Hi I am watching your video again and you made a very good job of the video and you Describe the procedure very well I have been all over the Internet trying to find how to set up these light metres and your video is the most Understandable procedure on how to set it up I am the same as you I suffer with a lot of illnesses with arthritis and pancreatitis and it makes it so hard to be able to get out like I used to be able to it’s quite sad really where we can get out like we did Years ago but again thank you so much for the video Mark
Thank you so much for making that video it's been a great help to me to set the meter up many thanks again I will be watching a lot more of your videos thank you again
Your video is helpful, being easy to follow and a good flow. Will keep two question to the point. When shooting the target in ambient light; what setting is used to vary the stops the target is taken at? When profiling for strobe; what setting is used to vary the stops the target is taken at?
For ambient light, you can adjust either the aperture or the shutter speed. Doesn't matter which. Just be sure you are shooting in manual mode and that you write down the actual aperture and shutter speed you used so that you can input them in the software when you create the profile. For flash, you have to change the aperture, since shutter speed doesn't affect flash exposures (unless you use a long shutter time that allows the ambient light to affect the exposure, but you don't want to do that for this).
Great video. I mainly use my Sekonic for metering flash. Would you suggest creating a separate profile for both flash and ambient? My flash also has an high speed synch mode. Should there be a separate flash profile for that mode as well? I'm wondering, too, there should be profiles using different lenses.
This meter is not capable of measuring flash in high sync mode. I'm using the L-758DR; I do not know if the new L-858 can or not. You do not need profiles for different lenses. I never bothered making a flash profile, since I don't do much studio work anymore. If you don't have one, the meter uses the ambient profile you have selected for flash as well and at least with my studio strobes it works fine. You could try it and see if it makes a difference.
I replied to your comment a couple weeks ago, and for some reason its gone. In case you didn't see it, I'll repost it. I don't use flash often so I didn't bother doing the profiling for flash. When I have used the Sekonic with my studio strobes using the ambient profile, it worked perfectly. This meter is not capable of measuring high-speed-sync flash, so it cannot be profiled. You don't need profiles for different lenses. If you find you're getting incorrect exposures another lens, the lens aperture is probably not working right and would need serviced.
Hi there i've been watching your videos and they're very good could you do a video on how to process the files on adobe Lightroom for the sekonic light meter
Great video, i have the same meter and the profile target II also. Congrats !!! I have a question though, i saw the whole video ok, but at the end i noticed that you didn't tweak the dynamic range sliders, and i have done that before and the results are terrible, i tried as the DTS suggested and they were always perfect. I like doing Landscape photography exept the studio of course i do every time, and when we do later blending exposures in photoshop with bracket exposures we did, do we need to start from the highest bright we metered and then taking exposures all the way till we cover the shadows? or just as i do metering for the brightest light placing that in zone 7 or 6 it depends if the sun is at the top of us, or at zone 6 if it is sunset. i then take an inciden meter for the middle exposure and take a shadow reading and placing that on zone 3, or 4? can you please clarify me how to shoot bracketing exposures with the light meter? Thank you Christopher for your great videos, and the website is really great i had really great information.
Also, i have noticed from experience and somewhere mentioned that when we work on a color space like ProPhoto RGB instead of 118 middle grey point for spaces like sRGB or Adobe RGB, would be perfect that we adjust the mid grey point in DTS to 99 for ProPhoto RGB and that will render the white white and no need to tweak the exposure slider in adobe raw or Lightroom, can you please tell me that this is true?
ProPhoto is a gamma1.8 colorspace, while sRGB and Adobe RGB are gamma 2.2 spaces. So, 99 in ProPhoto is the same tone as 118 in a gamma 2.2 space. I believe that if you do your test shots of the profiling target in the same color space you intend to use for actual photographs, the software should still build an accurate profile without changing the numbers in the software, but I am not 100% certain, since I have not tried it. I usually use Adobe RGB for my editing.
@@christophercrawford777 I shoot raw then zero out everything in lightroom or photoshop perform lens correction and wite balance then choose the color profile for camera neutral you dont want adobe perform anything on color profile. Then export with prophoto color profile tif file and do the process as you do in DTS you should put 245 for clipping points and 15 for shadows. More than 245 in print is total white blown out and less than 15 is total black so i have put for both clipping points so i have three dots on sekonic screen and is more easy to read. Then i change the mid point to 99 for prophoto space which is brighter then 118 and spot on for that workspace. Then save your profile to the meter.
