NEW LIGHT METER! WOOT!

[thewayne]

I've used a Sekonic L-398 light meter for a considerable number of years. Wonderful meter, powered by the selenium cell that takes the light reading, so you never put batteries into it: it's self-powered. VERY strongly made, it's survived banging around with me for 20 years or more.

Unfortunately when my portraite studio photography class started this semester, I found out that it was not reading accurately, so it's sort of been semi-retired for the last couple of months.

Well, if there's one thing true about serious photographers, they're gadget freaks. I am certainly no exception. An incident light meter like my L398 is of limited use in a studio photography class, our main need is for flash meters. They work the same as incident light meters in that they measure the light falling on the subject, but they have the addition of being able to plug the flash cord into the meter then pressing a button to fire the flash.

We have one in the studio for, drum roll please, studio use. I never cared for it: the ergonimics of how it feels in my hand just didn't work (such things are very important to me), and the auto-shutoff powers down the unit in just a minute or two of non-use.

Not acceptable.

So I started cruising eBay. I found a really cool Minolt Auto Meter IVf for a very attractive price: $108 including shipping. AND NOW IT IS MINE! It arrived today, and I used it in tonight's shoot. Feels very good in my hand, very easy to read display, and the auto-shutoff is ten minutes! And since it's powered by a single AA battery, it's easy to get replacements.

I had some concerns about buying it. They seller had a high rating, almost 1000, and it was over 97% positive, so I had no problems there. But I really didn't look at the add close enough. He doesn't take PayPal, they closed his account for selling "adult material". I consider that a little hypocritical: if eBay lets him sell it, PayPal shouldn't have a problem since they're owned by eBay. ANYWAY, I had to go to the hassle of going to my bank and mailing him a cashier's check. My concern was that if there was anything wrong with the meter that I'd have a hard time getting satisfaction from this guy. The high rating and high positive score assuaged that fear somewhat, but it still nagged at me.

I mailed the check off last Tuesday. Didn't hear from the guy. Sent him an email last night asking if he'd received the check. He said he had and that the meter went out Friday.

And Monday it was in our mail box! SQUEEEE!

Comments

[magic-rat.livejournal.com]

FYI, I've heard that PayPal's policy concerning "adult material" was due to many porn sites that used their services. This was a problem due to either (a) generating more transactions than PayPal could keep up with (or wanted to pay to upgrade their equipment to keep up with) or (b) being used to pay for subscriptions to child porn sites (which I find unlikely, although I've heard this from several different sources). Then again, this is all hearsay that's been filtered through my less-than-reliable memory, so take that for what it's worth.