# Just picked up two vintage light meters - any info/usage tips about them?



## DwainDibley (Aug 4, 2007)

I went into a charity shop locally and found these two light meters pictured below - can anyone shed any light on them or how they are used?  I'm wondering if I could use one or both of them to help with my when playing around with the manual settings - if they are still relevant to my 300D DSLR!

Blendux Photo-Electric Exposure Meter - Found this in a charity shop in Lichfield, cost me £4.50 - fascinating little item - also came with an instruction book which stated it was for 1/16 or 1/32 sec cine cameras!
Anyone any more info on this?


















Bewi Amateur - This I also found in the same charity shop in Lichfield, paid £4.50 for it.  If anyone has any more info on this let me know!  From what I can gather from Google it dates from about 1951?






This second picture below shows it taking a reading - I've lined up a red 'diamond' on the white dial with exposure settings on - is this how it's used?  Is the exposure to be used (according to the meter) 1/5 sec at F8?  What does the '6' on the ASA dial mean?





(Taken with my K800i cameraphone in macro mode - takes surprisingly good macro pictures - I'm rubbish at macro pics with my 300D!)


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## blackdoglab (Aug 4, 2007)

I've seem a  few old meters at thrift shops, and i've never found one that works.  The old selenium meters often go after fifteen years.  I wonder, though, if you could hook up the solar panel from a calculator to one of 'em.


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## DwainDibley (Aug 4, 2007)

These seem to be working, though not sure on how accurate they are though!


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## Mitica100 (Aug 5, 2007)

I'm afraid I don't know much about older meters. If you need a manual for it, here's a link:

http://www.oldtimercameras.com/stock/Model.asp?Model=13980&ModelPage=true

The manual might cost more than the meter.


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## Alex_B (Aug 5, 2007)

DwainDibley said:


> This second picture below shows it taking a reading - I've lined up a red 'diamond' on the white dial with exposure settings on - is this how it's used?  Is the exposure to be used (according to the meter) 1/5 sec at F8?  What does the '6' on the ASA dial mean?



This looks similar to the light meter I used on my first adventures into photography ... but it has been a loong time and I was probably last using it at the age of 14 or so 
And it even has DIN (Deutsche Industrienorm) - todays "ISO logarithmic scale" 

This lightmeter is different enough from my old lightmeter to give me some headache ... someone else step in please


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## Steph (Aug 5, 2007)

I am not familiar with those 2 meters and I have not got a clue about how to use the first one. For the second one, I would set the ISO to correspond to film speed/sensor sensitivity (probably with the inner round dial), take a reading and match the number shown by the needle and the number in the small round window on the right hand side (by turning the outside of the dial) and finally take the appropriate combination of aperture and shutter speed. See if that corresponds more or less to the readings from your 300D. The '6' on the balck background might be a setting for a cine camera (not sure about that one).


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## DwainDibley (Aug 5, 2007)

Thanks for your help everyone! 

@steph - so what I would do is depending on what number it shows in sensitivity scale on the right (in this case 6), move that small red diamond indicator thing on the exposure dial using the wheel at the bottom of the light meter so it matches with the 6, and then read off the exposure/aperture settings? 

I was wondering what that number in the small round window was for, is it something to do with cine cameras?  Sounds the most likely explanation.


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## Steph (Aug 6, 2007)

I think you have to match the number indicated by the needle (9 on the last to picture) to either of the numbers in the round window (11 on the picture) or on the black background (6 on the picture). I am not sure which one though.


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