Light meter usage
 

I just bought a light meter (GE model 217) The instructions of usage are very vague to me and I would like to know if anyone can tell me how to measure fc in excess of 1000 as the meter only goes to 1000 and I don't understand the other 2 settings. Any help or suggestion will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Dennis4246

Hello, I don't have a GE meter, But I have a button marked "FC" and when the meter reads over 1,000 FC and the screen goes to 1, I can press the FC button and it goes to the next scale. I hope that's clear enough. I'm sure someone on the board has a GE and can give specific instructions for your model.

Bill

Is there a button that indicates "x10" on it? This would give you the fc's multiplied by ten which indicates the true fc's.

Brooke

Hi, mine's not a GE but it has 2 settings for reading the scale.
One setting has the dial pointing at "1x" and is labeled "fluorescent/indoor".
One setting has the dial pointing at "10x" and is labeled "high-intensity/outdoor".
The scale itself reads "0 - 500".

So, when choosing the "1x" setting, I just read the readout. So it is true from 0-500.
When choosing the "10x" setting, I multiply the readout by 10. So it really goes from 0-5000.

Maybe this is similar to the way your settings are supposed to work?

Hi, Yeah it doesn't matter what setting you put it to, the reading is the same. The setting just changes the sensitivity of the meter.

For instance if it's on 1x, and if the mode is set to FC (not LUX), then what you read on the meter will be the Foot-candles of the light you're measuring.

(Warning: If you've never used a meter to measure light before, you might be surprised at how soft indoor light really is... 20 - 100 foot-candles in a 'well lit' indoor area is realistic.)

If you change to 10x, then a reading of '50' would actually be 500 FCs etc.