Who’s Selling Sekonic Meters for How Much?

Generally recognized as the best supplemental underwater light meter by far is Sekonic's Marine Meter II (also known as model L164). Not only is it the best, it's basically the only. Many photographers I know will not dive without one. These are the people who are panicking; Sekonic discontinued their production.

The meter, which originally sold for around $250, now can't be found anywhere. That is, unless you've found Cathy and Herb. It seems that underwater photographer Cathy Church and her partner, Herb Rafael, managed to buy all of the remaining supply of Sekonic meters from Helix and have been offering them over the internet for $450. Last week they raised the price to best offer over $650 (meters@cathychurch.com).

I talked to a Mr. Henry Frolich at Mamiya, Inc., which now owns Sekonic. He told me he was getting a lot of pressure from underwater photographers to start producing the meters again. He'll be making a trip to Japan in February for a corporate meeting and will try to persuade them to do just that.

Those wishing to be put on a list for notification if production resumes can e-mail their name and address to sekonic@mamiya.com or write to Sekonic/ Mamiya, 8 Westchester Place, New York, NY 10523. Frolich also indicated that the number of responses received might also determine whether there's enough demand to justify new production.

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