It’s not every day you see new firmware for a light meter.
Well, file this piece of news under something you don’t see every day. Sekonic just announced that they have been hard at work bringing improvements to a light meter in their line up. The Sekonic Spectromaster C-800-U light meter will have some new features added to it, which will make it even more useful to those who own it. You rarely think about a light meter as a device that can receive a firmware update, but oh what a time we live in. The Digital Age is great for new firmware versions alone. Light meters aren’t exactly cheap (in fact, this one is $1,599) so one would hope that support is there after the sale, but that’s not always the case. It’s great to see companies like Sekonic continuing to improve the performance of their items after the purchase has been made final.
So how exactly does the new firmware update help improve the performance of this meter? It appears that Sekonic has been tinkering with the way the light meter measures colors. The firmware itself will update the TM-30 metric from TM-30-15 to TM-30-18, which is a new international standard. This new standard will replace CRI (Ra) as a more accurate way to measure color fidelity.
The old TM‐30 standard measured 99 colors which are chosen from more than 100,000 measured objects vs. CRI’s 8 colors. TM‐30 also measures gamut (Rg), which helps the user better understand how saturated colors will look in their end results. Users of the Sekonic C-800-U light meter will notice that properties of CCT (Correlated Color Temperatures), LB (Index Corrections Mired), and CC (Camera Filter Corrections) will show in the ToolBox under the Preset Selection menu.
If you’re fortunate enough to own this beastly light meter, head to the official Sekonic website and grab the firmware update to make the most of the new metering system. You’ll also be able to read more about the firmware itself. If you’re on the fence about owning a light meter and aren’t sure what they can do for you, check out this video.
