Sekonic L-758D Light Meter Camera Profiles (Podcast 501)

In the age of digital with the histogram at our fingertips, the light meter is in many situations no longer as necessary as it was years ago, but there are a number of reasons why I continue to use one. I recently added another reason, by creating a camera profile for my Sekonic...

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Image Gallery

Sekonic L-758D Digital Master Light Meter

Sekonic L-758D Creating Profile - Metering the Light - Incident

Sekonic L-758D Creating Profile - Metering the Light - Reflected

Sekonic Exposure Profile Target II Gray Card

EV Meter Reading of Four Corners of Exposure Profile Target II

Five Sekonic L-758D Light Meter Profile Shots

Sekonic DTS Initial Profile Graph

Sekonic DTS Adjusted Profile Graph

Sekonic Transfer Profile to L-758D

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Martin Bailey is a nature and wildlife photographer and educator based in Tokyo. He's a pioneering Podcaster and blogger, and an X-Rite Coloratti member.

camera profile, Digital Master, dynamic range, Exposure Profile Target II, L-758D, L-758DR, light meter, Sekonic, zone system

25 Comments

JH Photo
Posted at 19:45h, 19 December Reply

Thank you so very much for explaining this process, I had previously just thrown my hands up in the air and walked away from it. I own the 478DR.
- Martin Bailey
  Posted at 08:27h, 20 December Reply
  
  You’re welcome JH Photo. I hope this get’s you through the process. It’s not difficult, but I did make a few changes to the original Sekonic instructions, which I believe make this process easier.
David
Posted at 19:41h, 01 April Reply

Hi Martin, great article! I’m having the same issue as u had regarding L758 not being recognised by my iMac (El Capitan) when I plug it in. The USB symbol just flashes when I plug it in. When u ran the AutoUpdateUtility were running on version 4? I see there is version 5 but on the Sekonic website they say this version is only for the L478.

Thanks very much
Dave
- Martin Bailey
  Posted at 20:45h, 01 April Reply
  
  Hi Dave, yes, when I ran the auto update utility I was on version 4. It was updated to 4.0.3. I have just tried to connect the L-758D on my iMac and it still connects fine, but I tried on my MacBook Pro, and it no longer connects. Both my iMac and MacBook Pro are running El Capitan at 10.11.4, so I don’t know why it works on one but not the other.
  
  I also tried updating to v5 of DTS, as I was prompted to update, and only after that did I see a message not to update, because the L-758D does not support v5. This is really pretty poor on Sekonic’s part. The L-758D/DR is one of their most popular light meter. It’s time to get your fingers out guys!!
  
  Sorry I can’t provide much help Dave. The only thing I can suggest is trying on a different computer if you have one around.
  - David
    Posted at 21:28h, 01 April Reply
    
    Hi Martin, thanks for your reply. Yes very poor from Sekonic – just hoping they update Version 5 SOON so it’s compatible with L758! In the meantime I’ll try what u did and run the AutoUpdateUtility on my version 4 and hope it works!
    Cheers.
    - Martin Bailey
      Posted at 10:38h, 02 April Reply
      
      Hi David,
      
      Please don’t run the autoupdate now, as this will jump you to v5 automatically, and then throw a message to tell you not to do that. I had to go back to v4 using Time Machine because it’s no longer served by the auto-update servers.
      
      You’ll need to download v4 from this page until v5 works with our meters: http://www.sekonic.com/united-states/support/downloads/dtssoftwareformacandwindows.aspx
      
      Cheers,
      Martin.
Marko
Posted at 12:34h, 18 April Reply

Hi all, there is a firmware update available now (through DTS 5.0) for the L-758 (version 22); here DTS 5.0 works now with the L-758 (Mac OS X).
HTH, Marko
- Dave
  Posted at 16:10h, 18 April Reply
  
  Hi Marko, good news! I can finally get things up and running now! How did u do it as I just checked website and is still says V5 only for 458 series? Do u download V4 and then go from there. I removed all versions off my Mac (El Capitan latest IOS version) until an update V5 was compatible with L-758.
  
  Cheers
  Dave
Marko
Posted at 09:24h, 19 April Reply

Hi Dave, I just downloaded version 5 from the website and tried… I removed Version 4 before installing and it just worked (OS X 10.11.4 here, too); my first step was upgrading the L-758’s firmware.
- Martin Bailey
  Posted at 14:16h, 19 April Reply
  
  Thanks for letting us know Marko.
  
  I initially just tried updating to v5 when prompted to do so, and like before, it didn’t work. Before I updated though, using version 4, which did connect to the L-758D on one of my two Macs, I was able to update the firmware, as you’d mentioned that.
  
  This in itself didn’t fix the issue, but then I noticed that you said you’d uninstalled version 4 first, so I removed that, and tried a clean install of version 5, and it connects to the L-758D fine now.
  
  I still need to test on my MacBook Pro, which never connected, but at least my iMac is now connecting with v5, which is cool.
  
  Dave, maybe you could try the firmware updater in the Sekonic folder. Once updated to version 22, you might be able to get v5 working with your 758 too.
  
