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That all said, there are occasions when I like to spot meter or make use of an incident meter. The former I rarely use, but have a Pentax meter for the times I want to. The latter I haven’t entirely settled on a solution for. I’ve tried a few older meters such as the Weston Master V which is a beautiful thing, and I really enjoy the user experience, but I had a couple fail on me so I stopped trying to find a working one. I had a Lumu meter to plug into my iPhone, but for the same reasons as not liking the app by itself I stopped using that too. I’ve even had a Sekonic L-398, which was a lovely thing but for reasons I forget, I sold it – I think I might have found it too big.

Of these, LEDs are the most common choice for machine vision applications because they have long life spans, can be left on continuously, and come in many sizes, shapes and colors. LED lighting choices also span the visible, ultraviolet (UV), narrow-band and broad-band visible and infrared (IR) spectrum.

Proper lighting is crucial to the success of machine vision applications. Without it, images will not show enough visual information about the important features of an item.

I also have a Gossen Digisix 2. The Digisix 2 is Gossen’s answer to the Sekonic Twinmate L-208. It’s a similar size, but has a digital readout. It’s a nice little meter in many ways, but I’ve never completely gelled with it. I will get around to reviewing it properly at some point, but in short I have found it a little fiddly to use. I always have to hunt out the instructions to remember how to use it, I don’t really enjoy the little digital readout, and quite often when I dig it out to use, the battery is flat. I had this exact experience with it recently when preparing to shoot an event I’d been asked to cover on film. I knew I was going to be shooting in an oddly lit room so decided to take both an incident meter and the Pentax spot. The night before I picked up the Pentax and even having not used it for a while it fired up without issue. The Gossen was dead, so I had to go out hunting for a battery in a supermarket on the way to the event. It was then I decided I must get myself another incident meter that I was happier with. That said, the actual experience of shooting with an incident meter was very satisfying. I found myself scoping out the room to check the variance in lighting before it filled up with people, and was then able to shoot without having to recheck the light for much of the event. The results came out great too. I also really liked the small size, and being able to carry it on a lanyard around my neck kept it really nicely to hand.

There’s also a place to attach a lanyard near the base of where the shoe mount is fixed. The lanyard included is far too long for my tastes though. I suppose I could tie a knot in it to make it shorter, but instead I’ve swapped it for the shorter one that came with the Gossen. I actually have a couple of lanyard style straps with single Peak Design anchor link things on somewhere, and my intention is to dig one of those out allowing my to quickly unclip it from a strap and attach it to my camera or hand-hold it.

Excuse the long introduction there, but I thought it might help contextualise the potential appeal of the Sekonic Twinmate L-208. Looking at the pictures of it, I realised it might actually tick a whole load of boxes for me. For a start, it can be camera mounted, handheld and carried on a lanyard. I like my shoe mount meters, but as I have said I often find myself hand-holding and pocketing them. Since shooting that event I’ve also had a hankering for a meter that I can carry on a lanyard. I mentioned this in my review of the Astrhori XH-2 meter – had that a loop for attaching a lanyard it felt like it would have made a lot more sense to me as a bit of kit. Though of course, it is just a reflective meter so it wouldn’t have solved my desire to replace the Gossen. As such, add the ways the Sekonic Twinmate L-208 can be carried to the fact that it has a traditional user experience and readout, and has both reflective and incident metering options… well, you can perhaps see why my interest was piqued. I agreed to review it, and a few months later I now have some in-practice thoughts to share.

202023 — Reflection occurs when light traveling through one material bounces off a different material. The reflected light continues to travel in a straight line, but ...

If you follow this website, you will know I have reviewed a lot of shoe mount meters. I don’t really know how I fell into doing this, but I did, and I have found it hard to stop. It is quite interesting seeing how various companies have tried to compete with each other over the last few years. Some have gone for simplicity of functionality, some for lots of features, some for speed of use, and others have prioritised small size. There has been something of a flurry of meters coming to market with brands popping up from Canada, Germany and (a fair few from) China. Whilst many of these new meters offer features and tech that just didn’t exist on the market even just a few years ago, light meters as technology have, of course, been around for many years before. Sekonic has been going since the 1950s.

For example, he says TPL Vision’s customers often encounter different application conditions than what was tested in the lab. As a result, “higher brightness may be required (solved by overdrive products), different ambient conditions may need a different lighting setup, or integration may be different than anticipated. This is precisely where flexibility can be beneficial,” he says.

