CalcuLite XP meter - still the low light leader?

[ic-racer]

Of the meter?

View attachment 322288

Thanks. Don't think I ever heard of it.

 

[MattKing]

The one I have (I think it is the XP) isn't working properly. I originally bought it for flash metering.

 

[pmiles]

I am still puzzled...

I checked out my archive and looked through all the catalogs and stuff, and in the early 90's a sensitivity of EV-4 by far was extreme.

But I also found one dubblesided photocopy out of some magazin or catalog, I dated as 1993. And it contains (without importer or manufacturer stated) an ad for Calcu flashes.
For the models Flash S, Flash II, Light X and Light XP.
The title says "Digital Precision for an utmost advantageous Price"
There are hints at metering in the dark, but no wording of any kind that I would expect for a meter that is by one magnitude more sensitive than even the two or three most extremely sensitive competitors.
That likely was the reason that I read what was given at the small-letters section not as sensitivity but as min. value on scale, as an error of the translator.


I filed that Calcu photocopy at the far back of my light meter register where the obscure or no-name ones sit. And funny enough just the next filed item is a page out of the catalog of a german dealer/importer of obscure stuff who got the sensitivity of the Polaris meter wrong by 5 stops!
Just the usual error concerning what I explained above.



Thus can you confirm that the Calcu Light XP actually is that much more sensitive as stated?
(Best tested against competitors.)

Yes, they are that much more sensitive. I bought 2 of them back in the day, one in the late 80's (-ish) and the second in 93. Love night photography. I have been working as a a photography technician since 1989, at a professional photography school. Over the years we have purchased all sorts of hi end photography light meters for our department None of them, or the ones I've seen bought in, came close to the low light capabilities of the Calu-liteXP. Currently, I have mine on loan to one of our Masters students, doing landscape night shoots. (https://exposure2021.massey.ac.nz/students/photography/ben-lowe/).

 

[benjiboy]

Most modern Silicone blue cell digital light meters manufactured by Sekonic, Gossen, Kenko etc.can equal or better the low light performance of your Calculate meter, for example the Gossen Digipro F2 goes down to - EV 2.5

 

[xkaes]

The Minolta Auto Meter II goes down to -4 EV -- but there is the plug-in BOOSTER & BOOSTER II that take it a LOT lower, -10, maybe???

 

[benjiboy]

The Minolta Auto Meter II goes down to -4 EV -- but there is the plug-in BOOSTER & BOOSTER II that take it a LOT lower, -10, maybe???

My Kenko KFM 2100 ( Minolta Auto Meter VI1) goes right down to E V -17 which is completely wasted on me because I never shoot black cats in coal cellars, but that's not the reason I bought it.