Gossen Sixtomat F2 Digital Exposure Meter

I am a photographer and cinematographer. No matter what make or type of lights I am using, I know where I am with this light meter. It is a good reference point. It is easy to use. Can be used with continuous lighting and flash lights, and can take incident and reflective readings. Has a wide range with fine increments. I have always trust to Gossen since the 80s. I hope you find this review useful.

The Gossen Digisix2 lightmeter came yesterday, well packaged; its box included meter, pouch, instructions (in German and English), battery and lanyard. To open the battery cover needed a visit to my toolbox to find a point to lever out its tray (a completely separate component) from the body of the meter as my fingernails were too large to engage with it. Other than that, no surprises or problems. The insertion of the battery started up the meter’s software and it worked within moments. It’s lightweight but of firm-enough-seeming plastic, and will screw onto a tripod if needed.I wanted to test the meter today in natural light outdoors but it’s been dark and raining so I’ve done inside work in less than ideal natural lighting, the subject (drawings), laid on the floor. It’s really been too dark – EV varying from 6 to 8 – which was clearly enough displayed on the meter’s large LED screen, but the two rings of numbers for aperture and speed settings were too small in this light for my ageing eyes and I’ve referred to an EV chart I have made.Working today at ƒ8 and ISO 100, as mostly I do, the shutter speeds from the Gossen have worked very well, spot on I would say, and the results show improvement in the few photos I’ve taken by comparison with my previous ones with no external lightmeter. It might seem an additional and unnecessary fiddle for someone with a DSLR, but I suspect I shall use the lightmeter regularly and not rely on my Canon 60D’s settings alone. They aren’t bad, just less secure I think, and they have not been giving me optimum results for this type of work. Because I’ve been photographing an artist’s drawings, both exposure and white balance are critical for representing colour, particularly the greys. Now, with the Gossen Digisix2 and an X-rite Colorchecker Passport Photo 2 – amongst other things, the latter is able to calibrate the camera for use in Lightroom – I’m feeling as well eqipped as I need to be.

It's not cheap, but is a fantastic little powerhouse. Not just and accurate meter with incident and reflected light options, but also a timer, thermometer and alarm... It's so small I always have it with me, unlike the comparatively massive analogue Gossen Sixtar I still have (and which still works).

Accurate meter with incident and reflected light options, extremely light and compact and easy to use. Although it doesn't have a button to turn off, as it spends little energy the batteries last a long time.

Although I've been an avid photo enthusiast for a few decades now, I've never really bothered buying a separate light meter until now and have just relied on the built-in light meters which come with most modern cameras and which are pretty reliable and accurate nowadays. Arguably you don't need a separate meter when using digital cameras anyhow, as you've effectively got an 'instant preview' which allows you to adjust exposure if necessary with those scenes that might fool the camera's built in meter into under- or over-exposing. However, if you're shooting film occasionally, you won't have that luxury, and in some situations an external light meter, but especially an 'Ambient' (also referred to as an 'Incident') Light Meter can be very useful for gauging exposure. Since ambient light meters measure the light that is actually falling on the subject rather than what it's reflecting back, they generally prove more accurate than the reflective type light meters built into cameras. (The Gossen Digisix 2 Light Meter by the way also permits 'reflective' light readings to be taken as well as incident ones.)However, the Gossen Digisix 2 is ideal for taking accurate incident light meter readings and gives a standard EV (Exposure Value) read out on its display and this numerical value then has to be manually transferred to the unit's 'Setting Window', and this then shows all the various shutter speed and aperture combinations that will produce an accurate exposure.For this purpose this meter seems very accurate and is essentially easy to use, however, in my opinion it would be much easier - and even a pleasure to use - if it hadn’t been designed and made quite so small and miniaturised - the Aperture and Shutter Speed markings and also the Metering Needle in the Setting Window are all very small as a consequence of its very small size, and and as such they are not generally that easy to actually read. This for me, is miniaturisation gone too far!

Great little meter for the most part, but it's expensive for its limited functionality and setting the ISO is a real pain with only the option to cycle through every speed. It's also a shame there's no off switch to save the battery, although it does seem to last well. Lanyard that comes with it is ridiculously long, putting the the meter at waist level! I bought the hotshoe mount for this (which is a rip off at £10 for the tiny piece of plastic that it is) but I find I don't really use it as the meter is too large to comfortably fit on top of most cameras without obstructing something or making raising the camera to your eye awkward (back of the meter will be poking you in the face).

I love this meter, which I bought to take incident light readings. Its compact size is ideal for slipping into a pocket when I use my OM-D E-M10 Mk II 4/3 camera. Easy to use, even for a novice like me! Includes a soft protective pouch and lanyard.

Don't buy this, the readings are all over the place and highly inaccurate. Yes, it's light, but other than that utterly unreliable in its only function - to measure light. Sorry, but I don't want you to be as disappointed as I am.