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The Photon is a tiny open-source handheld light meter powered by a Raspberry Pi Pico

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Light meters have been a bit out of fashion for a while – although you’ll get my Sekonic from my cold dead hands! – but they have started to make a little bit of a comeback over the last couple of years. It’s partly due to the resurgence of film and cameras that don’t contain built-in meters but also the value that some photographers find it provides in their work. The only problem is light meters can be expensive!

Well, now there’s a new open-source incident light meter that you can build yourself for less than $50 – assuming you can find a Pi selling for RRP. It’s been created by VEEB, a group of Switzerland-based photographers who’ve taken to building their own kit. The Photon was created to provide incident light readings for shooting with Pentax Hasselblad and other old film cameras the VEEB team had that don’t have built-in light meters.

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This is how you use a light meter properly – they’re really not that difficult or scary

While they were once a fixture in every studio and photographer’s gear bag, light meters seem to have fallen out of fashion ever since digital photography came along. And while it’s true that we now have a lot more options for exposing our shots, the humble light meter can still play a very valuable role in nailing the shot quickly and consistently.

The cost of messing up the exposure of a shot, twiddling some dials and shooting another isn’t as expensive as it was in the film days, light meters can still save you a lot of time and hassle. And in this great video, Daniel Norton walks us through how to use a light meter, along with some tips and tricks to make your life a little easier when using one.

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TTArtisan has released a black “brassed” version of their tiny shoe mounted light meter

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While pretty much all cameras today have some form of light meter built-in, there are still plenty of older film cameras that don’t. Short of going by the Sunny 16 rule and hoping you’re close, there isn’t much you can do to ensure a good exposure besides using an actual light meter. Sure, you could carry around a big bulky Sekonic or even a little slender Sekonic, but why not mount one to your camera’s hotshoe?

The TTArtisan Light Meter has been available in black and silver, both made from aviation aluminium, at a cost of $62 for a while now, but the company’s just added a new black version made from brass into the mix, that shines through as the light meter goes through use and the black markings are worn away. The new brass version costs $88 and comes in at almost 3x the weight of the aluminium version.

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Negative Supply’s LM1 is a tiny all-metal colour and light meter for ambient and flash

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I’ve used light meters for as long as I can remember in my photography. While many don’t believe they’re still required with digital photography, I still always have my trusty Sekonic in my bag. They are very popular with film shooters, though. Light meter design hasn’t really changed all that much over the years, but one company believes they don’t really fit the aesthetic of modern film shooters.

Negative Supply (you might remember their film scanning holder from a couple of years ago) believes most people are shooting old metal cameras and so they should have a metal light meter to go with it. So, they’ve released the Negative Supply LM1, an all-metal, pocket-sized light meter that measures both ambient light and flash, as well as colour temperature, via Kickstarter.

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Reveni Labs is back with a new teeny tiny spot meter

Reveni Labs, the company responsible for the tiny on-camera light meter for old SLRs that don’t have one built-in is back. And they’ve brought a new meter with them. This time it’s a still-tiny-but-not-quite-as-tiny-as-the-original-meter spot meter – once a very common tool amongst film photographers, particularly medium and large format landscape shooters, and one that’s still built into just every DSLR and mirrorless camera today.

And, yes, there are companies like Sekonic still producing excellent spot meters, but they’re not exactly cheap. Even older, used ones can still be fairly expensive. Reveni Labs’ goal with this is to print the price down to a more manageable amount for those who don’t need the advanced capabilities of more expensive meters.

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This sleek and tiny light meter attaches to your film camera’s hot shoe

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If you’re into film photography and have a camera without a light meter, it can be pretty tricky to get the exposure right. Lime One is a neat-looking light meter that should solve the problem.  It’s a small reflective light meter, and it’s mounted straight on your camera’s accessory shoe.

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Sekonic is releasing a Godox module for the L-858D light meter this year

Last year, Sekonic put out a questionnaire on their Twitter feed asking if anybody was interested in them looking into the possibility of creating a Godox module for their light meters. It was suggested at the time that the two possible options for a Godox module would be their flagship L-858D and L-478D light meters. It’s been pretty much radio silence ever since, though. Until now.

After a user commented on one of Sekonic’s posts on their Facebook page that they were having issues getting their Sekonic L-858D-U light meter to talk with their Godox AD600, Sekonic responded with some positive news. Yes, that’s right, that Godox module is finally being released, and it’s coming this year.

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This tiny hotshoe mounted light meter helps you expose your old film cameras

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In this modern digital age, we just take for granted that our cameras contain light meters. And in mirrorless cameras, we can even see our final exposure before we even hit the shutter. But in the days of film, it wasn’t always so easy. Sure, towards the end of film’s mainstream days we got some pretty advanced 35mm SLRs, but a lot of the older ones in use today don’t contain a meter at all.

Electronics engineer and inventor Matt Bechberger wants to solve this problem with the Reveni Labs Light Meter. Currently on Kickstarter, it’s a tiny light meter that sits in the camera’s hotshoe, looks at the scene in front of it and then gives you a readout on a little OLED display.

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Sekonic wants your feedback for adding Godox compatibility to its light meters

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Native Godox support with Sekonic light meters is something I’ve seen many Godox, Pixapro and Flashpoint users asking about for a long time. It seems that Sekonic has been listening, though, and are finally looking into the possibility of doing it. And I think this idea will make a lot of people very happy.

Sekonic has emailed out a questionnaire, which has since been posted several times by recipients to Facebook, in order to get some feedback from users of Godox lights, and its various rebrands around the world, suggesting two possible options for the Sekonic L858D and L-478D light meters.

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Sekonic’s new L-308X light meter is targeting both filmmakers and photographers

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The Sekonic L-308S meter is by far their most popular light meter. Fairly basic but very accurate and affordable, it’s the model that often introduces photographers to light meters. Perhaps they may eventually step up to something fancy like the L-478 or L-858, but the L-308 is usually where they started and the one they recommend to new photographers looking to get their first meter.

Now, in the form of the Sekonic L-308X-U, Sekonic have combined the best features of the L-308S for photographers and the L-308DC for filmmakers. The L-308X-U is a single unit designed for the next generation of both photographers and filmmakers. It also includes a couple of new, often requested features, too. Like a backlit LCD and ISO850 setting for modern cinema cameras.

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