I have recently received the HS1010A light meter and as I already have a CT1330B light meter I thought I’d compare them.
I bought the CT1330B almost exactly two years ago from Manafont (27.55:money_mouth_face:: http://www.manafont.com/product_info.php/premium-digital-light-meter-200000-lux-p-2419
I bought the HS1010A from GameSalor (11.50:money_mouth_face:: http://www.gamesalor.com/GoodsInfo.aspx?id=4339 (a quick word about GameSalor - they appear to send even the smallest order by registered China mail, they never update order status other than ‘paid’, they ship fast and respond fast to emails, their eBay front [jinbostore] has almost 200000 feedbacks with 98.3% score, their previous eBay front [gamesalor] has about 175000 feedbacks but no score [closed about a year ago])
I think both are manufactured by the same company (which probably manufactures all the other cheap Chinese luxmeters):
CT1330B - http://www.tes-meter.cn/pddetailthree/product/detail-8088333.html
HS1010A - http://www.tes-meter.cn/pddetailthree/product/detail-14846143.html
Specs:
CT1330B
- Measuring range: 0 - 200,000 lux (manual ranges: 200-2000-20000-200000)
- Sampling rate: 2.0 times per second
- Resolution: 0.1 lux
- Accuracy: +/-3, rdg +/-0.5
- Powered by 9V battery (not included)
- Hold function
- Has a tripod mounting hole
- Has an integrated stand leg
- Shielded
- Has a case
- English manual (which I lost :S )
HS1010A
- Measuring range: 1 - 200,000 lux (auto ranging: 2000-20000-200000)
- Sampling rate: 2.0 times per second
- Resolution: 1 lux
- Accuracy: ± 4 % rdg ± 10 dgts ( < 10,000 lux ) , ± 5 % rdg ± 10 dgts ( > 10,000 lux ) at 2856K, repeatability: ± 2%
- Powered by 2xAAA batteries (included)
- Hold, min, max functions
- 50 consecutive data points record (can set delay before start, time between records)
- Has a tripod mounting hole
- English manual
Build
The CT1330B arrives in a nice and quite sturdy case, while the HS1010A arrives in a blister pack and no case. Both arrive with quite good English manuals.
The HS1010A is much smaller and easier to hold, but it’s harder to use if you want to put it on a table due to having an irregular shape and not having a stand.
The CT1330B is more robust than the HS1010A, with thicker case and screws mounting holes, better tripod mount and seems to be made from better plastic. It is also electromagnetically shielded (the HS1010A is not), although I don’t know if this makes any difference with this type of instrument. All screws in both devices are self tapping in plastic mounts.
Both have no backlight and have rather short cables between the sensor and the main body. I couldn’t tell if they have the same or different sensors.
Both don’t have auto power off.
The HS1010A has an undocumented port under the battery case which I have no idea of its use but perhaps can be used to connect to a computer? Or for test/calibration?
The CT1330B doesn’t have any such port.
Features
The HS1010A is auto-ranging with reasonably fast range switching. Can also set ranges manually. The CT1330B is manual ranging only.
The auto-ranging is actually not as comfortable as it sounds, it switches ranges when examining the spot and the corona, giving the false impression that the corona is brighter than it really is (it’s easy to miss the 10X or 100X symbols). But maybe I just have to get used to it.
The HS1010A has hold, min and max functions while the CT1330B only has hold (not very useful).
The HS1010A also has data recording which functions as follows: It has a pre-recording delay, then it records up to 50 consecutive data points at set intervals. The delay, number of data points and time between data points are all settable from the device menu. Later, you can read the latest data record point by point using the arrows (slow and tedious) and get the min and max values.
The CT1330B is supposedly more accurate than the HS1010A, but only marginally so.
The HS1010A is calibrated at a certain light temperature, I don’t recall that the CT1330B claimed as such.
The CT1330B has two variable resistors, probably for calibration.
The HS1010A doesn’t have such resistors, probably cannot be calibrated (but maybe through that port?).
Differences in measurements
For no PWM both devices read about the same lux, ±10, which is reasonable. Even another CT1330B I tested (my girlfriend’s brother’s) was about 5–10% different than mine. Tested with several flashlights in direct drive and with DQG III in low and high modes. Also no difference for incandescent and fluorescent lamps.
However, when PWM comes into play the two lux meters sometimes give very different readings, with the HS1010A sometimes giving even twice the reading of the CT1330B. This happened only a few times, so I don’t know how to explain that other than different sampling rates. This happened only with the Manafont Ultrafire 3-mode XM-L P60 drop-in in low mode, which has 128Hz PWM. Didn’t happen with medium mode (also 128Hz IIRC) or with the low and med modes of my iTP A3 R5. But mostly they gave the same reading for all light sources.
Conclusion
All in all, despite being less robust, harder to use in some situations due to its shape and having no stand, I think the HS1010A with its min/max functions and data recording is a steal at only 11.50$.
There is a version of the HS1010A with a fixed sensor, combined with the main body, called HS1010.
There is also a similar, better device here: http://asungadget.com/shop/200000-lux-light-meter-new/ , the HS1332A, with better ranges (adds 200) and better accuracy, but at 28$ inc. shipping I don’t know if it’s worth it.
Pictures:
CT1330B
HS1010A
