Roughdraft Loc: Maryland

Anyone on UHH have an opinion on the iphone light meter apps? Are they useful or merely a novelty app? I have found a couple for free.

Julian Loc: Sarasota, FL

As a 'gag' gift, my wife gave me a Luxi light meter attachment for my iPhone; it is a simple device consisting of a white plastic dome that covers face-time camera. It turns out it wasn't a gag gift at all; after downloading the free app, I checked it against my Sekonic 458 and it was dead on. I would not recommend it for pro use but it seems to be a great gadget to keep in the glove box for emergency light readings. Simple, no batteries, no electronics.

Capture48 Loc: Arizona

Light meter apps will work about as good as your camera meter, often fooled. Also there is no spot metering in the app, and you can't do light percentages.

I did get one of the iPhone light apps, but I use it to check myself when I am not carrying my camera. I can usually walk into any room and tell you the camera settings you need. For instance we went to dinner the other night the restaurant was not lit too bad, I said to myself "self, this is 1/60 at f4 and ISO 800" Pull out my little app and see if I am close. Normally I am within 1/2 stop. Thats kind of what I think they are good for. Do this self testing enough and you will soon be able to walk into any room and amaze other photogs, let them know the settings before anyone takes a reading.

Jcmarino

I have used the Luxi. The only thing is that the attachment does not fit my phone with the case on so I have to take it out of the case for that to work. So I dont use the attachment and found just using the camera on my phone gets me well into the ball park. I was in a pinch once and set my camera to custom WB, grabbed a white styrofoam cup and shot through it. Darn if it was not near perfect and very inexpensive too. I was greatly surprised. Not sure it would work in all settings but......worth a try if you get stuck.

dcampbell52 Loc: Clearwater Fl

:thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

I've used a couple. "In a pinch" they work pretty well. I compared the readings with my Sekonic and they were close enough to work.
--Bob