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Lighting Product of the Year: Sekonic L-758DR Light Meter
Ambitious film photographers have long had Ansel Adams' analytical Zone System to help them produce rich, full-toned images. Now like-minded digital shooters have a similar tool: The Sekonic L-758DR metering system. We stress "system," because unlike past Sekonics the L-758 is more than a self-contained, hand-held flash and ambient light meter.
Here's how it works. You use your digital SLR to shoot a bracketed series (plus and minus three stops, in whole-stop increments) of a Sekonic test target, in both continuous and flash lighting, at two different ISOs. Then you download the files to your computer for analysis by the software supplied with the meter, which determines the dynamic range for your particular camera. That data is then uploaded to the meter, which you attach to your computer by USB. (The data covers a speed range from ISO 3 to ISO 8000, with both flash and ambient light.) From then on, when you take a reading with the meter it will flash LCD alerts if light levels exceed the range of brightnesses your camera can record in a single exposure. One L-758DR can hold such "profiling" for three D-SLRs. www.sekonic.com
The profiling process isn't exactly easy, due mainly to a poorly translated instruction manual. But once we completed it, the L-758DR gave us a sense of exposure control and certainty that we haven't yet experienced with digital cameras. While still not compatible with Windows Vista or Mac Intel-based machines, Sekonic's L-758DR system is a great asset for digital photographers who need exacting control of their exposures.
American PHOTO Editor's Choice 2007
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