Customer Reviews

The Hand Exposure Meter Book

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

This is simultaneously a great book which undermines itself with redundancy in the order of the ridiculous. Don't get me wrong, I'm not planning on throwing it in the trash, infact I found it extremely useful and interesting reading. What I did find perplexing was why I was reading the same information on the same page written three different ways!

For example suppose I wrote ...

"There are two ways to get from a to b, one of them involves the colour blue and the other red"

Then the follwing paragraph gives you...

"After trying to get from a to b and not succeeding with other colours, we can arrive at the conclusion that there are two way's of getting there, namely blue and red"

And finally...

"Don't even try getting from a to b without doing it the blue and red way"

I kid you not, this is precisely how some pages read, over and over in adnauseum. Now, getting past the awful editing in this area - which feels to me as if they couldn't justify selling the thing with it being so thin so they decided to cheat, beef it up with redundant paragraphs - this is a very good book and extremely informative if you happen to use a hand held meter, especially if you happen to own one of the Sekonic Meters. I do, and thats one of the reasons I bought this book, because I wanted to know more about what the pro's have to say about 13% grey versus 18%.

By all means grab this book but be aware it might not be the best value for money, on the other hand it's about the ONLY book out there which provides this info so you basically have little or no choice in the end. I am happy I got it, but it's a flawed work, thats all.

This book is a real waste of time and money, both of which I had the misfortune to spend on it. It is basically an advertisement for Sekonic meters, which are really first-rate (I have two of them). The book is repetitive, poorly edited, and full of errors (like paragraphs repeated almost word-for-word on succeeding pages). All three (very talented and knowledgeable) contributors make and re-make the same point: incident meters are way better than reflected. It's as though none of them read what the others had written, or even re-read what they themselves had written. Unless you want to spend twenty dollars to have the same (perhaps valid) message thrown at you again and again, skip the book and spend your money on something that is not a glorified ad flogging one maufacturer's (excellent) equipment, like film.

Although not "true" professional photographer, I've been taking photographs for fun and profit for nearly 50 years. I purchased this book after purchasing a Sekonic 508 meter and being told this book was better than the Sekonic manual.

I'll agree its better than the Sekonic owner's manual, but this book is so poorly done it actually confused me... I ended up dizzy after reading the first few pages! In my entire life I've NEVER read anything so poorly organized or filled with so much misinformation.

When I finished the book I took it to the [camera store] salesperson that made the recommendation and asked him if he'd actually read the book. He admitted he hadn't and, after reading it at my insistence, he agreed it's misleading, confusing and often incorrect.

It's difficult to believe a book like this could get by any editor, especially a technical editor, yet it's written by editor's! Unfortunately, this says much about the magazines these guys edit and Sekonic.

This book is a TOTAL WASTE of your time and money.

Sometimes it seems that nearly every instructional book written on the subject of photography includes a chapter on how to use your in-camera exposure meters. But this is the only book that is dedicated specifically to the subject of how to use a hand-held accessory exposure meter. This book is published and copywrited by Mamiya America Corporation. For this reason, it showcases their at-the-time top-of-the-line exposure meter, the L-508. The L-508 is pictured and alluded to throughout the book. However, if you are interested in learning how to use an incident light meter or a handheld spotmeter, everything in the book is relevant, no matter what brand of meter you use. This book does not address handheld area meters at all (by this I mean handheld meters which meter a wide area of reflected light). There is also information on using your meter as a flash meter, if it has that capability.

I really found this book to be useful after I purchased my first handheld meter. The book is certainly not long...84 pages, but it contains all the necessary instruction and some nice photographs. The book is not really organized into chapters. Instead it is divided into many short sections. Some of the subjects covered are: why buy an incident meter, features of incident meters, how to choose a meter, incident metering techniques, spot metering techniques, flash metering techniques, how meters are fooled, filter factors, and metering for fill flash. The book also gave me some interesting ideas for photographs.

