Apples

Apples

by Garik

submit your photo


Picture of the Week Themes
Suggest and vote on themes

Please participate in Meta
and help us grow.

Tell me more ×
Photography Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for professional, enthusiast and amateur photographers. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 12 down vote favorite
3

There are a number of smart phone apps which use the phone's camera as a light meter. How well do these work?

The metering built into most modern cameras is very powerful and accurate, but in some cases it's nice to have a detached device. A smartphone is something I already have with me, and the app are only a few bucks, compared to $40 for a very cheap analog meter — or hundreds for a nice one.

Do these apps really work, or are they gimmicks? Can they get the same information from a scene that a real device can? Can they be used as incident-light meters without additional physical attachments like a diffuser dome? Are they accurate? How accurate, compared to the various stand-alone devices? Do the phone apps have any advantages?

share|improve this question
So I also want to add. If you want to use this as an incident meter then just buy a grey card and get the reflective reading from the grey card. Works like a charm :) – user11336 Aug 27 '12 at 13:37

3 Answers

up vote 5 down vote accepted

I've used Pocket Light Meter for the iPhone (like dpollitt :) when using my grandfather's old Leica IIIc, a 35mm rangefinder with no light meter or automatic metering. I played around with it quite a lot, comparing its results against those of my Canon 5DmkII's metering, and found it to be very accurate. The results from the Leica bore this out too: generally (where I hadn't messed something up :) they were well exposed. So that app at least is certainly useful and by no means a gimmick.

The same won't apply to all smartphone meters though. Without straying too far into Stackoverflow's territory, a smartphone light meter's effectiveness will depend on two things:

  1. The quality of the phone's camera and formware (i.e. does it expose well itself)
  2. The means by which the software developers can access the exposure information

On Android phones, for example, the usual method is to get the camera to take a photo then read that photo's EXIF data to determine the exposure settings. However, not all manufacturers include EXIF data in their photos (and it's easy to imagine others - especially cheap, low-end phones - might include inaccurate EXIF data), so reliability will vary between models.

share|improve this answer
1  
I agree that the original question is hard to answer when considering ALL phones and all applications. That is kind of a problem. – dpollitt Aug 25 '11 at 17:35
1  
That wasn't a criticism of the question, by the way. It's a great question, but there's rarely a one-shape-fits-all answer for smartphones. – Mark Whitaker Aug 25 '11 at 17:45
up vote 3 down vote

I use Pocket Light Meter by Nuwaste Studios. It is free in the Apple iOS App Store.

It lets me lock in my ISO, and Aperture, then it will calculate the shutter speed. I have used it against my Rangefinder and it seems to at least match up with the built in light meter from 40 years ago! I don't know how it compares to current gen DSLR light meters though.

Screenshot of the app in action:

enter image description here

share|improve this answer
I was going to recommend that, the author talks about it here: flickr.com/groups/ishootfilm/discuss/72157624609700318/page2 – vlad259 Aug 25 '11 at 15:55
Please do not accept this answer :) I was providing what little information and experience I have. But I would like to hear from others! – dpollitt Aug 25 '11 at 15:56
1  
Also, I'm surprised I have a whole 3 bars of service! AT&T is terrible! – dpollitt Aug 25 '11 at 15:57
2  
Obviously, it's not like using a Sekonic, but some straightforward experiments show this app works. If I left my meter behind and felt it was important to do reflective metering, I'd be comfortable with the results of this app as a starting point. But what I really use a meter for most is incident metering and that's not what this app is for. I'm impressed by what it is. – Steve Ross Aug 27 '11 at 1:36
up vote 0 down vote

Cine Meter App by Adam Wilt works great. Search for it.

And I believe his name is enough to believe that it really works.

This is by far the best investment of 4.99.

share|improve this answer
2  
For those of us who have no idea who Adam Wilt is, care to enlighten us? Can you expand on your answer just a bit: features? accuracy? what does it do differently/better than other apps? – MikeW Mar 4 at 0:40

We're looking for long answers that provide some explanation and context. Don't just give a one-line answer: please explain why you're recommending it as a solution. Answers that don't explain anything will be deleted. See Good Subjective, Bad Subjective for more information.

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.