Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Sekonic L478D and DR


The new day of light meters has come upon us. For the new age of cinematography, for the HDSLR to the Red and Alexa cameras, the Sekonic Litemaster Pro L-478DR has it all. I remember working on a shoot about a year or so ago with my Sekonic I bought over 5 years ago, saying to my camera op “ I don’t know if what I am getting on my meter is going to be accurate to what we are shooting, I guess the meter is going to be reference for me.” Ok I know what you guys are saying, “ The light meter does way more then you think,” and I totally understand. But when you are perfectionist and also a gadget geek, with using all my gadgets to be a perfectionist... then you will understand. So lets get back to the Pro L-478DR, I thought it was an iPhone attachment and app. But realizing its the new age of light meters, it got me interested. The Sekonic Lightmaster Pro L-478D and the L-478DR the most innovative and advanced  features available to any light meter today. With the touch screen interface you can navigate easily threw menu settings such as F-stop, ISO, Shutter, even selecting what light is on a gel. Just like navigating with an iPhone or Android touch screen. For the motion picture industry this is the most full featured meter today. You can choose your shutter angle and frame ratios for special effects as well the meter is designed for todays camera with selecting 23.976 f/s instead of 24 f/s and so on. The L-478D and DR has a new features that lets you get exact light levels, by going in and selecting the light and what gel it has on. The best part to this meter is that you can program the dynamic range from the camera you are using and also mimics the latitude range on the camera. With only a $300 to $400 range this is a great price for this meter. I Just ordered the Pro L-478D and will have updates on to how it really works. 
Happy Light 

Here is a great video if you don't know how a light meter works, or how helpful a light meter will improve your shots.