In truth, the book is poorly organized, but I did not find that this detracted from the content very much. The three authors each wrote his guide for using handheld meters separately, and they are simply bound together in this book. So it is like reading 3 booklets on the same subject, which is repetitive, but no less informative than a better-edited book would have been. I do recommend reading the entire book, since each author has something to contribute.

Recommended for those who are considering buying a handheld meter and for those who have a handheld that you aren't quite sure what to do with.

I purchased this book to accompany my new Sekonic L558R hand exposure meter. I found the book of little use, very repetitive and disorganized. One of the things I noticed in the book were the great color photographs, but no metering data explaining how the photographer obtained his results. This was not a very good guide on using an exposure meter or even understanding proper hand meter exposure techniques. I feel that the four authors failed in coordinating their efforts of putting together a how to guide that is useful to the novice interested in using a hand held exposure meter. I cannot recommend this book as a good reference for the intended subject.

This book explain more the disadvantage about the camera's exposure meter than teaching you to handle your hand held exposure meter. come on experts we know that basic true. the reason we bought this book is to get familiar with the Hand Exposure Meter but you did you teach us that?

I was hesitante about buying the book based on the previous reviews. Everyone was complaining about repeating, and poor editing etc.

I enjoyed the book. I do have a Sekonic L-508 meter (the same one as on the cover) and wanted to make sure I got everything out of my meter. The book discusses the use of metering for better photographs and, I feel does this well, without saying you have to use a Sekonic L-508. I learned from the book and feel confident in my meter use. For $19 I felt it is/was a good deal.

If you have never used a meter (or you just think you know how to use one) - splurge and buy the book. I think it will help.

I bought this book in spite of the other reviews, because I have a new Sekonic light meter that I need to learn more about. I could not identify another book for that purpose. So I blame myself.

You can certainly find a few gems of wisdom in this book, and benefit from the authors' experience. Four well-known photographers, each one of them obviously very experienced with light meters, co-authored it. And they know about light meters.

However, I must agree with the other reviewers that this book has been slapped together without proper editing. The book appears to be a set of magazine articles put together between glossy covers without much thought. Not only is there repetition between the different authors, but also each author repeats the same information under different headings. But what I really find unforgivable is the fact that the same author will repeat the same information ad nauseam under the same heading - even on the same page! It is almost like several articles, written at different times, were combined under each heading, without any editing. Jim Zuckerman, who wrote the bulk of the book, is most guilty of this. But where was Bob Shell, the editor? Out on a shoot? And there is no organized attempt to summarise the information in a useable form. And get this - this is the second edition!

The book has about 80 pages. It could have been written in 20 and sold for 5 bucks. Or better yet, it should have been given away for free as a (20-page) "how to" manual with every new Sekonic exposure meter, seeing that it was published by Mamiya (the distributor of Sekonic), and features the Sekonic brand on the front cover and through-out. Heck, I even got a Sekonic catalog inside my copy from Amazon. This book is an bad attempt by Mamiya/Sekonic to increase company profits.

When I bought this book, I believed to waste my money, because I read the other customers review; but I wanted to buy it, because it was the only book about Sekonic meters.
Now after I read the book, I agree with other customers that they said there are a lot of repeated concepts in the book, but in my opinion there are some suggestions in the book that I found helpful, about for example the possible use, and how to use an incident meter.
So my final rate for this book is 3 stars.
In conclusion it is not so bad, as I believed.

Today's camera's - both film and digital are amazing technology devices. They are filled with automatic functions almost guaranteeing you a good exposure every time. I stress almost and good. If almost and good are enough, don't buy this book, or a hand held meter. Often times you will get great exposures with your camera's built in meter, but it will not work in every situation.

While in camera metering has made great strides over the years, often we are left wondering how to properly expose a challenging scene or how can we get that perfect exposure?

This book, plus a gray card and practice will move you in that direction. It will not require you to purchase a hand held meter but it will explain why you might be getting less than ideal photos with your camera and its built in meter. If you do pursue photography at a more in-depth level it will be an invaluable reference. You will soon put it aside as you inculcate the lessons but it will have made an impact on you.