Sekonic L-358 Flash Master Light Meter

I bought this unit out of curiosity and I find it quite easy to use.....I am a hobbyist and so I hardly use my meter. For the purpose for which it is built it really does do its job well.

I find this light meter very handy and helpful. It gives us instant idea on aperture opening and other settings which would have taken longer to determine without it. Mind you this meter gives you a ballpark figure on the most appropriate setting making it fast to capture the correct exposure.

I am a somewhat advanced amateur and not a profesional, so take my comments with a slight grain of salt.

I got this meter as a Jesus-day present, so I haven't yet had a lot of time to play with it (I'm writing it the same day). But, so far, I'm very impressed with it. I've abused it and my camera for a couple of hours so far.

Basic operation is pretty straightforward, and without even reading instructions it's pretty obvious how it works. The controls are intuitive and well marked, and the display is easy to read.

I've never worked with an incident light meter before, nor has anyone instructed me in how to use one. So, there are a few features that are beyond my understanding at the present time, but that will change with some quality time with the manual. By the way, I was worried that the manual might be difficult to understand, but I think it's actually pretty well written.

All the above being said, this is probably not a tool for the complete novice to photography. I would strongly encourage you to have a fairly good grasp of the fundamentals of photography, most importantly those concerning the relationship between aperture, shutter speed, and ISO speed. This product assumes that you know how to work your camera in either aperture or shutter priority modes; if you don't know how to do this, buy the field guide for your camera, experiment a bit, and come back to this item in a few months.

Also, construction is nice. The manual states that it is splash and rain proof (though not "wash" proof), but I'm probably not going to test it. :)

One of the features that I really like about this meter is the option to plug a radio transmitter (like a Pocket Wizard) directly into the unit (in the battery compartment). Makes for a nice easy exposure setup.

Finally, about the f-stop settings. If you're in a controlled environment such that you can stop to use a light meter, my guess is that you're probably shooting in an aperture priority or fully manual mode. Shutter speed is probably not an issue. Out of the box, this meter displays aperture priority settings in full stop increments. Even basic cameras like the Canon Rebel often display stops in 1/3 increments. This setting is changed via DIP switches in the battery compartment. My recommendation is to set the stop increments to 1/3 straight away. On my model, that means moving DIP switches 3 and 4 to "on".

Have fun!

I was so happy when I received my Sekonic L-358. It is so user friendly, constructed very well, and has helped me nail my exposure everytime. If your in the market for meter then consider this one you won't regret it.

I recieved the light meter in a prompt manner and it was functioning as it should, I found that it was easy to use with the instruction manual provided. I still have to learn the ev mode and it's proper usage since it tends to overexpose compared to the light meter built into my camera. Over all the product met my expectations.