Repair and restoration articles from the pages of Photographica World magazine

A little light (meter) reading

by Timothy Campbell

Earlier this year at Boston Spa camera fair I came across a stack of ‘The Miniature Camera’ magazines – I enjoy reading period publications, and this was one mag which I’d never had the chance to buy before. I didn’t buy the lot, but bought a sample issue for each of the years on offer  – being 1947 48, 49 and 50. The magazines are the usual mix of ‘home brew’ developing and printing ideas, photographic projects and of course equipment news and reviews. But what really caught my eye was the back page advert from the 1948 mag – for the GEC light meter. I have a meter or two in my collection, and I still use my ‘modern’ digital meter, the Sekonic L308, but the design and class of the GEC really made me sit up.

A quick search on Ebay and I was thrilled to find a listing for a very dead example. A ‘make an offer’ deal was struck, and I think this must be the shortest time ever for going from ‘never heard of it’ to having the thing in my hands – just four days!

The meter is a superb design, and so simple and elegant to use. You take a reading, (light value), align the middle rotating collar (which gives film speed in Scheiner) with the LV number, then read off the shutter/aperture pairs on the outer ring. There’s also a notched part to allow you to over or underexpose a set amount – very useful as back then film speeds were very much a variable, and hugely dependant on individual user and developer choices.

Now, if only I could get this object of desire to function…

My brother Marty has often helped me with repair projects, and his knowledge and ingenuity in the tech end of things is pretty much second to none, so we had a chat, I handed him the GEC meter and left him to it.

What is so exciting is that he came up with a non destructive way to repair the meter, and his approach to selenium cell replacement can be used with any other long dead meter, assuming the original cell is roughly the same size as the one provided for £1.50 by an eBay seller, ie about 25mm diameter.

Here’s Marty’s ‘how to’ repair guide for the GEC meter:

Two screws beneath sealing wax on the front of the meter allows the meter to slide apart. With the adjustment rings and wavy washers removed, push out from the inside with tip of a flat screwdriver the four pins holding the meter unit to the Bakelite rear casing.

De-solder or cut the original calibration resistor wire connected to the right tab on the meter movement.

Lift the meter unit from the main body.

Upturn the rear housing to allow the Selenium cell to drop free.

Use a small screw driver through the rear housing holes and gently prise free the electrical connecting ring and original calibration resistor.

Solder in place a subminiature rotary resistor of 10k ohm value as seen in the photos – the blue resistor shown here.  Then:

Add two wires for connecting back to the meter.

Tape over these freshly made soldered joints.

When reassembled this rotary control will be accessible through a rear hole for calibration.

Cut away one blade of the original connecting ring ( back side of meter unit) to allow room for the resistor to fit in.

Cut and prepare the wire ends before reassembly.

One will solder to the right tab on the meter, the other leave bare to be trapped under the gauge panel and screw.

Place the completed assembly back into the rear housing, position it – checking that the control ends up visible through one of the rear holes in the honeycomb. With the gauge fully seated in the housing, push the four retaining pins back into place.

A tiny smear of glue on the heads will ensure they do not come loose, I used Pritt stick. Do not use superglue as in 100 years time the next restorer will not get it apart without damage.

Set the calibration now. It will take a few attempts as your hand and screw driver will be blocking the light as you adjust the control.

The adjustment rings can now be put back in place followed by the gauge front and retaining screws.

For completion, the front screws should be capped with black wax and a tiny swirly “S” carved back in.