I hadn't considered that alternative, I could just use my FTN I suppose.

thanks for the help everyone.

Buy the cheapest film camera you can find , I've seen N75's with lenses for less that $40

I would not consider anything less than a sekonic l-308s (which is what I use). It does everything except spot metering, and it's easy to use. However it's a little over $200.

Digital meters can be easier/faster to read. A digital meter gives a direct read-out of shutter speeds and apertures whereas on a meter like my L-28C, the needle will point to an EV number, you then turn the dial on the front of the meter to the EV number to show the shutter speed & aperture combination's. In some ways the analog meter is nicer because once you have dialed in the EV number, the scale will show you all of the possible combination's. On a most digital meters you select a shutter speed, then once you take a reading it displays the aperture for that shutter speed, you can then toggle through the different combination's by pressing the up/down button.

There is an advantage to a meter like the L-28C: it's selenium photo cell does not require batteries, so it will always work, and be consistent. Digital meters require a battery and if the battery weak, the readings may fluctuate.

is there a particular reason to spring for a digital one as opposed to an older (analog? mechanical?) one?

I can't immagine there are any extra features that could be that useful, atleast not for what I want to do, which should be pretty simple.

You can get a used meter for less than $100. I have a Sekonic Studio Deluxe L-28C that I would be willing to sell. If you are interested PM me.

every camera I have used up until now has had a built in light meter (my dslr and my ftn and other slrs), but now that I've had my rolleicord i've just kind of been guessing at it, which has been fine for outdoors, but now that I want to take a few controlled shots (there are a few in particular I need to do) I realized I need to figure something out.

I suppose I could use my dslr as a light meter? but then I know i'd have to adjust for paralax error (not that I know what that entails exactly, haha) and I don't know if that's further affected by the fact that i'd be comparing a dx sensor to medium format (film, obv).

anyway I started looking at light meters. I don't have a big budget, so I was just trying to find something cheap, but the options seem endless. The problem with the low budget ones I have been looking at is that they seem to lack very obvious needs, such as setting the iso, etc.

my budget probably tops out at about 100$, it's not something I'm looking to invest in a lot right now, later on yes, but not yet.

any help/suggestions/brands/advice would be greatly appreciated.

thanks guys.