By Ron Eggers

October 29, 2004 — The new Sekonic L-558R DualMaster light meter gives photographers the option of triggering cameras and flash units wirelessly. It's fully compatible with PocketWizard Plus Receivers and MultiMAX Transceivers and it supports earlier PocketWizard radio systems. Using a 16/24 bit, digitally encoded radio signal, the L-558R is part of the Digital Wireless Freedom system of wireless professional imaging tools; it's the world's first remote control light meter right out of the box.

The L-558R is also billed as the world's most sensitive multi-function light meter. It can read a reflected flash down to f/2, at ISO 100, and that, says the company, is twice as sensitive as any other similar meter.

Its built-in retractable Lumisphere can be used for 3D incident readings, for brightness evaluations, or lighting ratio setups or precise readings of flat subjects. It has a true 1-degree spotmeter, with a parallax-free viewfinder and in-finder, and an illuminated digital display, which shows apertures in tenths, shutter speeds up to 1/8000 second, and exposure compensation values.

It includes a flash/ambient analyzing mode that simultaneously reads both flash and ambient light automatically. It can display combined flash-ambient readings, the percentage of flash in the total exposure, and simultaneously the flash, ambient, and combined readings on an analog scale. It also reads in shutter-priority, aperture-priority or EV modes, and makes cumulative flash readings in the cord or cordless mode.

(Contact Ron Eggers at Newswatch@earthlink.net)