Flash Meter Sekonic L-508 Zoom Master
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Technical Flash Meter Sekonic L-508 Zoom Master
The 508 is about average size for well-featured meters. It sits comfortably in the palm of a hand either left or right handed orientation. Two buttons on either side of the meter fall comfortably for pressing by either the thumb or index finger. One is memory and the other is the measuring button. The front of the 508 has six buttons to access the various features, one control dial and a large LCD screen that is automatically back lit with an Indiglo-type blue light. The top of the meter has the incident light reading white dome that can be retracted in for reading two-dimensional objects such as copying documents or flat artwork. The bottom of the meter has a tripod socket.
The 508 is built to withstand some light sprinkling of water so it has rubber gaskets around various weak areas such as the battery chamber. But the 508 is not waterproof by any means and overall build does not dictate rough handling of the meter either. The meter has a PC cord connection for corded operation and another connection that Sekonic calls the booster on the zoom lens side of the meter. This booster accessory allows for the meter to take readings off of ground glass focusing screens or other weak areas. Dip switches located within the battery compartment allow for some fine tuning of various features such as enabling of Aperture Priority or allowing for shutter speeds in half stop increments. I have both selections enabled to allow for finer readings.
The 508 is capable of a number of settings to try and cater to as wide a group of photographers and cinematographers as possible. Major features are spot metering, ambient light metering and flash metering. In cinema mode a frames per second display is shown and for the photographer who works in Exposure Value there is an EV mode too. Other wise the other features available are cordless flash metering and corded flash metering both single and multiple readings and a few more advanced features.
The spot meter is activated via a turn dial on the viewfinder. This dial is marked with two small symbols for incident and spot options; these same symbols are outlined when selected on the LCD screen. The other side of the 508 where the lens is also has a dial to select the amount of zooming desired from 4 degrees to 1 degree. Spot readings can be either Aperture Priority or Shutter Speed priority. The 508 can also display EV readings in spot mode but I don¡åt work with this type of measurement so I won¡åt mention too much about it.
By turning the viewfinder dial to the half dome symbol, incident mode is selected and it is here that many features are available from normal ambient light readings to flash and multi-flash readings. For either spot or incident light readings the operation of the 508 is simple enough as you dial in the correct ISO that you want the reading to be based on and then depress the measuring/reset button to take a reading. The ISO can be dialed in 1/3 increments and ranges from ISO 3 to 8000. Shutter-speed readings can range from 1/8000 to 1800 seconds (30 minutes) and aperture readings can range from f0.5 to f90.
One of the interesting features of the 508 is the way it displays aperture readings. In Shutter Priority mode a graph of aperture settings is displayed at the bottom of the LCD in addition to the normal numerical reading. Select an appropriate shutter speed and the 508 will provide you with an exact aperture required for proper exposure meaning that if the aperture required is f5.62 then f5.62 will be displayed irregardless of whether or not you can actually have such a setting on your camera. So a display of f5.65 is obviously telling you that for the given shutter speed value selected then you need to select an aperture midway between f5.6 and f8. A reading of 5.68 is telling you that your aperture should be closer to f8 then to an actual f5.6 for the chosen shutter speed.
In aperture priority mode the bottom graph display is not present but the same middle values for aperture is still displayed. Shutter speeds are also displayed in full stop increments despite the dipswitch selection for half stop increments being enabled (only for shutter priority readings). So despite the fact that you may want f8 and need a shutter speed of 3 seconds you will instead get a reading of 4 seconds and f85.
In flash meter mode the user can choose to plug a PC cord into the 508 for corded operation or go cordless. In either mode the user can choose single flash or multi flash readings. In flash meter mode the 508 has a range of shutter speeds from 1 second to 1/1000 but by turning the dial beyond 1/1000, some odd shutter speed readings can be had such as 75, 80, 90, 100, 200 and 400 for cameras with such sync speeds.
Averaging of metered readings is also available as well as memory provisions for up to three readings. An exposure compensation feature is also available to match the 508 with other meters for standard readings or for biasing to individual preferences. Two ISO buttons are available to allow for dual readings with different speed of films. In short the 508 looks very simple to operate and is due to its uncluttered face plate but it has a number of features that more advanced photographers will find useful. For myself I keep things pretty simple and in some ways the 508 is overkill for what I need out of a meter.