As mentioned, it also has a shoe mount for allowing it to be mounted onto the top of a camera too. The shoe mount comes in the box separately meaning it needs to be screwed to the body of the meter. Once attached it takes away something of the neatness of the design of the meter and makes it feel a little bigger, though not much. The shoe mount is made of plastic too and comes in one size meaning it isn’t going to be universally compatible with all cameras. To remedy this, Sekonic includes a small rubber band which goes around the neck of the shoe mount to help it securely mount to cameras. This actually works really well, but it does give me some concerns about longevity. At some point, I would assume the band would wear out and need replacing.

As Brett Thrailkill, application support and inside sales representative at Advanced Illumination (Rochester, VT, USA), explains, “Unfortunately, many users have the misconception that proper machine vision lighting doesn’t need to be considered until the end of the system design process. This often leads to cost overruns, inferior lighting, and delays in production timelines. To prevent this, we encourage all application engineers to consider lighting options early in the development process.”

This is a review of the Sekonic Twinmate L-208. A small reflective and incident reading light meter with a design and user interface that harks back to traditional light meters. It can be handheld, carried on a lanyard around the neck, and also mounted to the top of a camera with a shoe mount – this versatility is why I wanted to review it.

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SekonicLight Meterbattery

It’s very simple to operate too. First set the exposure index (ISO) by rotating the face of the dial. There’s two protruding bits of plastic to assist its rotation. Once set there’s the option of either reflective metering or incident metering.

Once the green arrow is lined up, any of the corresponding matched settings can be applied to the camera for correct exposure. There’s also an EV window that shows an EV readout that’s relative to the set ISO – useful for folks with Hasselblads and the like which have EV numbers on their lenses… or just for people who like to know what EV they are working with.

You’re not the only one to note the ISO dial issue, though I’ve not knocked mine yet - or at least I’ve not noticed or thought about it if it’s happened Also no issue with needles here yet, and I tend to meter today the ground which I guess helps that issue.

You might look around for a Gossen Pilot or Super Pilot. Smaller and lighter and fine for basic use. My in-the-bag metering backup is now a Sekonic L318-B. More sensitive, very light, and I'm pretty sure it take an AA battery.

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My first impressions of the Sekonic Twinmate L-208 were pretty positive, or at least they were pretty much bang on what I expected to find. This meter is not particularly expensive, so I didn’t expect it to have the heft and feel of meters like the old Western Master V. In fact, by comparison it is very light. The whole outer shell is made of plastic which gives it a slightly hollow feel. Though, none of this is to say it feels cheap or not well made, not by any stretch really. The base of the meter is made of black plastic and the face black and clear plastic. The lower part of the front of the meter is the settings dial, the top has a readout window with a needle that swings back and forth when the metering button on the side is pressed. There’s also a battery test button on the bottom. On the top of the meter there’s a sliding white dome that allows the meter to be switched between reflective and incident metering modes. In short, it’s a simple design with no superfluous frills.

What it does bring to the table though has been pretty compelling for someone who works like I do. I have spent the last few years fiddling with shoe mount meters mostly for their tiny size. As I’ve said, I’m the type to supplement guess work with a meter rather than metering for every shot. I also don’t like carrying too much kit around with me. So having something so small that it practically disappears into a pocket or can be mounted on a camera high on my priority list. The Sekonic Twinmate L-208 fits that bill, but adds practicality, both incident and reflective metering and a meter readout that I enjoy working with. In short, I think this is great light meter, and having reviewed it, I now own one and I believe it is going to get a lot of use!

There are thousands of lighting options to choose from including those that are halogen, incandescent, fluorescent, compact-fluorescent, plasma-type, high-intensity discharge (HID), Xenon, light-emitting-diode (LED), fiber optic, and structured light.

To solve the problem, he says ProPhotonix sold the company the RGB-White COBRA MultiSpec LED, which has individual color and intensity controls that engineers access through a graphical user interface (GUI). This allows them to “tune the light to optimize contrast across the whole grayscale image resulting in accurate image acquisition regardless of the color of the capsule.”

Used SekonicLight Meter

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EFFI-FLEX2 from EFFILUX (Les Ulis, France) also offers flexibility, allowing engineers to adjust the emitting angle, uniformity, and operating mode (overdrive, adjustable strobe, and dimmable continuous mode).

