Customer Reviews

Polaris SPD100 Digital Exposure Meter

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Length:: 8:00 Mins

The Polaris SPD-100 Light Meter comes in this simple unassuming box. The packaging is very unassuming. Inside the box the Polaris SPD-100 comes with a carrying case, a lanyard, and a manual.

The meter is a nice size coming in at 2.5 inches wide, 7/8 of an inch thick, and 4 and 11/16 inches tall. The battery door is located on the back. The meter uses a standard AA battery.

When you turn on the meter the first thing the it does is a battery check. It shows this information for about a second. This is nice because if you are about to start a complex and lengthy shoot, you can just change out the battery rather than having to stop the process (model, assistant, etc.) and restart after changing a battery. Also, if the meter does run out of batteries, the meter will save your most recent settings as it does when you turn it off and back on. Another nice thing about this meter is that it automatically turns itself off after 5 minutes of non-use. Some people might not like this, however, it is a nice power saving feature for when you get busy and forget to turn it off.

The Polaris SPD-100 allows you to measure both incident or flash metering and reflective light metering. Reflective light metering is similar to the light metering included in your Digital SLR camera. Incident light metering is the ability of the light meter to measure a light incident such as the firing of the strobe flashes in a studio setup.

To use the reflective metering you first slide the incident sphere to the right until it clicks, exposing the light sensor. Then you press and hold the ISO button while using the adjustment buttons on the side to adjust the ISO to the preferred setting. Then you press the mode button until the ambient light metering mode displays. You can have the ambient metering displayed in F/stop and shutter speed or EV values depending on how you have set this.

You then point the meter in the direction of what you want to meter and press the measurement button. You are then given the reading.

You can also use this meter as an incident light meter for strobes in a studio setting. First you need to slide the incident sphere over the light sensor on the left. Then you adjust the ISO setting. After this you can chose to a corded or cordless flash mode. The corded flash mode uses a PC cord from the meter to the flash. Then when you push the trigger button, the flash fires and the meter takes a reading. If you use the cordless mode then the meter waits for you to fire the flash. When doing this the meter waits for your to remotely trigger the flash. In the video I demonstrate the cordless flash metering with my Nikon SB-900. I then demonstrate the corded PC Sync Flash Meter Mode with a CowboyStudio 180 watt second studio strobe. Watch this part of the video and you will see when a good meter is so important. The SB-900 gave different readings depending on how I set the flash and the Cowboy Studio Strobe gave different readings depending on how intense I set the strobe. The crazy thing was though, that when I adjusted the strobe down 1/2 a turn on the adjustment knob, the strobe intensity did not go down the same amount. Had I not had this meter, I would have not known this. Also, don't try to just take a bunch of test shots and review them on your camera's lcd screen. Chances are your LCD screen is way off on color and brightness calibration. Many camera's LCD screens are brighter than the picture actually is so you can see the photo when shooting in the sunlight. If you rely on the lcd screen to check your exposure, you could easily be underexposing every shot you take!

One down side of the meter is that when in Incident (Flash) Meter mode you can only adjust the flash sync speed or shutter speed and the ISO setting on this meter. There are ten different flash sync speed settings. Then, after you take the reading the meter gives you the F/Stop that goes with the shutter speed. If the reading is in between a full stop the meter will display this on the scale on the bottom the screen. The meter displays this in 1/10th stops. This is helpful for getting the perfect exposure.

You can also use this meter to set up multi-flash situations. This means that you can take a single flash reading, then select what F-stop you want to use and it will show how many times you need to fire the flash for that setting. This does not actually take multiple flash readings. It just does the math on-board to tell you how many times to trigger the flash for a desired effect.

Overall, this is a great meter for the price. It will not do what the $300, $600, or even $1000 meters will do. However, this meter is about $170 so to compare it to the more expensive models is like comparing apples and oranges. Most photographers will find this more than enough for their needs. If you do grow out of this you can either keep it as a back up or sell it. Look around online; these types of items are not cheap. Even used, they fetch a pretty penny. So, overall, I would recommend this product. I think you will be very happy with it.

Cheers!

I have one of these that I use regularly with my studio flash setup.

