leningrad-6 cds light meter
One of two Soviet era light meters that I own (so
far). It's considerably larger than the "svelte" Sverdlovsk,
seems accurate, and of course is a pricelessly rare collector's item.
I'm just joking! Mine does have a little bit of historical commemorative
text emblazened upon it, though:
"Games
of the XXII Olympiad in Moscow"
Additionally, in a perfect example of how the prices of goods were
fixed in advance under the Soviet command economy, the price of the meter is factory-printed
on the back of the meter: 75 rubles.
I can't quite figure out what numbering system
the needle's scale uses; the numbers do not seem to equate to standard
EV values, even though they kind of look like they should given the range. Never the
less, matching the dial to the needle's reading more often than not
results in aperture/shutter speed pairs that pretty much exactly match
what my Canon D60's meter says, so I would rate this as quite a reliable meter, if not just a tad ugly.
There are two scales; a low-light
scale, and a high-light scale. To take a reading, you press and hold
the appropriate end of the rocker-switch, depending on which scale you're
using. If the meter reads off the end of the low scale, switch over
to the high-light scale.
There is a sliding light diffuser to allow you to take incidental light
readings. The center of the dial is actually a viewfinder, in the style
of old twin lens reflex cameras (well, that's stretching it)... hold
the meter at chest-level and sight through the lens to see what you're
pointing at.
