Phone App Light Meters

[BobBill]

What and Why? Just curious.

I have one on my I-phone (Pocket Light Meter) and seems easy to use and accurate. Free but floats dumb adverts atop. Always same as meter on my 4/3 digital machine (FWIW)

 

[Steve Bellayr]

I have been using it for years. It replaced my handheld. It is as accurate as my M6.

 

[BobBill]

Thanks. Handy it is to me too.

 

[FrankS]

I paid $2 for the ad free version.

 

[B-9]

I always liked Pocket Light meter for ios, use android now, the apps suck.

Went back to my old Sekonic, full circle lol.

 

[jamin-b]

Ditto on what B-9 said, and I too am back to a "dedicated" light meter. For me the ONLY drawback from switching from iphone to Android has been the loss of the pocket light meter app. Nothing works as well on any Android app i've found...:bang:

 

[Prest_400]

I recently switched over to iOS with an iPhone 6 and got pocket light meter.
Useful to take readings while walking around but I have not yet used it on the field eith my Fuji 6x9.

The phone is a nice P&S and I think it will compliment the MF RF nicely.
Got a minolta IIIF but it is rather bulky but incident. There is an incident dome (luxi for all) which could work nicely with the iphone BUT it costs as much as a 5x120 propack

 

[Sparrow]

I paid $2 for the ad free version.

... I have that one too ... I've played with it a bit alongside my studio-deluxe they didn't agree completely but it would do in pinch I think, although I've not needed it yet

 

[sevo]

I always liked Pocket Light meter for ios, use android now, the apps suck.

It seems to depend on the camera module. The (already mentioned) Lightmeter app is accurate to within less than 1/3 stop (compared to my stand-alone reflected light and spot meters) across the full range from dark indoors to bright sunlight on my Samsung S5, but it fails on my wifes phone - apparently it has some sort of internal exposure handling/automation outside the control of the software.

Provided you have a suitable phone, it is ok as a backup or even as a replacement for any small reflected only meter, but it cannot replace a flash meter or large dome incident meter...

 

[BobBill]

Okay, makes sense...what stand alone would be decent choice...?

 

[Larry Cloetta]

It seems to depend on the camera module. The...... Lightmeter app is accurate to within less than 1/3 stop (compared to my stand-alone reflected light and spot meters......... but it fails on my wifes phone - apparently it has some sort of internal exposure handling/automation outside the control of the software.

Provided you have a suitable phone, it is ok as a backup or even as a replacement for any small reflected only meter, but it cannot replace a flash meter or large dome incident meter...

Some of the lightmeter apps can be easily calibrated for the specific hardware they are used on, to get around any potential problem with hardware differences. And, they are calibrated separately for both reflected AND incident metering (provided you use readily available diffusers) to allow incident metering which is very accurate. There is at least as much computing power in a phone as in a standalone meter, so no reason at all to think that a meter one buys in a camera store will be more capable-at least none of mine have been. Though their battery life is better.
MyLightMeter Pro and Lightmeter Wheel (which is accurate from -2EV, yes that is minus 2, to 21 EV) can both be calibrated to work with your specific device.
MyLightMeter Pro also can be used as a true spot meter to and average readings to determine scene dynamic range.
I'm sure there are others, these are the two favorites of the five or so I have used.
No flash metering, though, afaik.

 

[sevo]

Some of the lightmeter apps can be easily calibrated for the specific hardware they are used on, to get around any potential problem with hardware differences.

True for iPhones (where there are only six major different hardware platforms, and at least the last three with a fully capable camera). As far as Android is concerned, developers have to deal with thousands of different hardware platforms, where not all have a computer-controlled camera (or even any camera at all), so there often will be nothing that could possibly be calibrated.

Unless you have one of the premium phones from one of the major brands, YMMV as to whether the camera has the required capabilities and the software is in full control of them - the same software that does an excellent job on my Samsung S5 does nothing useful on the older mid price Samsung of my wife (nor would it be any good on my tablets - one has no camera, the other only a front-facing auto-gain webcam)...

 

[Larry Cloetta]

As far as Android is concerned, ............

They still make those? Uh-oh, My bad.

 

[Marcob]

I'm using LxMeter app for Android. It's a free app that can work with the light sensor of your phone, but if you plug in a proper external sensor, it can replace a professional stand alone light meter (and it can also take flash measurements)

 

[Gregoris]

I downloaded some of those mentioned here, for iPhone4S. Today I used Photometer

and I find that they always give me overexposed negatives (2 to 3 stops, sometimes). I have tried them with a Zorki 6, Rollei 35, Yashica 12 (TLR) and a beat-up Horizont KMZ and I always end up with overexposed negatives. Now, all of the above are really old cameras and not very reliable with their speed mechanisms, but I would have thought that at least with the Rollei 35 I would get better accuracy. I wonder if anyone else had similar experiences?