The light loss level should be negligible for most shooting scenarios. It would be inconvenient to change profiles during every single lens change for what could be a few tenths of a stop
@@AndrewSkalak but colors... lenses produce different colors 🤷🏼♂️ Voigtlander 50/2 APO-Lanthar for example. completelly different colors . and raw therapee allows dynamic profiles to be set w/o manual assigning
For my incident measurement using ISO 100, F8, the meter says the shutter speed is 1/10 3. How do I input the 1/10 shutter speed when creating my profile?
You have to have the meter set to shutter speed priority to do the test shots. The software only lets you put in full shutter speeds, but apertures can be put in to 1/10 stop.
How do you set the aperture on your camera lens to the 1/10 precision? And how do you do this thing if you shoot on film, which is the main reason to have a light meter to start with? I mean film depends on the way it is developed and if you scan it, the scanning software asks you to pick from many options, so which do you choose?
You can't set a camera to 1/10 stop precision. The reason to have a meter that reads that precisely is for checking for even illumination when doing things like photographing artwork. This is something I do a lot of in my commercial photography work. Artists need photographs of their paintings and drawings for their websites, for submitting their work to galleries and competitions, for publication if they're famous enough to be mentioned in the press, and for making inkjet prints to sell. The light must be PERFECTLY even over the entire painting; even a 1/10 stop difference between one side of a painting and the other can be visible, especially if the painting contains large areas of flat color. If the light isn't perfectly even, you can sometimes fix it in Photoshop, but that's a pain to do; it is much easier to just set up the lighting correctly.
Hello Now I have created the other lenses and camera's profile using the default profile of the L-858D-U light meter. Profile graphics in ambient mode are excellent. But I wanted to create a profile using my 2 studio flashes (Strobes). However, in the flash light source, the profile graphic is not the same as the ambient mode. The top of the graph is disconnected from the others, so the continuity of the curve is not ensured. I have repeated it using multiple ISOs, but the result has not changed. Is this normal? Or what's wrong? Thank You. Naser Shahin Columbia / MD - USA
This is out of stock everywhere unfortunately and I have no idea why Sekonic has stopped making them. Is a shame, I have several cameras I'd love to profile with my Sekonic 858..
Can't you simply do a dynamic range testyourself at a camera's native ISO? Check latitude recovery (under and over), check which stop above middle grey it clips. Would that not be enough really for 99% of scenarios?
If you do that, you will be accurate to only 1/3 stop at best. Using the Sekonic target is a little more accurate. Unfortunately, they seem to have stopped making it, so your method may be the only possible one now. You can manually create a profile and enter in your test results in the Sekonic Data Transfer Software.
I don’t know how you got this to work outdoors, the software accepts whole stops only and while the incident would be whole I keep getting 3rd stop increments for reflected. Looks like I’ll have to do this indoors under lighting.
Are you doing this outdoors in diffused lighting conditions? It is recommended to do this in software manual. www.sekonic.com/sites/sekonic.com/files/datatransfersoftware_guide_en_d75_1020_0.pdf
great vid, just came across it. Was wondering is there a place where sekonic has this information stored. Its just seems rather tedious of an approach this day in age. The app unfortunately also screams early 2000's I so wished they would have updated it by now. But is there a data base where i could just grab say a fuji gfx info or specific nikon, etc... I was looking for some on the sight can't find any.
No, there isn't a database of profiles you can download anywhere that I know of. One advantage of doing it yourself is that if your meter is out of calibration, the profile will correct for that (though if that is the case, it would be best to have the meter serviced).
FYI - Make you use and “data transfer” cable (power cable fits but won’t connect) - also - Windows System doesn’t have the correct driver and complains... but works. I couldn’t get this to work on my MacBook Catalina 10.14
It uses a USB cable; I'm not sure what power cable you're talking about, there isn't one for the Sekonic meter. Make sure you download the latest version of the Data Transfer Software; they recently released an update for Catalina. I haven't tried it, so I don't know how well it works (my mac is an older model), but I know they have a version out that is supposed to work on Catalina. You can check for updates in the software itself. Crap, I was logged in to my other RUclips account when I posted this. ChrisAndSneaky is my account with videos of my rescue cat, Sneaky.
