VoightLander VC Meter II Silver 640030

Great little meter that fits on any camera that has a hotshoe. Especially if you rock a vintage rangefinder camera that doesn't have a meter. Like the old Bessa's ir Leica's...etc.

It's really cute and small and the finish matches a lot of vintage cameras. Unfortunately if the camera doesn't have springs in the tracks of the shoe fitting, the meter won't fit securely and will slide right out when you tilt the camera back. You end up having to jam pieces of paper or tape under it while pushing it onto the shoe which is extremely annoying if you ever want to move it from one camera to another.It doesn't show light values directly, you just rotate the aperture and shutter speed dials until a green light lights up, indicating correct exposure. This is simple but doesn't let you point it in different directions and compare brightness, etc. The speed dial has clickstops at 1/2/4/8/15/30/60/125/250/500/1000/2000 only, but a lot of older manual cameras have 1/2/5/10/20/50/100/200 etc instead, so you have to just pick the nearest value. it's not precise enough for the discrepancy to make a difference anyway.It has a quite narrow field of view - not quite a spot meter, but something like a 70-90mm lens on 35mm format - so views like land and sky will be difficult to meter accurately as the exposure will jump around drastically as you move the meter around.It tends to underexpose by 1/2 to 2/3 stop against my digital camera's metering and my L308, and I don't think I'd consider using it for slide film but it's probably good enough for negatives if you deliberately overexpose a little.When it comes down to it, it's something you buy so you can use an old meterless camera and have it look nice without carrying a separate meter, and you put up with the high price and everything else about it because of that.

I bought this even though I already have a working specimen of the Leica MR4. As a result, I get to compare the two in use. Perhaps my comparison might help someone out there. The MR4 is of course the collectible, 'original' version and it has the advantage of coupling with the shutter speed dial and thus 'automating' the shutter speed adjustment as you set aperture by the meter. There are two sets of scales corresponding to bright and dark conditions. It was made to work with discontinued PX625 1.35V mercury batteries and you're left wondering about accuracy or battery life on contemporary replacements.The VCII lacks the coupling with the shutter release but on the other hand you don't have to fiddle with two sets of scales. It's light, well made, easy to mount and take off and responsive. It takes readily available 1.5 V SR44 or LR44 batteries. I like to use it to train myself to guess exposure, and long use of it will give you a sense of exposure that in camera meters won't. I sometimes use it even with my metered and digital Leicas for shooting street because it enables me to set exposure without looking through the viewfinder, and well ahead of shooting, and I find manual metering forces me to be aware of exposure. It's that convenient and inviting to carry around. You'll get attached to it.

Bought this to supplement the light meter on a 40 year old Canon-AE1 Program as I was unsure how well the internal meter would still work(or continue to work). I found this meter is spot on. Great exposures. Most of the time it agrees with my camera’s meter. Fits snuggly on the hot show, it’s tiny and easy to use. Expensive yes. Worth it yes. Especially if your old camera doesn’t have a meter. Works great with landscape and macro. I shoot various speed B&W 35mm. No regrets. Comes with batteries.

This light meter is very accurate, easy to use, and looks great on my vintage Leica--but the dial used to set the ASA/ISO on the meter has a terrible design flaw. The left hand dial is used to set the film ASA/ISO as well as the aperture reading. The problem is the ASA/ISO doesn't click to lock, and it can easily accidentally be changed when one turns the same dial to find the correct aperture to get the exposure reading. As a manual film shooter, I have enough to keep track of. I shouldn't also have to check to see if the ASA/ISO accidentally changed (thus giving me an inaccurate exposure reading). This little meter would otherwise be perfect for my needs.

Fits on the Leica M3 and looks like it was made for that camera. Very easy to use and images came out perfectly exposed.

So much faster and smoother than hand held. Accurate. Solid. Fit Canon P rangefinder. I cringed a bit at the price, but it’s a fair ask when you have it in hand and are able to hit the shutter in way less time. I am very happy with it thus far.

This is the most useful accessory for classic meterless film cameras. It is small and lightweight. It is a great choice for all meterless rangefinder cameras. I use it on my Leica M3 and Leica IIIf. I stopped using my vintage Leicameter after I bought this.The meter works very well. Operation is very simple. Set the film speed, push the button on the back of the meter, adjust the dials until the center LED lights up. Finally, transfer meter reading to your camera. The meter automatically shuts off after 10 seconds to save batteries.It is powered by two SR44 silver oxide batteries. Highly recommended!