How to calibrate a Sekonic L-358 light meter?

12 years 7 months ago #132096 by Mah and PaH
I've done some searches and not finding the answer I'm after. I need to figure out the right way to calibrate this thing. I did the sunny 16 method while outside and I had metered off the blue sky with both the camera and meter and the results weren't exact. So it's back to square one.

How calibrated to the camera do these really need to be? Is it normal to be off just a tad?


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12 years 7 months ago - 12 years 7 months ago #132324 by MLKstudios
Unless you KNOW it is need of calibration, don't touch it. It was correctly calibrated by Sekonic to 1/10th of a stop (or better). Sunny 16 was never meant to be a truly accurate exposure method. It's simply a rough idea of what your exposures will be.

If you are having exposure problems, it is likely NOT due to the meter. In general the only reason you would need to re-calibrate is if for some reason you wanted all your readings to be OFF by a certain amount (ex. lens extension and light fall off).

To take an incident reading, the dome gets aimed at the lens (or where you will be shooting from).

Matthew :)

Matthew L Kees
MLK Studios Photography School
www.MLKstudios.com
[email protected]
"Every artist, was once an amateur"

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