Great video! I own the L 858 and love it but when I try and create a profile with the DTS Software and Color Checker with 3 exposures like instructed and all settings the same, Incident and reflective, one at 3 stops under, one at 3 stops over ,and one regular exposure with the 4 little squares all matched up with the corners of the Color Checker, I get this message! Alert Message The set level does not exist in the image change the level to one that exists in the image in order to calculate I also noticed it does not offer Flash mode when trying to setup profile! I am really stumped and could really use some help! Thanks...
In the DTS software, you have to tell it if you're using the Sekonic profiling target or the Xrite Colorchecker. If you used the Colorchecker and didn't tell the software that you were using it in stead of the Sekonic target, you can get that error. I would suggest getting the Sekonic target, even though its outrageously priced. I tried using a colorchecker when I first got my meter, and the profiles were not very good. The Sekonic Profile Target II works a lot better.
@@chrisandsneaky2453 Thanks for the quick reply! I told it to use the Color Checker Hmmmmm, I think I would need to get that working before investing in a Sekonic target!
I think so, but I don't have a digital CINE camera to try it with. If your cine camera is capable of doing stills, I would do stills of the test target and use them to build the profile; it should be accurate when you shoot video. My Olympus Micro 4/3 cameras are still camera that can shoot video and I use the meter with the profile I made with still images for video and it works.
When I am setting up the sekonic L-858d-u with the new module for flash I think the best way to go is setting up White balance first and then setting up the light meter Next but we’re do I start to get a base line from the start how would you go about this I no I have to take 3 photos Either side three stops under and three stops over can you help me in this Project many thanks Mark
This says “Photograpy” is this as useful (or at all) for video??? Not really shooting stills anymore... all my stuff is “moving” these days Yeah, Sekonic should show a little pride in the niche of pro photogs that really want to commit to a proper profile for their meter... it’s like Nikon charging for the FTZ for the Z6/7 to continue using legacy Nikkor lenses... But I need to profile my Z6 because I am buying multiple Z6s for a project and I need to make sure I baseline exposure for shooting consist video across all scenes...
Not really. It is a pro-level meter and it costs what meters in that class have always cost. I remember paying $800 for a Gossen Ultra-Spot 25 years ago, and $600 for a Minolta Flash Meter VI. Good meters are expensive and they're worth every penny.
@@christophercrawford777 Seriously! I bet you that a pro level photographer can get pro level quality from a $250 light meter. All you need to really know is the aperture, shutter speed and iso. And when using a flash, that $250 light meter will give you the right reading for proper exposure. I’ll save that extra cash for more camera gear thank you!!!
@@glennarcher986 I have been a professional photographer for 25 years. Yes, a $250 meter can give accurate readings. I have several inexpensive meters in my collection; but it is the Sekonic L-758 that I use for virtually all of my work. The problem with cheaper meters is that they're limited in what they can do. Poorer low-light sensitivity, lack of weather sealing (I shoot in rain and snow often) and lack of a spot meter (which I use for my black and white work). Professional gear generally is not capable of taking sharper, more accurately exposed, more technically perfect photos. The advantages of cameras, lenses, tripods, meters, and other gear made for professional work are: • Durability: Able to work day in and day out in harsh weather conditions and accept being dropped and banged about without breaking. • Faster, Easier Operation: Most pro cameras are more ergonomic, with controls easier to use quickly and without having to take the camera from your eye to find something. An example: I have both the amateur Olympus Pen-F and the professional Olympus OM-D E-M1 mark II. Image quality is identical with them; but the E-M1 mk II is MUCH easier to use, is weather sealed, has faster autofocus, writes to the memory card faster, focuses easier in low light, and fits the hand better. Yes, it cost twice as much. Is it worth it? To me as a working pro it is worth it, but if money was a concern, there is no image quality loss with the cheaper camera. Its just not as 'usable.'
Hi I am watching your video again and you made a very good job of the video and you Describe the procedure very well I have been all over the Internet trying to find how to set up these light metres and your video is the most Understandable procedure on how to set it up I am the same as you I suffer with a lot of illnesses with arthritis and pancreatitis and it makes it so hard to be able to get out like I used to be able to it’s quite sad really where we can get out like we did Years ago but again thank you so much for the video Mark
Thank you so much for making that video it's been a great help to me to set the meter up many thanks again I will be watching a lot more of your videos thank you again
Oh cool. I have actually seen your site before. Good material man. Hope you make more videos at some point.
I always learn a lot by watching your videos. Thanks
Hi did you make the other video on Advanced profiles thanks mark
I have the same question.
Your video is helpful, being easy to follow and a good flow. Will keep two question to the point.
