KENKO KFM-1100 light meter, an easy-to-use, accurate, full-featured hand-held light meter for reading both ambient and flash light.

For most people the minimal, clearly marked buttons will make using the meter second nature in very little time. The side of the meter only has 3 buttons, the largest is for taking measurements, the other two set on a rocker are UP/DOWN input buttons for changing F no., shutter speed or ASA/ISO. This simple, easy-to-use ergonomic design feels comfortable in your hand and its logical control layout will please photographers who want to concentrate on the subject, not their equipment.

Large, easy to read LCD displays measurements in F no. format with large numbers in 1/10 stop increments and in more common 1/2 stop increments in a pointer scale across the top of the LCD display. LCD also has a back-light for easy reading in low light situations.

The meter is sensitive enough for ambient (existing) light to be measured for a shutter speed range from 30 minutes to 1/8000 of a second. In Cine mode it can be used to read frame-rates of 8 to 128 frames/sec.

For measuring flash, the meter has modes to either trigger the flash using a sync-cord or set to non-sync cord for manual flash triggering. The aperture range that can be displayed is from f/1.0 to f/128.

Useful in mixed flash/ambient lighting situations, the “Analyze” function can determine the ratio of ambient to flash light in a scene. This feature is very handy in scenes where a flash is being used to “open up” a shadowed area left by ambient (natural) light.

The meter function can be used to average measurements that have been stored in memory, very useful in reflected light measurements to capture highlight or shadow detail more accurately. The KFM-1100 has two memory slots to store previous measurements that can be recalled for reference or for averaging. Just press the “M” button after each reading to store it in memory. If the memory has two readings stored, it will delete the oldest reading to store the current information.