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Spectra Professional IV

Spectra Professional IV Exposure Meter

A pretty good incident exposure meter. Simple and easy to use. It's also light weight and compact compared to other meters with a digital display.

 

The Body

The photo above shows the front of the meter. There is no switch or button on the left/right side of the meter except for the measuring button on the right. On the botton, there is a lanyard hole. The swivel head rotates about 270°.

 

There is nothing but a battery compartment on the back. No calibration dial.

 

The Silicon Cell

The meter uses a silicon cell.

 

The Battery

The meter runs on a single 6V battery (A544/PX28L.PX28).

 

The Controls

The meter doesn't have an on/off switch. At the moment you install a battery, the meter is ready for use. After several seconds of inactivity, the meter goes to sleep mode.

The photo above shows the top control pannel. With the mode switch, you can choose to display measurements in either f/stop or illuminance. In illuminance mode, you can switch between footcandle and lux with the FC/LUX button.

The meter has a memory feature. It can memorize one measurement. To use the feature, just press the STR button to have the meter store the most recent measurement. To recall the measurement, simply press the RCL button.

What you see in the photo above is the ISO and shutter speed control pannel. The direct frame rate input can be helpful for some. However, you cannot select the shutter angle (180° only). The details of the shutter speed selections are as follows;

shutter speeds: 1/8000, 1/4000, 1/2000, 1/1000, 1/500, 1/250, 1/125, 1/60, 1/30, 1/15, 1/8, 1/4, 1/2, 1, 2, 4, 8, 15, 30 seconds, 1, 2, 4, 8, 15, 30 minutes

frame rates: 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 12, 16, 18, 24, 25, 30, 32, 36, 40, 48, 60, 64, 72, 96, 120, 128, 150, 200, 240, 256, 300, 360, 360fps

You can activate the display backlight by pressing the LAMP button. But the backlight illuminates the display only as long as you hold the button.

 

The Display

As you can see, the display shows the ISO speed, frame rates (or shutter speed), and f/stop in digital (1/10 stop increments) and analog (1/3 stop increments) scale. I kind of like the minimalist display design.

 

The Case

The leather case for the meter. The metal belt clip on the back is a nice feature, but I wish it were a velcro loop.

 

The Box

Somehow the picture on the box shows the old Spectra meter...

 

Specifications

 Manufacturer  Spectra
 Type  Incident
 Sensor  Silicon
 Measuring Range

 Digital: f/0.5-90 (1/10 stop increments)

 Analog: f/0.7-45 (1/3 stop increments)

 ISO  2-8000 (1/3 stop increments)
 Shutter Speeds  1/8000 sec. - 30 min.
 Cine Speeds  2-360fps
 Power  6V (A544/PX28L/PX28)
 Dimensions  70 x 140 x 33mm (2-6/8 x 5-5/8 x 1-3/8")
 Weight  ...

 

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