The 508 is about average size for well-featured meters. It sits comfortably in the palm of a hand either left or right handed orientation. Two buttons on either side of the meter fall comfortably for pressing by either the thumb or index finger. One is memory and the other is the measuring button. The front of the 508 has six buttons to access the various features, one control dial and a large LCD screen that is automatically back lit with an Indiglo-type blue light. The top of the meter has the incident light reading white dome that can be retracted in for reading two-dimensional objects such as copying documents or flat artwork. The bottom of the meter has a tripod socket.
The 508 is built to withstand some light sprinkling of water so it has rubber gaskets around various weak areas such as the battery chamber. But the 508 is not waterproof by any means and overall build does not dictate rough handling of the meter either. The meter has a PC cord connection for corded operation and another connection that Sekonic calls the booster on the zoom lens side of the meter. This booster accessory allows for the meter to take readings off of ground glass focusing screens or other weak areas. Dip switches located within the battery compartment allow for some fine tuning of various features such as enabling of Aperture Priority or allowing for shutter speeds in half stop increments. I have both selections enabled to allow for finer readings.
The 508 is capable of a number of settings to try and cater to as wide a group of photographers and cinematographers as possible. Major features are spot metering, ambient light metering and flash metering. In cinema mode a frames per second display is shown and for the photographer who works in Exposure Value there is an EV mode too. Other wise the other features available are cordless flash metering and corded flash metering both single and multiple readings and a few more advanced features.
The spot meter is activated via a turn dial on the viewfinder. This dial is marked with two small symbols for incident and spot options; these same symbols are outlined when selected on the LCD screen. The other side of the 508 where the lens is also has a dial to select the amount of zooming desired from 4 degrees to 1 degree. Spot readings can be either Aperture Priority or Shutter Speed priority. The 508 can also display EV readings in spot mode but I don¡åt work with this type of measurement so I won¡åt mention too much about it.
By turning the viewfinder dial to the half dome symbol, incident mode is selected and it is here that many features are available from normal ambient light readings to flash and multi-flash readings. For either spot or incident light readings the operation of the 508 is simple enough as you dial in the correct ISO that you want the reading to be based on and then depress the measuring/reset button to take a reading. The ISO can be dialed in 1/3 increments and ranges from ISO 3 to 8000. Shutter-speed readings can range from 1/8000 to 1800 seconds (30 minutes) and aperture readings can range from f0.5 to f90.
One of the interesting features of the 508 is the way it displays aperture readings. In Shutter Priority mode a graph of aperture settings is displayed at the bottom of the LCD in addition to the normal numerical reading. Select an appropriate shutter speed and the 508 will provide you with an exact aperture required for proper exposure meaning that if the aperture required is f5.62 then f5.62 will be displayed irregardless of whether or not you can actually have such a setting on your camera. So a display of f5.65 is obviously telling you that for the given shutter speed value selected then you need to select an aperture midway between f5.6 and f8. A reading of 5.68 is telling you that your aperture should be closer to f8 then to an actual f5.6 for the chosen shutter speed.
In aperture priority mode the bottom graph display is not present but the same middle values for aperture is still displayed. Shutter speeds are also displayed in full stop increments despite the dipswitch selection for half stop increments being enabled (only for shutter priority readings). So despite the fact that you may want f8 and need a shutter speed of 3 seconds you will instead get a reading of 4 seconds and f85.
In flash meter mode the user can choose to plug a PC cord into the 508 for corded operation or go cordless. In either mode the user can choose single flash or multi flash readings. In flash meter mode the 508 has a range of shutter speeds from 1 second to 1/1000 but by turning the dial beyond 1/1000, some odd shutter speed readings can be had such as 75, 80, 90, 100, 200 and 400 for cameras with such sync speeds.
Averaging of metered readings is also available as well as memory provisions for up to three readings. An exposure compensation feature is also available to match the 508 with other meters for standard readings or for biasing to individual preferences. Two ISO buttons are available to allow for dual readings with different speed of films. In short the 508 looks very simple to operate and is due to its uncluttered face plate but it has a number of features that more advanced photographers will find useful. For myself I keep things pretty simple and in some ways the 508 is overkill for what I need out of a meter.
Category: Accessoris
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