Ikelite Digital Exposure Meter

Underwater exposure meters have been around for years. They've been essential to measure ambient and other continuous light for non-automated cameras -- still and motion pictures. During all this time, the Sekonic Marine Meter has been the undisputed king of the meter-hill and is still widely used. But, as good as it is, the Marine Meter doesn't measure strobe light. In the early '90s, a Michigan company produced a housing for the Minolta IV-F, a flash and ambient meter used by many photographers for studio and location work. Aqua Vision Systems quickly acquired the rights to the housing, made some improvements and called it the Aquameter. This was perhaps the first widely available solution to measuring both ambient and strobe light underwater. Now there is a new kid on the block. Ikelite's new Digital Exposure Meter is small and mounts to a variety of cameras, housings and strobe arms or on a lanyard attached to the photographer. It measures both reflected and incident light -- ambient and flash. Air tests were dead-on. We then took it to the pool, to the Bahamas and to 200 fsw in Chuuk/Truk Lagoon to see how it stacked up. Take one out of the box, watch the start-up battery check of the single AA battery on the display screen, set the film ISO and get it wet. It is slightly positive -- something I found offensive at first -- but mounting it to a strobe arm eliminates that concern. Or, tie a brass clip to the lanyard to get it negative. Measuring light using the incident light metering is a good way to go for wet topside settings and land photography. Underwater, however, most photographers will probably prefer using the reflected light setting (this accounts for all the distance the light has to travel and the turbidity.) Checking ambient light falling on the background water column, set the metering Mode to ambient, turn the Incident/Reflected dial to R, point the meter cell toward the background water column and click the meter. Simple and accurate. The aperture for your selected shutter speed is displayed in large numbers on the digital display. Even divers with old eyes will have no problem reading the display. To determine flash output, aim the meter at the subject (something on the subject that is midtone; about 18 percent gray) and fire the strobe; the aperture needed will be displayed. Easy! Checking a camera's TTL operation is also painless. Take a picture with the meter placed to read the light. If TTL is working properly, the meter reading should agree with the camera aperture. The meter can measure multi-flash pops for creativity, automatically shuts off after five minutes, locks on for continuous reading of ambient light and has an adjustment for meter compensation. After all this, here are two words for the meter: dead-on. For more information about Ikelite underwater camera housings, submersible strobes and underwater video products, click onto Ikelite's home page below.

	Paul Humann; he'd help me ID fish
	Cathy Church; she'd help me set up the perfect shot
	Alan Rebbe; we'd have the wildest dive adventures
	Teddy Tucker; I want to find treasure!
	Richie Kohler; wrecks are where it's at.

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