uh!!! so I've had a vintage light meter (Norwoord Director Color-Matic Model D) since I was in college (probably bought in 2012 or so) that I assumed was broken, I hadn't had it since 2018 (it was in arkansas) and it was mixed in with some random stuff they mailed to me last christmas
it's from 1955, cost $32.03 ($995.42 in today's US currency!) and this whole time I assumed it MUST be broken because the photosphere was dented and yellowed and the needle didn't move. since I've finally started to get back into photography, I had started to look into light meters and was seriously not liking the prices I was seeing (lol). so when I dug this meter out of the closet in my office today, I was like, "well, maybe I can find a guide online for how to fix it"
well. lo and behold, apparently the needle wasn't moving because of a screen that was slid between the photosphere and the sensor. when I pulled that out, I saw movement!
then I decided to pop out the broken photosphere and decided to just try out a piece of thin coffee filter material, cut out from an aeropress filter. Just something to help diffuse the light some, and maybe approximate the levels the photosphere would get (I may experiment with a 3/4" ping-pong ball later on...).
I switched my digital camera to manual and used my manual lens (helios 44-2), figured out how to read the meter, set the camera settings, metered my very curious model, and got some nicely lit images!
I'm going to practice with the digital camera settings more before I use it with my film cameras! I'm chuffed!