Using iphone apps for lightmeter

[Fredrick]

I find that the iPhone app is somewhat accurate. It agrees with my D800, but it's not as good for spot metering. If I use it, I use it with colour slides and I meter the shadows, stop down 2 stops and put a GND over the highlights...

[Ed Bray]

I have a few different lightmeter aps on my Samsung Galaxy Note. I could not work out what the problem was with them until I realised that they take the light reading from the ambient sensor on the front of the Note. They are great if you have a static measure function, but if you have a constant measure it changes the readings when you invert the phone to see the reading.

[nonuniform]

I use Pocket Lightmeter exclusively. Have not been disappointed. I also mostly guess at exposure, I've been doing this so long that I'm not often wrong.

[Peter York]

I have an app called Pocket Light Meter by Nuwaste studios on my iPhone 4. It's fairly accurate but relegated to backup status behind my spot meter. Some friends said the app was not accurate in their older iPhones. Others with iPhones newer than mine are happy with the app.

Does anyone know how these apps are generally coded, or for that matter what the consistency is in the hardware across and between iphone models?

[Michael Cienfuegos]

I see it as a spare in the event I break or splash my Sekonic 508. A poor backup, but a backup never the less. The problem for me at age 73 is, will I remember that I have it on the phone if I ever need it?

John

I'm nearly seventy, I do suffer from CRS, but I am pretty sure I have it on my iPhone.

[rich815]

They work well enough in a pinch or measuring overall lighting of a scene, and I do use them from time to time, but they certainly do not replace critical work with a spot meter. Good thing is they are cheap, some even free if you are ok with the ads.

My favs are Light Meter (icon is a bluish lens) or FotmeterPro. Stay away from myLightMeter. It has a cool retro look but resets the ASA to 100 every time which is a pain.

[Drew Bedo]

whie great photography can be done without a dedicated lightmeter using "sunny Sixteen" or deep experience, a lightmeter is as fundimental to LF photography as film.

I understand that money is an issue, but dropping a dedicated lightmeter from your kit is not where to cut expenses. I use a Minolta Autometer IV incident meter and have a 9 degree "spot" att5achment for it. This is now a pretty old piece of equipment. While I bought it new, for more money than I wanted to pay, it has payed me back over and over.


The smart phones all do a lot of things, and I love mine. Thay can do some amazing things and many less than amazing. Measuring light is not one of the things thay do really well. Maybe someday they will, but not just now.

You can buy film: Stop shooting film for a while and buy a meter . . .new or used.

[Larry Gebhardt]

I find the Pocket Light Meter app on the iPhone 4 to be very accurate. It's sort of a like a spot meter with a preview option. It takes some practice to correlate its readings to my normal way of spot metering. I find I use it a lot with my Hasselblad and some folding cameras without meters. I find it perfect for quicker use, and it's always with me. I prefer the Pentax spot meter if I have the time and space to carry it.

[Scott Walker]

I use pocket light meter. I have used it with my old phone iPhone 4s and was happy with the results, I recently changed to iPhone 5 and the results are good as well.
I use the iPhone as my meter exclusively when using my RB67
I use a spot meter with large format because I can be more acurate in placing certain values and determining if standard or +/- development is in order etc.

[BetterSense]

I tried a couple free ones from the app store and they seemed perfectly accurate. Certainly as accurate as the guesstimation techniques I usually use. I thought the iPhone would be convenient enough that I would actually start using meters, but even when I have my phone, I usually forget to use it; then when I do, it either matches my guesstimate, or if it doesn't, I opt to use my guesstimated exposure anyway. Oh well.

Then again I don't shoot slide film or anything.