To permit a portable light meter to operate without zero adjustment and without excessive battery drain, a chopper-stabilized amplifier amplifies the DC signal from the light sensor of the light meter. The chopper in the chopper-stabilized amplifier is an FET circuit having a high impedance compensating circuit to avoid battery drain while compensating for interelectrode capacitance. The power supply obtains the ground level potential from the output of an operational amplifier with negative and positive potentials being generated from that reference potential so as to not require a center tap on the battery pack.