone played with (or using) a Soligor Digital Spot meter for Zone System work? If so, how well does it work for LF applications?

Thanks, Robert

-- Robert Ruderman (ruderman@seanet.com), May 06, 1998

Answers

I own an older digital Soligor Spot meter and have found it to be a very good meter. However, I have also found that I prefer a non-digital meter for Zone System work, which I do 70% of the time. I like to see displayed by dial the whole range of possible exposure combinations on one place rather than having to figure in my head other combinations based on a given single digital exposure from the Soligor. For field work, I have been using a Gossen Luna-Pro SBC with the 3 degree spot attachment, and this works very well. I have modified the Gossen to show me the ten Zone steps in relation to an indicated exposure. The Soligor that I have also has a flash meter which I find invaluable for studio work whan I can't reach through a set to take an incident flash reading with an other meter.

BKL

-- Britt Leckman (bleckman@gmu.edu), May 08, 1998.

I bought one about a year ago, but have not been using it a lot. It seems sturdy, but has a 6 month warranty(sp?). A nice case is included. It uses a standard 9 volt battery available every where It is simplcity personified. Place the spot, press the trigger, and the needle moves on the scale. Pick EV, set the EI and you get a set of shutter speeds on dials arround the lens. There is no warm up as with the pentax digital. It is easy to follow changes on the scale as you move the spot. Soligar has absolutely NO snob appeal!

-- Gene Crumpler (crumpler.gene@epa.gov), May 21, 1998.