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Sixtus red © Thomas Meyer
Foto from Ebay |
Gossen Sixtus exposure meter.
After the Photolux, Ombrux, Blendux and Cimbrux, the Sixtus is the next well known exposure meter from Gossen.
and was first manufactured in 1939. It has a exposure time measurement range from 1/1000 sec to 4 min
and a aperture range from f/ 1.4 ~ 45.
The housing forms a kind of handle to hold the meter however there are
types that lack this handle and have a leather case instead. The improvement of the Sixtus is the
calculator scale on the front of the meter. With this calculator scale,
there is no longer a need for the metal plates with tables to convert
the exposure time to other settings than the meter was setup for.
The Sixtus is, by Gossen, also called the "Super Ombrux" and the Cimbrux
the 'bigger and older brother' of the Sixtus C
There are three
different versions manufactured of the Sixtus exposure meter. The
versions are assigned with a character:
N for regular Photo equipment
version,
L for Leica version, there is a version where the L is replaced by the
complete word 'Leica'.
C for movie (cine) purposes.
I have seen one version where the L is replaced by the complete word
'Leica'.
There is no external identification of the different types except for
the Leica version this one carries a little L on front of the meter. The
difference between de N version and the C version can be recognized from
the scale and the housing / leather case of the meter which carries a C
on it. The Leica version has different time / aperture values i.e. f/
1.5 ~ 50 and 1/1000 sec ~ 2 min.
The housing of the Sixtus slides over the meter itself. When you shift
the meter out of the housing and you flip the meter when it is
completely out of the housing, the housing forms a handle to hold the
meter a bit like a handgun. Gossen calls this meter than an exposure
gun!
Besides the variations in types, there are other variations like
different scales, different housing, different glass in front of the
sensor and a slight difference in size, difference in the front scale
and also in color. I received a picture where the
housing is the same as used for the Ombrux 2 but with the Sixtus scale.
This variation in the housing can also be seen on the commercial pictures
down on this page. (Thanks to Anssi Puisto who send me the info). There
is also a difference in the hard shell cover, some have 'Original
Gossen' imprinted and some are blank (no imprint). And finally there is
the colored version thanks to Thomas Meyer for the nice picture of the
Red Sixtus.
The front glass of what I called the 'old' Sixtus versions (ser. nr from
1 to 99.999) have a circular shaped glass in front of the sensor while
the 'new' version has a honeycomb glass. I have seen Sixtus versions
with a glossy metal color front scale and versions with a matt slightly
colored front plate.
Some meters have a film speed scale with Scheiner on the left and DIN on
the right while others have DIN on the left and Scheiner on the right.
This counts for the regular version as well as for the Leica version.
There is no relationship of the differences between the 'old' and the
'new' versions, I have seen these differences by both versions this also
count for the Normal versions and the Leica versions as well.
Some meters have 3 little screws in the bottom part of the meter to hold
the interior while other versions have 2 screws and little metal pin to
prevent the meter from being opened.
Even the manuals have some differences mainly we see here "How the
Sixtus is operated" but recently a came up to a manuals with the
description "How the Sixtus is manupulated" |