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With so much to consider, missteps abound. To get insights on how to avoid, or solve, common pitfalls in illumination planning and execution, Vision Systems Design asked experts at a handful of lighting companies to share their thoughts. We’ve included their comments here.

What I find particularly pleasing about the Sekonic Twinmate L-208 is that whilst it’s just a fairly un-ergonomic, small oval shape, I can still use it without any trouble with one hand. It’s also a damn slight more easy to hold and use with one hand than any of the little dedicated shoe mount meters which often feel a little fiddly to use hand held. All the setting can be adjusted, the reading button pressed and even the white dome slid back and forth with ease with either hand. I don’t always have a strap on my cameras, so this is particularly helpful to me. One hand carrying camera, whilst the other holds the meter and takes a reading. Because it’s small it goes in a pocket with ease too – this is how I have carried it for the most part in fact.

(More information from Vision Systems Design on illumination techniques for machine vision applications in logistics is available here.)

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I’m not going to regale you with a history of the brand – you can find that sort of info elsewhere online, I’m sure. I mention it simply to point out that the Sekonic Twinmate L-208 comes from a brand that has been around the block a few times. They have a good variety of meters on the market too, ranging from the very simple L-208 to the much more feature heavy L-858 meters. I personally never need anything more than the basics in my work. I just don’t need a complicated, feature packed light meter for any part of my photography. Which is a shame in a way, as I do like the look of a lot of the Sekonic range, I just have no need for the extent of features many of the higher end models provide.

To choose from so many options, it is important to consider the characteristics of the object to be imaged, such as size, shape and color; the spatial relationship between the object, light and camera; and how the light is reflected or absorbed by the object and background. (Vision Systems Design offers more explanation here.)

Sometimes the best choice is to darken the object—particularly if the goal is to read printed codes or words. By illuminating red print on a white envelope with a green light, you’ll get the clearest image of the print, Advanced Illumination says on its website.

The most recent addition, introduced in 2018, is the Washdown Monster Dome Light, which is designed to remove glare from product images without a loss in intensity.

Reading those barcodes accurately has become increasingly complicated, requiring a creative approach to lighting. As Steve Kinney, director of training, compliance and technical solutions for Smart Vision Lights (Norton Shores, MI, USA), explains, “Today’s scanning portal must read through the clear outer packaging on individual items, through poly bags to see the item inside, through clear films placed over shipping labels for weather resistance, or even through shrink wrap holding a pallet together to read the barcodes of the boxes comprising the pallet. In these demanding instances, not only do the various films and packaging cause problems seeing the barcodes to be read, but they also have uneven glossy surfaces that make the imaging even harder.”

AnalogLight Meter

An example is the company’s Multispectral Exolight v2.0, which is available in versions covering up to six wavelengths including the short-wave infrared (SWIR) spectrum.

“There are also a variety of other optical accessories that are easy to install on the light. This means you can get a different lighting geometry without needing to purchase a new light,” saving money and time on redesign work that can cause delays in projects, explains Mariann Kiraly, US sales manager for EFFILUX.

David Hardy, vice president and design engineer for Spectrum Illumination (Montague, MI, USA), says that white lights also provide the most flexibility over time if a product’s color changes in a future iteration. “For example, the part under inspection is red or white, and a red light is chosen. But if a part color of green or blue is added later, it can appear quite dark as green and blue colors are somewhat opposite red on the color wheel. In this case, using a white light initially would have been better, or even an infrared light to remove the color.”

Hi Leon If your meter is over-exposing by 1 stop then you would need to halve the indicated exposure by doubling the ISO rating, for example setting the dial to 800 for 400 ISO film. My Twinmate under-exposes by roughly 1 stop, so for 400 ISO film I do set the ISO dial at 200. Overall I have to disagree with almost everything said in this post about the Twinmate. I think it is very disappointing with the poor accuracy and the constant movement of the ISO setting (it does it all by it’s self even on the lanyard). I would not recommend anyone to purchase one.

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Underestimating the speed necessary for inline inspection in some environments also could lead to illumination challenges. Advanced Illumination updated its BL2 Backlights to increase brightness, allowing for higher throughput. The lights are also designed for scalability, expandable in 1 in increments up to 46 in in length or width. They can be operated in operated in continuous or overdrive strobe modes.

