Sekonic C-500 Prodigi Color

Once again Sekonic has answered the call when a more efficient and accurate meter is required. This one, the Prodigi Color C-500 Color Meter was designed to meet the needs of today's digital market.

This is the first meter to read the spectral sensitivity of color film, CDCD (CCD) and CMOS sensors used in current digital still and DV cine cameras.

The C-500 and C-500R color meters are not exposure meters. Their main function is "pre-production" light source color control.  With all the emphasis on Color Management and Workflow done electronically and in the camera or in post production, today's digital photographers seem to have overlooked the first step and foundation of the whole process, namely the light that makes image creation possible.

Custom white balance can do a good job of correcting color for a single light source. Add another, and there will be an unbalance that will cause color problems that will have to be dealt with later at a cost of time and money. In mixed light sources, blending flash with ambient (sun or indoor whatever) can be "cleaning up the color by adding some flash" which is the norm today. Or, with the C-500 and C-500R and a little light source filtration, it can be the seamless blending of illumination to make the photographer-added light virtually undetectable as it was done by photographers who "knew how" in the good old days of film.

This unique and groundbreaking meter measures and displays color temperature and compensation values in LB/CC index or filter numbers. The digital readings are based on human visual response while traditional film readings are determined by the individual characteristics of each film. Now, photographers and videographers have greater control over their exposures than ever before.

All of the advances in digital imaging have really solved a lot of problems and enabled taking shots that were impossible before. However, what goes on in front of the camera has not changed and should be dealt with if one is really serious about quality color management and actually controlled work flow.

Properly measuring red intensity was a major hurtle. Sekonic designers solved the problem by incorporating four color sensors: a Red sensor for visual/digital response (Rd); a Red sensor for photographic film response (Rf); a Green sensor (G); and a Blue sensor (B). They then developed a new "Simulated Spectrum" software solution (patent pending) that emulates the blue and green channel color response for both digital and film.