When shooting the target in ambient light; what setting is used to vary the stops the target is taken at?
When profiling for strobe; what setting is used to vary the stops the target is taken at?
For ambient light, you can adjust either the aperture or the shutter speed. Doesn't matter which. Just be sure you are shooting in manual mode and that you write down the actual aperture and shutter speed you used so that you can input them in the software when you create the profile.
For flash, you have to change the aperture, since shutter speed doesn't affect flash exposures (unless you use a long shutter time that allows the ambient light to affect the exposure, but you don't want to do that for this).
Great Tutorial
Hi! thank you for this tutorial. can I use simple gray card?
Great video. I mainly use my Sekonic for metering flash. Would you suggest creating a separate profile for both flash and ambient? My flash also has an high speed synch mode. Should there be a separate flash profile for that mode as well? I'm wondering, too, there should be profiles using different lenses.
This meter is not capable of measuring flash in high sync mode. I'm using the L-758DR; I do not know if the new L-858 can or not.
You do not need profiles for different lenses.
I never bothered making a flash profile, since I don't do much studio work anymore. If you don't have one, the meter uses the ambient profile you have selected for flash as well and at least with my studio strobes it works fine. You could try it and see if it makes a difference.
I replied to your comment a couple weeks ago, and for some reason its gone. In case you didn't see it, I'll repost it.
I don't use flash often so I didn't bother doing the profiling for flash. When I have used the Sekonic with my studio strobes using the ambient profile, it worked perfectly. This meter is not capable of measuring high-speed-sync flash, so it cannot be profiled. You don't need profiles for different lenses. If you find you're getting incorrect exposures another lens, the lens aperture is probably not working right and would need serviced.
Is your video on dynamic range usage out yet?
Hi there i've been watching your videos and they're very good could you do a video on how to process the files on adobe Lightroom for the sekonic light meter
Great video, i have the same meter and the profile target II also. Congrats !!!
I have a question though, i saw the whole video ok, but at the end i noticed that you didn't tweak the dynamic range sliders, and i have done that before and the results are terrible, i tried as the DTS suggested and they were always perfect. I like doing Landscape photography exept the studio of course i do every time, and when we do later blending exposures in photoshop with bracket exposures we did, do we need to start from the highest bright we metered and then taking exposures all the way till we cover the shadows? or just as i do metering for the brightest light placing that in zone 7 or 6 it depends if the sun is at the top of us, or at zone 6 if it is sunset. i then take an inciden meter for the middle exposure and take a shadow reading and placing that on zone 3, or 4?
can you please clarify me how to shoot bracketing exposures with the light meter?
Thank you Christopher for your great videos, and the website is really great i had really great information.
Also, i have noticed from experience and somewhere mentioned that when we work on a color space like ProPhoto RGB instead of 118 middle grey point for spaces like sRGB or Adobe RGB, would be perfect that we adjust the mid grey point in DTS to 99 for ProPhoto RGB and that will render the white white and no need to tweak the exposure slider in adobe raw or Lightroom, can you please tell me that this is true?
ProPhoto is a gamma1.8 colorspace, while sRGB and Adobe RGB are gamma 2.2 spaces. So, 99 in ProPhoto is the same tone as 118 in a gamma 2.2 space. I believe that if you do your test shots of the profiling target in the same color space you intend to use for actual photographs, the software should still build an accurate profile without changing the numbers in the software, but I am not 100% certain, since I have not tried it. I usually use Adobe RGB for my editing.
@@christophercrawford777 i have tried it and it is spot on, just give it a try and see for yourself. Have a nice Day
@@bobogate1 Did you try changing the numbers in the DTC software, or did you reshoot the profile target in ProPhoto RGB?
@@christophercrawford777 I shoot raw then zero out everything in lightroom or photoshop perform lens correction and wite balance then choose the color profile for camera neutral you dont want adobe perform anything on color profile. Then export with prophoto color profile tif file and do the process as you do in DTS you should put 245 for clipping points and 15 for shadows. More than 245 in print is total white blown out and less than 15 is total black so i have put for both clipping points so i have three dots on sekonic screen and is more easy to read. Then i change the mid point to 99 for prophoto space which is brighter then 118 and spot on for that workspace. Then save your profile to the meter.
shouldn't you create separate profiles for any camera+lens combination? Because each lens has it's own light transmission level
The light loss level should be negligible for most shooting scenarios. It would be inconvenient to change profiles during every single lens change for what could be a few tenths of a stop
@@AndrewSkalak but colors... lenses produce different colors 🤷🏼♂️ Voigtlander 50/2 APO-Lanthar for example. completelly different colors . and raw therapee allows dynamic profiles to be set w/o manual assigning
For my incident measurement using ISO 100, F8, the meter says the shutter speed is 1/10 3. How do I input the 1/10 shutter speed when creating my profile?