  Good luck!
  - David
    Posted at 17:32h, 21 April Reply
    
    Cheers Martin. Just tried it… followed your steps and it works a treat! Great stuff, thanks guys.
    - Martin Bailey
      Posted at 17:54h, 21 April Reply
      
      Glad to hear that David. Congrats! You can finally use your L-758D to its full potential. 🙂
Kirk
Posted at 07:14h, 07 May Reply

Likewise I had trouble installing v5 on a mac running el capitan 10.11.4 WITH the L758 not being found by the s/ware, what I discovered eventually was not only do you have to remove any versions (move to trash) but also empty the trash, then install v5 (which says is only for the 478 meter), restart and it works..
William Huckstep
Posted at 08:08h, 17 January Reply

I’m still wrestling with this especially when trying to create a profile using strobes. I’m limited with my range of f-stops. I can just make a -3 to +3 stop range with an f/2.8-22 lens. My light meter is the L-478D and I don’t have the optional 5 degree viewfinder attachment so obtaining reflected readings is very difficult. Is there another option other than f-stops for selecting the over / under exposure settings when using strobes / flash? Can you change the ISO? I know there’s an option for a mulit-iso profile but I haven’t even tried that one yet. In addition I still get the “the set level does not exist in the image” alert. Gear I’m using Sony A7II, Promaster PD300 strobes, Sony FE90 2.8 (to the 6 stop range) and the x rite colour checker passport. Great article btw. I’ll be back to your posts. Stumbled on it while troubleshooting. Thanks for your time.
- Martin Bailey
  Posted at 12:27h, 21 January Reply
  
  Hi William,
  
  I personally wouldn’t try to do this with ISO, and with flash you have only a limited range of shutter speeds to work with, so I would say using your aperture would be the best way. I’m confused as to why you can’t do this with your f/2.8 to f/22 range though. If you set your aperture to f/8, three stops below that is f/2.8 and three stops above that is f/22. Job done, right?
  
  Cheers,
  Martin.
  - William Huckstep
    Posted at 01:14h, 22 January Reply
    
    Martin, thanks very much for your reply and advice. Yes the f/2.8 lens will just work but I still get the the “set level does not exist in the image” alert. Also, how critical is it to have a reflected measurement for the Data Transfer Software? I don’t have the 5 degree viewfinder so my reflected readings are extremely different than the incident. Thanks again and I’ll keep experimenting.
Martin Bailey
Posted at 09:36h, 22 January Reply

Hi William,

I see. I don’t really know what that is, or how to avoid it, so it’s probably best to contact support to find out why that is being displayed.

I wouldn’t think it’s a problem to not be able to do the reflected readings.

Regards,
Martin.
Miceli Filippo Maria
Posted at 01:20h, 31 December Reply

Hi Martin,
I spent all evening trying to set the same custom exposure profile for incident and reflective metering.
Finally I managed to fix it,thanks to your post, God bless you 🙂 But just wondering…. is there any reason why as I transfer my profile with dts incident profile scale is +/- 3,5 EV and reflective dynamic range is +/- 2,5 EV? I mean, should reflective readings for any reason be more “conservative” than incident ones in the light meter ? I’m using a 5d3. Thank you
- Martin Bailey
  Posted at 11:57h, 02 January Reply
  
  Hi Miceli,
  
  I’m pleased my post helped. 🙂
  
  I just checked the dynamic range on my L-758D and see that there is no difference between reflective and incident dynamic ranges, so I’m not sure what to tell you. Maybe if you could take a photo of the LCD on your meter in both states, and send them to me via Dropbox or something, I could take a look and see if I can offer any advice. Or maybe contact Sekonic support, as they probably know better.
  
  A Happy New Year to you!
  
  Regards,
  Martin.
  - Miceli Filippo Maria
    Posted at 23:45h, 02 January Reply
    
    Thank for your reply, I appreciate it. Finally I found it on my own.
    It’s a setting of dts software that allows you switching between the two parameters. I’ll set both the same, incident and spot metering will have the same dynamic range. So my metering will be shown in the same scale.
    I’m going to try shooting my highlights at +3,5 as EV graph suggest my camera is capable of. It scares me a bit, but It’s time to check the meter if it worth the money.
    Happy new year!
    Regards from Rome,
    Filippo
    - Martin Bailey
      Posted at 10:44h, 03 January Reply
      
      Hi Filippo,
      
      I actually took a look at my own profiles again yesterday and wondered if what you did might have been the solution, but I couldn’t remember if I had to change both metering method results when creating my profiles, and I didn’t mention this in the post, so I didn’t mention it. I’m pleased you found out what the problem was though.
      
      Thanks for letting me know.
      
      Regards,
      Martin.
Kelly Roy
Posted at 07:11h, 15 January Reply

I have recently purchased a L758DR. I gone through the process creating a profile for my D800 and I just noticed the the clipping indicators change when I switch from incident to spot metering. When in incident it shows about 7.5 stops between my clipping points but when in spot metering it drops down to around 5. I don’t understand why it does this
- Martin Bailey
  Posted at 10:40h, 15 January Reply
  
  Hi Kelly,
  
  As Filippo mentioned above you have to change these parameters for both spot and incident when creating your camera profile. There’s a pull down to select the metering mode.
  
  Cheers,
  Martin.
  - Kelly Roy
    Posted at 10:46h, 15 January Reply
    
    Sorry to waste your time. I read through the comments after posting this. Thank you. And your article was very well done. Look forward to seeing more of your stuff.
    
    Kelly
    - Martin Bailey
      Posted at 11:32h, 15 January Reply
      
      No problem at all Kelly. Glad this all helped.