Who needs a lightmeter?

At the local photo club the other night,(Mostly Canon & Nikon users and oh my first camera was a Pentax), we had a talk/demo on lighting and things such as inverse square laws etc

But the bottom line was the lecturer stated that for better exposure results get a light meter; Would you agree? - but where to start... So many to choose from and such a vast range of prices etc - any ideas would be appreciated

I would say you don't really need one with digital, you can see your exposure right away and adjust as you see fit and even use the histogram for advice.
Of course a light meter have some merits but they aren't big enough to get one for most photographers.

Thank you for that Stefan. Have managed to find a Sekonic for what seems a decent price on another forum. I think I will give it a try and see what happens. If it turns out that I can manage without and trust my camera metering - well it will be back up for sale then

I met a chap a while back using a Medium format film camera and he was using his DSLR's spot meter as a light meter. Said he found it just as good as his Sekonic meter, but he used his Sekonic for flash work as it was enabled as a flash meter.

Of course you can manage without one, I think you will find it not worth taking a meter with you and using it all the time, it's just faster and easier to use the camera meter.

If you want to get a good exposure just get yourself a greycard, if you take a metering from that with your camera then you're set.
If you use the grey card use the camera in manual Manual mode with the green button you take a metering and when you use the exposure-lock it locks the exposure but you can still change your shutterspeed or aperture and the camera changes the other one so that the exposure stays the same.

You can also use the cheap man grey card and that's the asphalt of the road, it isn't 100% the right grey but it gets you very close, at least close enough to have a good exposed first photo, then one or 2 clicks on one of the wheels to adjust shutterspeed or aperture and the exposure is most of the time perfect.

If you have a Flash Meter you can measure the light falling on the subject. If you are using more than one Studio Flash and require more light on one side of the subject, then you can use a Flash Meter to accurately set the two outputs.
Even in the days of film, Polaroid Backs were used in conjuntion with Flash Meters.
I have a Shepherd Flash Meter which were fairly common. Other makes which spring to mind are Courtney and Jessops. I used to have a Jessops Flash Meter and it was actually quite good.

Oh boy.....I really would like to meet the "fool" who started to spread the news on the web to tell in camera metering systems nowadays make incident light-meters obsolete or a waste of time.

How many examples do we see of under/overexposed pictures (here on PUF or on the internet in general)because people just trust their super duper high tech camera meter system ?

I admit......those systems are good...in some cases even very good, but.....
In 80% of all photographic situations you are better off using a incident light-meter for getting a perfect exposure. Specially in tricky lighting situations. Not to mention the advantage of learning to read and understand the light and what it is doing to your subject.That is......if you are serious about your hobby called photography. Which coincidently happen to translate as: Painting with light in Latin.

(OK you may unleash the "dogs of war" now..... )

Oh no I agree with you Martin but still I don't think a light meter is worth the money for most of us.

If you know the limitation and how to use the build-in metering you can get pretty accurate results and I believe you would concur with that.

anybody that doesn't have a lightmeter should at least have a greycard....

I remember from my early days with film, my tutor suggesting metering off the grass, if no light meter or grey card was available!:

Or...if you're Anglo white use the palm of your hand minus one stop.