A Weston 650 light meter (marketed 1935-1930)
Toronto. One element of a good photograph is correct illumination. Early days of the art saw a variety of charts, tables, and gadgets marketed or offered to aid the budding professional.
From dry plates on, this aspect of the art became critical – especially to the casual photographer. A nice, concise history of light meters can be found on James Ollinger’s website. Worth a peek!
To better help determine the amount of illumination falling on the subject, some photographers used extinction meters. Their (extinction meters) down fall was the gradual shift in the eye’s sensitivity to darkness.
In 1935, Weston made a beautiful art-deco meter (see above, left) that had a fancy scale on the left and meter coupled to a selenium cell on the right. The 650 was sold for only 4 years. It was superseded by other ‘improved’ Weston light meters. In the late 1950s, I bought a Weston Master III (looks like the Master II).
Like the 650, the Master III was helpful in daylight as time, clouds, location etc. affected the amount of light falling on the subject. Unfortunately, at night or indoors, the selenium cell/meter combination lacked the necessary sensitivity – it could no longer assist the photographer.
A decade later, cadmium sulfide cell (CdS) meters prevailed. The resistance of the CdS varied with the light intensity requiring a battery to function. It was far more sensitive – and much smaller than a selenium cell. Improvements in technology eliminated the lag in response, shifts in readings, etc, leading the way to built-in meters – a practice that continues to this day!
Issue 22-3 was a land mark issue for us in many ways. Bob Lansdale took over from Ev Roseborough and a shift began to revise the journal layout. In particular, Bob was much fussier, insisting on correct contrast of his photographic illustrations in print, detailed proof-reading by others, etc. Above all, he kept the timeliness, detailed articles, Canadian focus, etc. introduced by Everett.
In issue 22-3 there are a few articles on Weston light meters including a reprint of the 1938 paper explaining the markings on meter’s left hand scale, science behind illumination, etc. In this issue, Ev has officially moved from editor to writer of articles. Members can easily read all the issue 22-3 articles by viewing the issue 22-3 pdf file on the free members-only DVD. Membership is a piece cake – and cheap to boot! See the info above or at right. Questions? Email Lilianne at member@phsc.ca.
And if you are interested in light meters – or any other bit of photographica – visit our 2025 events in the GTA. Date and location are shown at right under PHSC EVENTS for all confirmed events.