Sekonic L-308X

Overlooking the Impact of the Sensor and Lens on Illumination Mark Kolvites, sales manager at Metaphase Lighting Technologies (Bristol, PA, USA), says, “Another pitfall is overlooking the fact that the lens and camera sensor are also part of the optical path for the captured image, which could affect the illumination implemented. For example, the wider the angle of the camera lens, the more optical distortion around the perimeter of the field of view, making the image look non-uniform, even though the light itself might be uniform.” This is why Metaphase developed “light sources where, for example, the end of a linear bar light will be brighter at the ends compared to the middle of the light to compensate for lens image attenuation around the perimeter of the field of view,” he explains. An example is the company’s Multispectral Exolight v2.0, which is available in versions covering up to six wavelengths including the short-wave infrared (SWIR) spectrum.

The Sekonic Twinmate L-208 works with a single CR2032 battery. This will no doubt please the folks who usually express concern at the current craze for making everything USB rechargeable. Hopefully it will also save my from the argument about e-waste in the comments too… unless anone wants to talk about the dangers of button cells when swallowed…? I digress, I’ve not had it long enough to determine how long the battery lasts, but unlike the Gossen, the Sekonic Twinmate L-208 doesn’t stay on all the time, so isn’t constantly draining the battery. In fact, it only uses battery when a reading is taken so I’d expect it to last a very long time. It also has a battery test mode. There’s a button on the base of the meter that when pressed sends the meter read needle into somewhere within the zone on the readout face marked in blue. The further up that line, the better the battery. Since I have had it, when pressing the battery test button on the bottom, the lever shows no sign of any battery drain whatsoever.

(More information from Vision Systems Design on addressing lighting challenges in medical device and pharmaceutical inspection is available here.)

Linda Wilson joined the team at Vision Systems Design in 2022. She has more than 25 years of experience in B2B publishing and has written for numerous publications, including Modern Healthcare, InformationWeek, Computerworld, Health Data Management, and many others. Before joining VSD, she was the senior editor at Medical Laboratory Observer, a sister publication to VSD.

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In fact, for the most part I could just get away with my iPhone. The Lumu app is great, and is accurate. The issue is, I don’t like using my phone as a meter. It feels clumsy. Which is why, I suppose, I fell into the rabbit hole of playing with shoe mount meters – small simple meters with a basic feature set appeal to my simple approach to metering. Especially as really, I mostly use light meters to supplement guess work rather than entirely relying on them for every shot. I also like the fact that I can mount them and use them on the camera, but they are all nice and small so I can also just chuck them in a pocket and use them hand held without feeling like I’m carrying any extra bulk at all.

This is why Metaphase developed “light sources where, for example, the end of a linear bar light will be brighter at the ends compared to the middle of the light to compensate for lens image attenuation around the perimeter of the field of view,” he explains.

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CCS America’s PD4 Series lighting controller is designed for these types of situations, allowing engineers to program up to 16 steps of on/off for the lights in an application.

I think the shoe mount nature of it is a little more nuanced than just how it looks on the camera though. It is bulky for sure, but it still works well as a shoe mount meter inasmuch as it still points in the right direction when in reflective mode, and still takes accurate readings etc.

In the end, this sort of dissuaded me from thinking about a new meter – it had done the job once I was there, and I don’t use incident meters that often, so I decided against getting a new one. As such, I didn’t really think about it again until a representative working for Sekonic got in touch to ask if I might be interested in reviewing one of their meters. I was a little reluctant to begin with – I’d tried the L-398 before so wasn’t really that fussed to review it, but then when I had a look at their range I spotted the Sekonic Twinmate L-208. It’s a meter that’s been highlighted to me before by people who have read my shoe mount meter reviews, but thinking it might just be a bit big for shoe mounting, I sort of dismissed it. But, now having had the experience of success using the Gossen despite its shortfalls, the Sekonic Twinmate L-208 all of a sudden seemed really appealing.

SekonicLight Meter

Hardy at Spectrum says another pitfall is not considering the production environment during the lighting selection process. “We also see many customers choosing the wrong type of light for the environment. For example, using a standard backlight or dome light near a CNC (computer numerical control) machine where coolant splatters on the light and over time will wick inside causing internal corrosion and eventually failure.” When designing a machine vision application for harsh environments, choosing a light with a higher IPrating is a better option, he explains.