You have to have the meter set to shutter speed priority to do the test shots. The software only lets you put in full shutter speeds, but apertures can be put in to 1/10 stop.
How do you set the aperture on your camera lens to the 1/10 precision? And how do you do this thing if you shoot on film, which is the main reason to have a light meter to start with? I mean film depends on the way it is developed and if you scan it, the scanning software asks you to pick from many options, so which do you choose?
You can't set a camera to 1/10 stop precision. The reason to have a meter that reads that precisely is for checking for even illumination when doing things like photographing artwork. This is something I do a lot of in my commercial photography work. Artists need photographs of their paintings and drawings for their websites, for submitting their work to galleries and competitions, for publication if they're famous enough to be mentioned in the press, and for making inkjet prints to sell. The light must be PERFECTLY even over the entire painting; even a 1/10 stop difference between one side of a painting and the other can be visible, especially if the painting contains large areas of flat color. If the light isn't perfectly even, you can sometimes fix it in Photoshop, but that's a pain to do; it is much easier to just set up the lighting correctly.
@@christophercrawford777 Thanks.
Hello
Now I have created the other lenses and camera's profile using the default profile of the L-858D-U light meter. Profile graphics in ambient mode are excellent. But I wanted to create a profile using my 2 studio flashes (Strobes). However, in the flash light source, the profile graphic is not the same as the ambient mode. The top of the graph is disconnected from the others, so the continuity of the curve is not ensured. I have repeated it using multiple ISOs, but the result has not changed.
Is this normal? Or what's wrong?
Thank You.
Naser Shahin
Columbia / MD - USA
This is out of stock everywhere unfortunately and I have no idea why Sekonic has stopped making them. Is a shame, I have several cameras I'd love to profile with my Sekonic 858..
Can't you simply do a dynamic range testyourself at a camera's native ISO? Check latitude recovery (under and over), check which stop above middle grey it clips. Would that not be enough really for 99% of scenarios?
If you do that, you will be accurate to only 1/3 stop at best. Using the Sekonic target is a little more accurate. Unfortunately, they seem to have stopped making it, so your method may be the only possible one now. You can manually create a profile and enter in your test results in the Sekonic Data Transfer Software.
@@chrisandsneaky2453 Cool, thx. I'm actually manual reading for my cam straight into the sekonic 858 right now ;)
I don’t know how you got this to work outdoors, the software accepts whole stops only and while the incident would be whole I keep getting 3rd stop increments for reflected. Looks like I’ll have to do this indoors under lighting.
I'm having the same problem with reflected light. Were you able to find a solution?
Fernando Lara yes but not sure if what I did is wrong, I get closer to the target, real close. I reached out to sekonic and never got a reply.
Are you doing this outdoors in diffused lighting conditions? It is recommended to do this in software manual. www.sekonic.com/sites/sekonic.com/files/datatransfersoftware_guide_en_d75_1020_0.pdf
great vid, just came across it. Was wondering is there a place where sekonic has this information stored. Its just seems rather tedious of an approach this day in age. The app unfortunately also screams early 2000's I so wished they would have updated it by now. But is there a data base where i could just grab say a fuji gfx info or specific nikon, etc... I was looking for some on the sight can't find any.
No, there isn't a database of profiles you can download anywhere that I know of. One advantage of doing it yourself is that if your meter is out of calibration, the profile will correct for that (though if that is the case, it would be best to have the meter serviced).
Every camera is different, you want to do this regardless if someone has the same camera.
FYI - Make you use and “data transfer” cable (power cable fits but won’t connect) - also - Windows System doesn’t have the correct driver and complains... but works. I couldn’t get this to work on my MacBook Catalina 10.14
It uses a USB cable; I'm not sure what power cable you're talking about, there isn't one for the Sekonic meter. Make sure you download the latest version of the Data Transfer Software; they recently released an update for Catalina. I haven't tried it, so I don't know how well it works (my mac is an older model), but I know they have a version out that is supposed to work on Catalina. You can check for updates in the software itself.
