bodiebill

Weston moved manufacturing from the USA to Great Britain
Were the UK products good quality?

Pablo8 Loc: Nottingham UK.

Used my Weston meters for years, till Gossen battery powered meter took over the tasks.

Pablo8 Loc: Nottingham UK.

Duplicate answer, sorry

camerapapi Loc: Miami, Fl.

Many moons ago I had a Weston Master. All cameras were of manual use only then and it was an asset been able to measure the exposure. My next meter was a Sekonic with a cadmium sulfide cell and it was a significant improvement over the Weston, specially metering in darker places.
As we all know technology kept on improving and meters got better and better. When cadmium and sulfide cells were introduced there was a far better performance in meters than those of selenium cells or other cells of the past.
I am not sure what is been used today but in camera meters are better than ever.

BebuLamar

Today handheld meters mainly use silicon cells. DSLR's use a small low MP imaging sensor in the viewfinder for metering and that's why they can have matrix (evaluative), spot, center weighted all with the same sensor. Mirrorless use the imaging sensors themselves.

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

Here is a link with very comprehensive content regarding Weston meters.


https://www.westonmeters.info/

I have, in the past owned many of these meters, including the one that you will see on the above site- the 1930s mode in the octagonal case. They were accurate but not as sensitive, in low light situations, as modern meters. They were fairly fragile and did not take well to dropping or impact.

They were considered standard gear for Zone System practitioners and there were overlays that adhered to the calculator dial to indicate grayscale zones. The dial was very useful for determining range and latitude. Weston published their own sensitivity or exposure index which varied slightly from the A.SA. film speed ratings of the era.

The U.S.models were made by the Weston Electricla Instrumsnt Company. They had a service center in New Jersey where I sent my meters for adjustments and repairs. The latter sub-contracted their service to the Federation for the Handicaped in New Yor City where they trained and employed folks with mobility issues to service their products. This was in the early 1960s. Then I went into the army and there were many Weston meters in service there.

I don't know exactly Weston ceased operation. There are probably thousands of Weston Master meters still in use around the world. Personally, I went to CDS based meters, spot and flash meters some time ago.

I understand that old photoelectric based meters tend to lose sensitivity with age. Back in the day, I did have one Weston Master that was manufactured in the UK- the only difference was cosmetic.

If you have or use a Weston meter, even if it is intrinsically accurate, successful readings result from the proper metering technique. You have to know how and where to sample reflected light and if you have and use the incident-light attachment you need to know the technique that is associated with that mode.

bodiebill

Thanks for the historical perspective of Weston, quite thorough and interesting.

Pablo8 Loc: Nottingham UK.

The reason I up dated to battery powered Gossen meter, was the better (More sensitive more accurate) Low light readings.