Inexpensive high-power studio flashes generally don't work with your camera's TTL metering system, and when you bring in multiple lights, complex diffusers and so forth, calculating exposure gets to be a challenge. With the Polaris, I setup my lighting the way I want, fire the flashes (either one at a time or all at once), and the meter gives me correct exposure information that's always 100% spot on. It can also help me achieve certain specific lighting ratios, such as making sure the background is subdued or helping me know one part of my subject isn't in too-deep shadows - in effect, you just fire the flash a few times, metering all the key parts and noting how far apart the exposures are. For calculating studio flash exposure, the Polaris can't be beat, especially considering the price.

Of course, these days you can achieve good results with digital cameras by simply taking lots of test exposures...there's no film cost, and most photographers tend to have a few lighting setups that really don't vary all that much. This means there aren't too many exposure combinations, and you can probably home in on it trial and error if you want. Or, you can do it the old-fashioned way by knowing the guide numbers of your flashes and dividing by flash to subject distance. Still, having a meter like the Polaris makes this much faster and more precise, especially if you tend to shoot under lots of varying conditions.

There are also flashes like the Nikon Creative Lighting System that actually do integrate with certain camera metering systems, even when multiple, off-camera flashes are used. These are wonderfully flexible units, but I still find myself using my somewhat old-fashioned (by CLS standards) studio strobes to get the power and light quality I want. There are so many types of flash attachments - big diffusers/soft boxes, snoots, barn doors, gobos, etc etc etc - that just don't work with the compact flashes Nikon and others make. The Polaris makes using these setups almost as easy as having a TTL flash.

The Polaris can, of course, also be used as a more conventional exposure meter under nearly any condition. Frankly, the meter in most of my cameras are so good under most non-studio flash conditions, I tend to only rarely use it this way.

About the only thing the Polaris doesn't do is include built-in color temperature metering. This would simplify situations where you have a mix of different light sources and you want to set the white balance for a particular effect.

Otherwise, it's a small, compact and lightweight unit. It doesn't seem particularly rugged, but since I tend to wear mine around my neck on a lanyard, I'd rather have lightweight than a unit built like a tank. The display is large and easy to read, even in dim light, and it runs quite a long time on a set of batteries.

Recommended as a low-cost alternative to some of the other more expensive brands.

The light meter works great. Love it. Specially for the price. Of course if money is not an issue or you can wait I'd say go for one that gives you temperature in Kelvin. Much more useful. Still this works like a charm. Captured great images both on film and digital using both reflective and ambient measures.

This is my second identical meter. I've had the first one for years and it is still working perfectly. Another meter finally gave out and I didn't want to be without a backup. One of the jobs I do is to light a full Barbershop chorus on risers. These risers go wall-to-wall in a large hotel conference room. I need even lighting from both side to side and front to back. I can't imagine doing this without an accurate flash meter. I can usually get everything even within a few tenths of a stop.

One problem I had initially is that the hemisphere slides sideways to switch from incident to reflective mode. It's not loose, but it's easy to bump it. So you need to check each time that it's where you want it. My solution was to cut a small square of painter's tape (the blue stuff.) I put that tape across the track where the hemisphere slides -- works great! I don't often use reflected mode, but if I do, it's a simple matter to remove and reposition the tape. The blue tape leaves no residue and is good for multiple uses.

I also use the meter to balance studio flashes in a portrait setting and outdoors for balancing daylight and fill flash.

This meter was purchase for a photography student and is used constantly. Doesn't have all the bells and whistles of the more expensive models but it's preforms well especially for the price.

An incidental light meter just may be the best investment the beginning photographer can make. The reflective light meter and histograms on your camera are helpful, but only tell half the story when it comes to lighting. Being able to calibrate and set your studio lights before you start shooting with a live subject saves time and aggravation for everyone.

The Polaris SPD100 is a very simple meter, but it gets the job done. It can be used to measure ambient light, flash light, or even multiple flashes (haven't used this yet). It's durable, fits nicely in your hand, and powers off after a period of inactivity, which is nice. It goes with me on every shoot, and gets used at every shoot. Definitely would recommend to anyone looking to get a light meter.

It is a product with excellent price and easily to handle, though it does not have other superficial functions.

Great item, works well with the type of photography i do. Great price, well worth the money.

Unless you need all the bells and whistles of higher end motion picture meters. I would highly suggest choosing this product it is very comparable to products costing $100+ more. It feels light but is built to last. Perfect for ambient exposure and flash exposures, also if you flash is not powerful enough you can set it to see how many time you need to fire it to get the proper exposure, which is great for super closeup macros at high apertures.

I used this right away. It works like a charm. Very accurate and easy to use. It has been a big help some low light situations. Totally worth what I paid for it.