Hamish Gill
Tech Support (and Marketing)
The Voigtlander VCii meter is a accessory shoe mountable lightmeter.
Its range is from f1.4 to f/22, 1 to 2000th of a second and 25 to 3200 iso.
It is easily the accessory lightmeter I have used most over the last few years, mainly due to it's size.
It doesn't have the most comprehensive set of features, it is only capable of reflected readings, does nothing fancy like flash metering and is limited a little in it's range.
But, it is tiny and it's seemingly pretty accurate. Certainly accurate enough for use with the sort of camera I believe it is intended for!
I use it with my collection of vintage compact cameras, even some of the ones with a meter built in.
The Sunny 16 rule is all well and good in the daytime, but this little beauty lets me use all my vintage compacts indoors, in the evening and any other situation where my ability to judge light is lacking!
Correct exposure
Slightly over
Under
So where does it fall short?
Ignoring it's sparse feature set, it's biggest flaw is the crap plastic battery cover! I can't begin to remember how many times I have had to root around in my pocket to find the 2 lr44 batteries it takes after they have fallen out!
It also doesn't quite feel as solid as some of it's older cousins (such as the Gossen Sixty), but it is smaller than any other meter I have come across so I let it off that.
It is also a little loose in some shoes, but I have also found it tight in others ... I put this down to it being designed to fit the average and once again let it off! Besides, if it is too loose, just keep it in your pocket instead of on the camera!
It's other issue is the price ... Tiny little thing like this, it didn't feel quite right parting with £110 for it! Looking now, it's more like £150! Despite feeling a little cheated when I bought it, I no longer feel the same. It's earned it's keep many times over! In fact I noticed the other day that my Weston Master 5 has been untouched for so long there was a good bit of dust on it!
To sum up, it is by no means the perfect lightmeter for everyone!
But, if you like your vintage compacts and Rangefinders, especially ones without built in meters, but don't want to carry a big lump of a meter with many superfluous features, I am unaware of a better alternative!
Its range is from f1.4 to f/22, 1 to 2000th of a second and 25 to 3200 iso.
It is easily the accessory lightmeter I have used most over the last few years, mainly due to it's size.
It doesn't have the most comprehensive set of features, it is only capable of reflected readings, does nothing fancy like flash metering and is limited a little in it's range.
But, it is tiny and it's seemingly pretty accurate. Certainly accurate enough for use with the sort of camera I believe it is intended for!
I use it with my collection of vintage compact cameras, even some of the ones with a meter built in.
The Sunny 16 rule is all well and good in the daytime, but this little beauty lets me use all my vintage compacts indoors, in the evening and any other situation where my ability to judge light is lacking!
Correct exposure
Slightly over
Under
So where does it fall short?
Ignoring it's sparse feature set, it's biggest flaw is the crap plastic battery cover! I can't begin to remember how many times I have had to root around in my pocket to find the 2 lr44 batteries it takes after they have fallen out!
It also doesn't quite feel as solid as some of it's older cousins (such as the Gossen Sixty), but it is smaller than any other meter I have come across so I let it off that.
It is also a little loose in some shoes, but I have also found it tight in others ... I put this down to it being designed to fit the average and once again let it off! Besides, if it is too loose, just keep it in your pocket instead of on the camera!
It's other issue is the price ... Tiny little thing like this, it didn't feel quite right parting with £110 for it! Looking now, it's more like £150! Despite feeling a little cheated when I bought it, I no longer feel the same. It's earned it's keep many times over! In fact I noticed the other day that my Weston Master 5 has been untouched for so long there was a good bit of dust on it!
To sum up, it is by no means the perfect lightmeter for everyone!
But, if you like your vintage compacts and Rangefinders, especially ones without built in meters, but don't want to carry a big lump of a meter with many superfluous features, I am unaware of a better alternative!
