The TTArtisan Light Meter is the beautiful retro answer to many analog film photographers’ requests for years. For the record, everyone on the Phoblographer’s review staff is required to know how to do Sunny 16 calculations in their head. Yet sometimes, when you’re shooting film to capture moments that you want to look at in albums later, you don’t want to do all those crazy calculations. What’s more, you’re probably using a fully manual camera with no batteries. And that’s where the TTArtisan Light Meter really helps. Most importantly, you can find it in brass.
This is an affordable, small light meter that sticks into your camera’s hot shoe. That means that if you’re shooting with certain Pentax or Nikon cameras, you’ll have to use a pentaprism that has a hot shoe to get the best results. In my case, I’ve got a Leitz Minolta CL with a crappy light meter that I don’t want to fix. I could surely do the Sunny 16 calculations. But I could also stick a really durable light meter into the hot shoe that I never otherwise use.
Sure, it’s a niche product. When we tell you that holding the brass variant is the equivalent feeling of your high school or college graduation ring, I mean that you’ll be given the same sense of magic that you felt was gone so many years ago.
Best of all, they’re very affordable. Yes, we’re very aware that many other light meters have been available for years. But none have captured the romance of photography the way this one has.
Table of Contents
What to Know About the TTArtisan Light Meter
- Built like a tank
- Comes with a screwdriver for modifications
- I wish the ISO could lock
- At times, It is underexposed by a full stop when shooting compared to a digital camera.
- Needs a better hot shoe foot. This thing will totally fall out of the shoe unless you add something like black tape to tighten the grip.
- Start out by metering the scene, and then the metering is held in place until you adjust the knobs on top. It will then tell you whether you’re perfectly exposed, under, or over accordingly.
- It fell and kept working. But it’s surely dinged up. I’m embracing the character.
- Do not use it in the rain, as the user manual advises you not to.
A Haiku
Built like a polished
gem to be handled and worn
like an earned award
In Use
The TTArtisan Light Meter is pretty simple to work with. First, you feed it a battery that it will consume slowly like a massive amphibian does a large mammal. The user manual says to take the battery out when you’re not using the meter, but I haven’t seen much of a reason to do so in the months I’ve used the meter.
After affixing it to your hot shoe, you’ll find that it might have some wiggle room. To remedy that, I used some painter’s tape and gaffer’s tape to hold it in place and make sure that it doesn’t fall out. This is really important when you’re in the wild using the TTArtisan Light Meter — otherwise, it might fall right out, and you won’t even notice it if you’ve got bad ears.
To use the TTArtisan Light Meter, bring the camera to your eye, frame the scene, and then press the metering button on the little TTArtisan Light Meter. Manipulate the dials accordingly, and you’ll eventually see what the scene’s metering should be. Then match your camera’s settings to the reading, and shoot a frame.
It’s a very simple light meter to use. But perhaps the best thing about the brass variant is the feeling of cold metal in your hands, knowing that it will patina over time and age like a fine wine — or like the pages of a well-kept magazine. Interacting with it using your hands unlocks a whole sensory perception sorely missing from modern photography.
Turning the shutter speed dial of the TTArtisan Light Meter gives you smooth turns and dampened clicks that you’d feel from a Zeiss M-mount lens. Those clicks give you the feeling that you’re getting a bit closer to unlocking the combination wheel lock you used at some point in your life. At the same time, the smooth aperture dial gives you the feeling of using a well-lubricated cinema lens. All the while, the meter has the heft of a dense rock.
Truly, the TTArtisan Light Meter provides a solution to various analog photographers who are otherwise missing a beautiful tactile experience that the big camera manufacturers don’t care for anymore. We highly recommend it to remind you of the romance of photography.