Old Analog Meter: Any Value ??

"Don Stauffer in Minnesota" wrote in message ps.com...
On Jul 1, 8:24 pm, Allen wrote:
Dave Cohen wrote:
Magnusfarce wrote:

I have an old Gossen Super Pilot light meter that appears to be in
very good physical condition. I'm a casual user of a digital SLR and
have never used a light meter of any kind. Surprisingly, there are
several of these available on e-Bay, one claiming that it is a useful
device, the other considering it a collectable at best.
It's pretty cool looking so I won't toss it in any case, but does it
have any practical usefulness in today's world?
- Magnusfarce

Put it away somewhere nice and safe together with your slide rule etc.
You never know when these things might come back into fashion.
Dave Cohen

My old Weston is nestled down between my K&E slide rule and my Dietzgen
drafting instruments--the start of a museum for my grandchildren.
Allen

We still have a Gossen Luna Pro, and I use it when I use one of our
old film cameras without a meter. Too good to retire it to the
ancient artifacts shelf!

I still have a Gossen Luna Pro I used with a meterless Mamiya
645 SLR system for large group photos (now FS, at -
www.donferrario.com/ruether/fs-misc-photo.htm ) and a
couple of Weston Master IIIs and Masters (older than I am,
and all my Westons still work and are accurate). I can see using
these with a Nikon D80 and my many MF lenses that will not
meter with that body (the D200 is too big, heavy, and expensive
for my current needs/wants...).
--
David Ruether

http://www.donferrario.com/ruether

On Mon, 02 Jul 2007 09:12:55 -0500
Allen wrote:

In today's world, that well-meaning person would have a point--unless
he worked for the Smithsonian. Thank goodness, back in the ancient
days, when I needed more accuracy than one could achieve with a slide
rule, I would just _rent_ a Monroe or Friden calculator rather than
buy one; one of those things would require a bigger dead-storage
space than my slide rule. So much for the good old days.
Allen

I have never come across the Friden but the Monroe was so slow that you
could often work the answer out on paper more quickly - and the
noise !!!!!!!!!!
--
Neil
Reverse ie and delete l for email.

Neil Ellwood wrote:
On Mon, 02 Jul 2007 09:12:55 -0500
Allen wrote:

In today's world, that well-meaning person would have a point--unless
he worked for the Smithsonian. Thank goodness, back in the ancient
days, when I needed more accuracy than one could achieve with a slide
rule, I would just _rent_ a Monroe or Friden calculator rather than
buy one; one of those things would require a bigger dead-storage
space than my slide rule. So much for the good old days.
Allen

I have never come across the Friden but the Monroe was so slow that you
could often work the answer out on paper more quickly - and the
noise !!!!!!!!!!
It just depended on how fast you could turn the crank; I should have
said that I wasn't talking about the electric models. Compared to an
average PC, I suspect the Monroe would require billions as much time for
a typical problem (not counting data entry time). As a computer user
since 1954 (analog machine) I don't want to go back. The Monroe's place
in computation history would put it probably in a more backward position
than wet-plate work in photographic history--perhaps even farther back
than the Daguerrotype.

Allen

On Mon, 02 Jul 2007 06:39:50 -0700, Don Stauffer in Minnesota
wrote:

On Jul 1, 8:24 pm, Allen wrote:
Dave Cohen wrote:
Magnusfarce wrote:
I have an old Gossen Super Pilot light meter that appears to be in
very good physical condition. I'm a casual user of a digital SLR and
have never used a light meter of any kind. Surprisingly, there are
several of these available on e-Bay, one claiming that it is a useful
device, the other considering it a collectable at best.

It's pretty cool looking so I won't toss it in any case, but does it
have any practical usefulness in today's world?

- Magnusfarce

Put it away somewhere nice and safe together with your slide rule etc.
You never know when these things might come back into fashion.
Dave Cohen

My old Weston is nestled down between my K&E slide rule and my Dietzgen
drafting instruments--the start of a museum for my grandchildren.
Allen

We still have a Gossen Luna Pro, and I use it when I use one of our
old film cameras without a meter. Too good to retire it to the
ancient artifacts shelf!

Although I'm not familiar with the Gossen meters, I have an old
Norwood Director with all its attachments. Haven't checked it out in
years though, so don't really know if it still works. I used to swear
by it, especially for measuring Incident light. Reflected light just
didn't seem too useful then, though.

Olin McDaniel

"Olin K. McDaniel" wrote in message ...

Although I'm not familiar with the Gossen meters, I have an old
Norwood Director with all its attachments. Haven't checked it out in
years though, so don't really know if it still works. I used to swear
by it, especially for measuring Incident light. Reflected light just
didn't seem too useful then, though.

Olin McDaniel

I used to have fun with a friend when we shot with sheet film
view cameras. He would get out his Pentax spotmeter and
laboriously measure many tones in the subject and eventually
come to a conclusion on proper exposure. I would wave
around my Weston wide angle reflected type, sometimes
shielding the meter cell some from the sky light at some angles,
and would come quickly to a conclusion about what the
exposure should be. I would leave mine locked on the meter
dial and he would tell me his - then I would show him my
identical setting...;-). I never thought much of pure incident
metering, since those and pure (single-direction) reflected
light readings will both result in common errors (as will the
use of spot metering by those who don't know how to use
it, or, "Just where in the subject is a tone that truly represents
a proper medium tone that is appropriate for the whole
image?" ;-) And early "matrix" systems were kinda, "When
in doubt, overexpose - but don't reveal to the camera user
what the conclusion was based on!" ;-) Ideal, I think, would
be a meter that took simultaneous incident and wide angle
reflected readings, so that the possible errors from straight
on readings from both would be averaged. One was made
(the Norwood Director?).
--
David Ruether

http://www.donferrario.com/ruether