You really need to have an incident meter. This measures the light that's falling on the subject, and in general gives you the most accurate reading. However, many people who do their own processing and printing and use the zone system like to use a spotmeter. I would recommend a combined meter, which will also include wide-area reflected metering.
Metering is generally pretty simple and lacking in mystery - most basic photography books explain it adequately. -- Cheers, Bob > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On > Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: 11 October 2006 00:16 > To: Pentax-Discuss Mail List > Subject: hand held meters > > Once I have a P6x7, I will probably not have a metering prism > and will therefore > need to purchase and use a handheld meter. Never having done > this before (I > started playing with photography well into the age of > in-camera metering) I have > little idea of what I need or how it works. If I'm largely > going to be doing > landscapes, am I right to assume that a reflective meter > would be best? How much > will a half decent meter set me back? It may be cheaper to > buy a TTL metering > prism. > > Any advice appreciated as hand held metering is a mystery to me! > > James > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > PDML@pdml.net > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > > -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net