Hi there !
I'm the inventor and seller of both the App and the Fototransistor-Plug and just came across this thread.
First of all, thanks to everybody who has bought the Plug ! During the last months I sold several of them to all over the world, and only got very positive feedback, so you won't regret this purchase 🙂
I'm looking forward to your experiences with it.
As said previously in this thread, the App alone works very well for slower speeds up to 1/60 - 1/125. Faster speeds are possible, but it depends a lot on the camera used, some work better and some won't. In general, leaf shutters will work better than focal plane shutters, because of the curtains etc.
With the Fototransistor-Plug, both types of shutter can be measured very accurately even at faster speeds. The phototransistor inside the plug has a very narrow detection-angle, which means that it will measure just a small spot on the back of your camera, and not the entire film-frame. Therefore, it gives quite exact readings even with focal plane shutters at fast times, where the exposure time is regulated by the distance of the two curtains.
Of course, when it comes to speeds faster than 1/1000s, this system will come to it's limits, too. You would need two sensors then, in order to determine the exact speed of both curtains. But as you can imagine, such a device costs a lot more then €9,99.
My goal was not to make a High-End scientific instrument, but to give photographers the chance to check the shutter speeds of their cameras on an easy way, with a small and cheap device that fits in everybody's pocket.