Crap, I was logged in to my other RUclips account when I posted this. ChrisAndSneaky is my account with videos of my rescue cat, Sneaky.
Great video! I own the L 858 and love it but when I try and create a profile with the DTS Software and Color Checker with 3 exposures like instructed and all settings the same, Incident and reflective, one at 3 stops under, one at 3 stops over ,and one regular exposure with the 4 little squares all matched up with the corners of the Color Checker, I get this message! Alert Message The set level does not exist in the image change the level to one that exists in the image in order to calculate I also noticed it does not offer Flash mode when trying to setup profile! I am really stumped and could really use some help! Thanks...
In the DTS software, you have to tell it if you're using the Sekonic profiling target or the Xrite Colorchecker. If you used the Colorchecker and didn't tell the software that you were using it in stead of the Sekonic target, you can get that error. I would suggest getting the Sekonic target, even though its outrageously priced. I tried using a colorchecker when I first got my meter, and the profiles were not very good. The Sekonic Profile Target II works a lot better.
@@chrisandsneaky2453 Thanks for the quick reply! I told it to use the Color Checker Hmmmmm, I think I would need to get that working before investing in a Sekonic target!
@@chrisandsneaky2453 Thanks Chris! I got it to work with the advanced mode with ambient mode, but the flash mode says the same thing!
I cannot find the -Sekonic Exposure Profile Target 2- anywhere online. Any ideas?
Did you ever find a place to acquire one? I would very much like to do this process.
Can you do one for cine cameras
I think so, but I don't have a digital CINE camera to try it with. If your cine camera is capable of doing stills, I would do stills of the test target and use them to build the profile; it should be accurate when you shoot video. My Olympus Micro 4/3 cameras are still camera that can shoot video and I use the meter with the profile I made with still images for video and it works.
I’m sorry I’m just now saying thank you thank you much
When I am setting up the sekonic L-858d-u with the new module for flash I think the best way to go is setting up White balance first and then setting up the light meter Next but we’re do I start to get a base line from the start how would you go about this I no I have to take 3 photos Either side three stops under and three stops over can you help me in this Project many thanks Mark
This says “Photograpy” is this as useful (or at all) for video??? Not really shooting stills anymore... all my stuff is “moving” these days
Yeah, Sekonic should show a little pride in the niche of pro photogs that really want to commit to a proper profile for their meter... it’s like Nikon charging for the FTZ for the Z6/7 to continue using legacy Nikkor lenses...
But I need to profile my Z6 because I am buying multiple Z6s for a project and I need to make sure I baseline exposure for shooting consist video across all scenes...
Nice light meter but it’s so overpriced!!
Not really. It is a pro-level meter and it costs what meters in that class have always cost. I remember paying $800 for a Gossen Ultra-Spot 25 years ago, and $600 for a Minolta Flash Meter VI. Good meters are expensive and they're worth every penny.
@@christophercrawford777 Seriously! I bet you that a pro level photographer can get pro level quality from a $250 light meter. All you need to really know is the aperture, shutter speed and iso. And when using a flash, that $250 light meter will give you the right reading for proper exposure. I’ll save that extra cash for more camera gear thank you!!!
@@glennarcher986 I have been a professional photographer for 25 years. Yes, a $250 meter can give accurate readings. I have several inexpensive meters in my collection; but it is the Sekonic L-758 that I use for virtually all of my work. The problem with cheaper meters is that they're limited in what they can do. Poorer low-light sensitivity, lack of weather sealing (I shoot in rain and snow often) and lack of a spot meter (which I use for my black and white work).
Professional gear generally is not capable of taking sharper, more accurately exposed, more technically perfect photos. The advantages of cameras, lenses, tripods, meters, and other gear made for professional work are:
• Durability: Able to work day in and day out in harsh weather conditions and accept being dropped and banged about without breaking.
• Faster, Easier Operation: Most pro cameras are more ergonomic, with controls easier to use quickly and without having to take the camera from your eye to find something. An example: I have both the amateur Olympus Pen-F and the professional Olympus OM-D E-M1 mark II. Image quality is identical with them; but the E-M1 mk II is MUCH easier to use, is weather sealed, has faster autofocus, writes to the memory card faster, focuses easier in low light, and fits the hand better. Yes, it cost twice as much. Is it worth it? To me as a working pro it is worth it, but if money was a concern, there is no image quality loss with the cheaper camera. Its just not as 'usable.'