Should I buy a $150 and up digital exposure light meter? how accurate is it?

Question

I would say the digital is more accurate, but how accurate is the question.

the difference in cost is a big margin.

What kind of exposure meter is recommended?

They all work pretty much the same thing right?

Answer 1

Get a good one used

Answer 2

There are 2 distinct types of hand-held meters* - spot and incident. The spot meter measures light reflected from our subject. The incident meter measures the light hitting our subject. Since many DSLR cameras have a spot meter setting we'll turn our attention to the incident meter.

Go to http://www.shutterbug.com

Type 'steve bedell' in the Search box

Read his article "Get It Right... In The Camera..."

Now type 'incident meter' in the Search box

Look for articles about using an incident meter with your digital camera. Read them.

Now check the prices of incident meters on eBay.

* I purposely failed to mention flash meters and color meters.

Answer 3

Are they still making light meters? The metering on most cameras is pretty good these days, digital has rendered them pretty useless as any DSLR can be used as a very accurate light meter. Just put them on to spot metering and away you go.

Now a flash meter is a different game, but only if your using film.

Chris

Answer 4

You must not be aware of what is called an incident light meter.  It is used for taking meter readings at the subject, usually used when shooting motion pictures and using large format cameras.

Internal light meters (what you are calling digital but are actually analog meters light meters) are used to measure the analog light coming through the lens and will be striking either the film or sensor.  What is digital is the read-out on the meter as apposed to an actual meter with a needle, pointing to a scale.  The reason lnternal light meters are better for SLR and DSLR cameras is because of the amount of light that zoom lenses "eat" while passing light through them.  On some of them, if you were to use an external meter, you would be off a stop and a half (underexposed of course)