As I said at the beginning of this review, I was interested in the Sekonic Twinmate L-208 for how versatile it is. Small enough to pocket, light enough for a lanyard… and a shoe mount too… Ok, I’ve breezed over this a little bit so far, but it’s fair to say that it is not exactly small when compared to even the biggest of the more recent flurry of shoe mount meters. In fact, when mounted, it looks pretty huge relative to pretty much any of my film cameras.

Hardy notes that the company’s IP68 Washdown series of LEDs is designed for these types of environments. The series includes ring lights, dome lights, spotlights and linear lights.

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I have two cars that I drive regularly, a 1991 VW golf and a 2011 Audi a5. The former, obviously, just has a traditional speedometer which I can and do read fine. The Audi on the other hand has the option to set a digital number on the screen between the dials - without this number which occasionally disappears (if I get a phone call for eg) I feel like I don't know what speed I am doing. The analogue dial just doesn't make sense to me. Now I could put this down to the scale not being right in the Audi - it goes to a much higher speed so the scale is compressed compared to the Golf, but I had exactly the same experience in my previous slower Audi with the same dial layout. My point is that I have just got used to the digital readout - having driven similar Audis for a good few years is that I have become totally accustomed to that sort of display; it's a learned preference. But, that learned preference is actually only in the context of a specific layout of dials. Put me in another car, and it seems I can adapt to whatever type of readout I am given. I have the same feeling toward digital watches I think too - analogue watches just make sense to me, but given a digital with 10:18 on the screen, my brain just rounds to twenty past 10 without much thought at all. My final thought on this is that I wonder if it is the era I was born. I am a xenial (or however you spell it) - a very early millennial - so my context is from a period of time when analogue stuff was much more prevalent, but digital was the new exciting frontier - so maybe I am just more easily adaptable.

Erik, your point about digital vs analog displays takes me back to the early days of digital watches. I've always thought it was easier to interpret the angular displacement of the two hands rather that 'working out' an hh:mm:sec display. When asked the time, it's so much easier (and more 'human') to say, for example, "...nearly twenty past ten..." rather than "10:18"

Common machine vision applications in which illumination is part of the solution involve inspecting products for defects before they leave the manufacturing plant or reading barcodes or other alphanumeric data on products or packages as they move through the logistics pipeline.

The reading scale has settings from f/1.4 – f/32, 30secs – 1/8000th and ISO range from 12500 – 12 ISO. All the numbers represented on the reading scales are full stops, but there are intermediate numbers represented by dots between the numbers as illustrated in the manual. The intermediate numbers are interesting too as rather than show 1/2 or 1/3 stops they have chosen to indicate numbers used on older cameras from before the modern standards were adopted.

I never liked the narrow metering range of Leica rangefinder meters. I have a couple of CL’s and the meter’s work. I took the batteries out and use the Voigtlander VC 2 meters that clip onto the accessory shoe. A meter for me establishes a base reading, I then tweak the setting as I see fit. I’ve never mastered the ability to see a scene and guess the exposure. I’ve got a friend who can do it, be me ? Never.

Mark Kolvites, sales manager at Metaphase Lighting Technologies (Bristol, PA, USA), says, “Another pitfall is overlooking the fact that the lens and camera sensor are also part of the optical path for the captured image, which could affect the illumination implemented. For example, the wider the angle of the camera lens, the more optical distortion around the perimeter of the field of view, making the image look non-uniform, even though the light itself might be uniform.”

What I have found in practice though is that I never really set out to use it permanently mounted on the camera. I have used it this way, but more often than not I find myself taking it on and off the camera whilst out. Mounting it on the camera has for me become another convenient place to put it and occasionally use it. It does look almost a little daft on the camera, but when I’m out taking photos how the camera looks is of zero relevance to me. Convenience and function are what matters, and the Sekonic Twinmate L-208 brings both!

“By using cross-polarization, a technique where a linear polarizer is placed over a light source (transmitter) and another rotating linear polarizer is attached over the camera lens (receiver), the light rays coming from the surface of the item are reduced while the part of the light energy that penetrates the surface is passed through the receiving polarizer. Since the cross-polarization effect reduces the light from the surface, glare and other specular effects from glossy plastic surfaces is reduced,” he says.

This is why engineers choose white lights, which comprise both warm and cool colors, for many applications, and especially those involving a color camera. Colored lights are used with monochrome cameras.

