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Garage find... Weston Master III

Jono_13

Jono_13

Duffer
As per the title I found this today in an old camera bag that belonged to my late father-in-law...

IMG_0929 by Jonathan Roberts, on Flickr

The case is still in excellent condition with the original lanyard...

IMG_0929 by Jonathan Roberts, on Flickr

It still reads and the flap on the back works as it should but has not been calibrated for a long time.

I'm not sure what to do with it but I'm thinking of selling, would anyone be interested do you think?

Jono
 
I paid , if I remember, £10 for mine (sh) nearly forty years ago but looking on ebay they rarely seem to fetch that now and many don`t sell.

I`m sure someone would be interested but probably not worth much I`m afraid.
 
I'm sure they would, period items that still work are always sought after by collectors. What it's worth is anyone's guess, I have found that old bits of camera gear generally fetch very little. This is partly why I have an old Voightlander Bessa as an ornament in my bedroom and a Lubitel 166B in the spare room. If it was your Dad's and it's a nice thing then is there a space for it as an ornament somewhere?
 
It's in very nice condition and I'm glad you're keeping it.

I have a Weston somewhere, can't remember the model no., fairly sure it's a later one, bought in the 90s. It reads but isn't accurate - I recall its readings varied wildly for the same scene! I believe they can be repaired and recalibrated, which I doubt I'll ever get around to doing. It's a beautiful thing just to have.
 
I had one of the same light meters from my Dad. Couldn't sell it for buttons. I don't think they are particularly rare I'm afraid
 
I have a small collection of meters , dont have a WM 3 , looks in ok condition , I picked up a
Photopia NE3 in working order for £2 at the local car boot sale on Sunday
 
Jolly nice meter...you can calibrate it yourself if you own any modern camera that shows ISO setting, shutter speed and aperture.
A clear blue northern sky on a sunny day is ideal. Set AP on the camera, ISO 200 and f8 as the aperture and you should get around 1/250th of a second shutter speed. Note the exact reading and repeat with the Weston. Checking a few readings may see a standard variation. Then you can use it for detailed readings, like spot skin tones for portraits etc. Use it! I'm sure your dad would approve! :)
Re calibration is quite simple. I'm sure there will be something on YouTube somewhere?!
 
Many, many years ago I had a Weston Master 5 (or Euromaster, not sure which. When I first got into photography they seemed the Rolls Royce of meters. The selenium cell loses sensitivity over time, but as mentioned above if it's still working you should be able to recalibrate it.

If you're using it you'll get better results with an incident reading - that involves clipping on a translucent dome and metering by pointing the dome towards the source of light - without the dome you'd point it towards the subject of course.
 
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