Julian:

I always carried my meter on one of those janitor-style spring loaded key rings that attaches to one’s belt. 

I used first a Spectra that reads directly in f/stops using the slides that come with it, but it wasn’t sensitive enough for low light and the slides are for 1/48 second so you’d have to compensate with a reflex Bolex by using the “wrong” slide. 

I later switched to a Minolta Autometer II, which I modified by adding a bright green arrow on the dial at 1/50th of a second, so it was easy to instantly see the stop. (The meter had a motorized dial.) We we’re shooting color reversal so exposures had to be really accurate. 

However, that was state of the art in 1978. (Jo and I exchanged them as Xmas gifts.)

Any incident meter that you can set up to read directly in f/stops is preferable. Incident is preferable, with a design that has the ping pong ball on the same side as the readout. Al Maysles had a Spectra mounted on his camera above the lens, which worked for him. I don’t like meters on the camera. 

But the spring loaded belt holder is great. Get rid of the key ring part and take some thick stranded wire and solder a loop to the doohickey at the end of the chain. 

You can hear me use one mid-shot in Rocky & Rocky, since the mic was also in my left hand. Bad form!

Jeff Kreines
Kinetta
kinetta.com

Sent from iPhone. 

On Apr 23, 2023, at 12:53 PM, Julian Antos <[email protected]> wrote:


Does anyone have any recommendations for a small, modern light meter that could be mounted to a Bolex (or any other 16mm camera, for that matter)?

My current setup for my "home movies" is either a Sekonic Studio Deluxe II, which is wonderful and accurate but I still fumble around with if I need a reading in a hurry, or my iPhone with the Cine-Meter app, which is accurate enough for my purposes when calibrated to the Sekonic meter, but again is still a bit of a nuisance to use if I need a reading in a real hurry.

The answer is probably just that I should get quicker at using these devices, but it also seems that the perfect solution must have been devised for this. Also curious to hear what other people may be using.
--
Julian Antos
Chicago Film Society
773 827 8991

  

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