To use the meter in reflective mode, the little white dome needs to be slid out of the way of the light receptor. Then, simply pointing the meter at the subject or whatever is to be metered off, and click the metering button gives a reading. The orange metering needle very quickly swings out to give a reading which is locked in place once the button is released. The main dial is then rotated so the green arrow matches the position of the orange metering needle.

The Sekonic Twinmate L-208 works exactly the same way in incident mode. The white dome is slid in front of the light receptor and the meter can be used to incident meter instead. The rest of the functionality is the same. Press the button to take a reading, set the green pin the match the orange one and pick a combination of setting to apply to the camera.

However, brightness would be an advantage if the goal is to brighten or enhance the contrast between an object and its background, such as to detect wrapped candy on a conveyor belt.

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Simon Stanley, director of technology at ProPhotonix (Salem, NH, USA) also provides an example of how a customer in the medical device industry addressed the issue of color. “The customer was inspecting data matrix codes on different colored capsules. They were limited to using a high-resolution, but monochrome, Cognex In-Sight 9000 camera in line-scan mode; and a white line light and found that for some of the colored capsules, the images did not have adequate contrast.”

The Sekonic Twinmate L-208 also has a metering range from EV3 to EV17 at 100ISO. This means it might not be the best choice for especially low light usage, but for anything within daylight, dusk, indoors within normal household lighting it’s probably going to be fine.

Lighting controllers also allow for flexibility, particularly in situations in which more than one lighting solution is deployed, explains Sullivan at CCS America. Some examples: multiple lights are on at once but at different intensity settings to avoid overexposing an image or multiple lights go on/off in sequence to capture multiple images. “For example, a controller can turn on a flat dome light for a bright field image, then a low-angle light for a dark field image,” she says.

TPL Vision (Perth, Scotland, UK) Product Manager Jack McKinley says choosing flexible lighting products reduces risks to an application’s feasibility posed by unknown factors in the current or future production environment.

As you can possibly tell, I really like the Sekonic Twinmate L-208. It is a very basic meter with nothing in the way of superfluous frills, and isn’t going to be particularly useful in low-low light. It has no functionality for flash photographers and some will find its light weight plastic build off putting I’d imagine – especially if you hold it up against classic meters such as the Weston Master 5.

If you want to learn or discover a new technique, build on your skills, or be inspired to have a go at a bit of DIY or camera modification, then you’re in the right place.

Old SekonicLight Meter

Available in ring and linear formats, the new lights offer direct connection and control through a camera’s trigger output.

Whether an application involves reading barcodes on packages or inspecting products, these experts say they’ve described some of the most common missteps in designing and implementing illumination solutions for machine vision applications.

In general, according to Advanced Illumination, a light that is of a similar color as an object will reflect and thus brighten the object while a light on the opposite side of the color wheel will darken the object.

The company’s Modular Tiny Bar Light (M-TBAR), which is designed specifically for confined spaces such as in robotics applications, offers flexibility, the company says. The product allows users to change the beam angle with the company’s angle changers, which are micro-optic diffusers that can be used to widen the beam angle. The light also offers strobe overdrive illumination.

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Kinney adds that lighting manufacturers have developed specialized lighting products that feature overdrive, “where the light is operated at multiples of the steady state current for short periods to create a brighter strobe. This allows the use of polarization needed to effectively work in portal systems while still having enough light for the short exposure periods required to image without motion blur at the item passes at high speed through the system.”

An example of this type of lighting solution is the Lightgistics series from Smart Vision Lights. The lights feature Dual OverDrive, which combines SVL’s Deca OverDrive and standard OverDrive engines, allowing end users to attach polarizers while retaining light output to handle any speed.

Outside the realm of inspection in manufacturing, lighting challenges abound in machine vision applications in logistics and warehousing. One example involves a portal system, which scans barcodes in automated or smart warehouses.

Numerous experts agreed on the most common pitfall: Waiting until the tail end of the design process to address lighting for a machine vision application.

Lindsey Sullivan, technical marketing manager at CCS America (Woburn, MA, USA), agrees, saying, “It is important to test and solve the application at the beginning of the design process. Once the required lighting is understood, the design of the inspection system can account for the positioning of the sample, size, working distance, color (and) geometry of the light.”

For one of the older Leica M bodies, the elegant solution is the Leicameter MR-4. Unfortunately, a large percentage were ruined when owners left the mercury battery installed and the battery leaked. And in intact units, the CDS cell is 50+ years old. Is it still linear?

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