A Hipster meter for your Iphone

E. von Hoegh

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Mainecoonmaniac said:
Will this revive film?


http://techcrunch.com/2013/06/17/lumu-kickstarter/
Click to expand...

Sure. Why not. Another ap for a multiuse gadget that does nothing well. The hipsters won't know the difference though given their propensity for using film that's been stored in the attic since the previous millennium, or microwaving it, or processing it in boiling Drano, or whatever it is they do...

It won't replace my Westons and Gossens though...
 

benjiboy

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I doubt it but it will help its'a a great idea to be able to take incidental readings with an iPhone, but it occurs to me it could be even better if the white receptor was completely spherical so it could measure the back light as well as front and sidelight at the same time.
 

E. von Hoegh

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That's likely the only sort you'll ever get.
 

Barry S

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Please keep this under your hat, but I'm working on an app that will allow you to use your iphone as a CAMERA. Crazy, I know, but you won't even need a light meter. The attachment will be very simple with a waterproof bellows and gigantic brass Petzval portrait lens.

Seriously, I have an iphone and although I like it, I have yet to find an analog photography app that's really useful. Light meters are inexpensive and plentiful and several orders of magnitude easier to use than fumbling with an iphone.
 

Chan Tran

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I don't have an iphone. I had the iphone 4s for 1 day and I returned it. luckily they let me return it. I couldn't use it as a phone well enough. I couldn't dial the number without making several mistakes.
 

E. von Hoegh

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How about an ap that senses when the user is within say 30 yards of another human and disables the phone?
 

ToddB

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I'll stick with my Sekonic 308.

Todd
 

heterolysis

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I know plenty of people that use light meter apps for shooting medium format. In general use, I've never had any discrepancies between my handheld meter and the light meter app.

Funny thing is, despite the idea that apps make everything easier, my handheld meter is much simpler and quicker to use.

The Sekonic Twinmate L-208 does incident and reflected, is about the same size and price as Lumu, and you can place it on a hotshoe. I find them incredibly easy to use. Now, if Lumu could do flash metering........
 

TheFlyingCamera

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While it won't replace my Sekonic 408 or Minolta Spotmeter F, I am very happy with the free lightmeter app I installed on my iPhone - it's actually pretty similar to the 408 in that it measures a roughly 10 degree spot. It is quite accurate within that limitation. And while I may not always have a full charge on the battery in my iPhone, I virtually always have the phone with me, so I've got a backup if I forget my meter (which has happened more often than I'd care to admit). So if this Lumu could be more accurate, I'd be interested. Quit hating on technology for the sake of being contrary.
 

ntenny

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Like an awful lot of people, I essentially always have my phone on me. Well, now that means I've always got a light meter on me. Cool.

I'm not sure that I really see the need for the Lumu proposal---if I have to remember the plug-in sensor, I might as well have to remember a regular light meter---but it certainly doesn't hurt me any. I don't see what y'all are so upset about. You'd rather people *not* have another option for metering? Or is it just about scoring points by showing off your anti-technological principles?

-NT
 

jp498

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If it's getting funded it must be enough demand for what they are doing?

I like my L208 meter too. It's small light and simple. If I forget it I can guess close enough, but prefer to have a working meter.

Using a smartphone though isn't just to be nerdy and cool. It's possible to do new things, like log your meter readings time and settings, perhaps take a digital snap to correlate your meter readings with the place, or geotag your readings.
 

Klainmeister

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Barry S said:
Seriously, I have an iphone and although I like it, I have yet to find an analog photography app that's really useful. Light meters are inexpensive and plentiful and several orders of magnitude easier to use than fumbling with an iphone.
Click to expand...

Look up Sun Surveyor Pro, I find it essential to landscape work. It's crazy useful.
 

JBrunner

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I use my Pentax. It doesn't report my exposure info to the NSA.
 

Barry S

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JBrunner said:
I use my Pentax. It doesn't report my exposure info to the NSA.
Click to expand...



I'm not against technology, but I value usability--and that's where a lot of apps fail for photography. My most useful app for photography? Mapping and GPS--use it everyday. Internet searching in the field?--Invaluable. The light meter app I have is a pain to use compared to real light meter.
 

cliveh

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I don't have an iphone, never intend to get one and don't need a hipster.
 

Sirius Glass

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What is this iPhone of which you speak?
 

Ken Nadvornick

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cliveh said:
I don't have an iphone, never intend to get one and don't need a hipster.
Click to expand...

Yes, yes, and yes.

My problem is not that I haven't yet seen enough technology to realize that it's useful. It's that I've seen way too much technology that has convinced me it isn't useful.

Ken
 

MattKing

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EASmithV

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I have a light meter app, and it's always spot on and agreed with my Sekonic in good light.
It's good in case you ever lose battery power mid-roll.
 

Ken Nadvornick

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MattKing said:
This is something that makes me wonder about having an iphone: http://www.modernenlargerlamps.com/Model_3.html
Click to expand...

I was seriously considering trying his VC LED head, but asked him (offline) about the possibility of a non-smartphone interface. He was pretty adamant that if you wanted one of his heads, you were going to use his Bluetooth smartphone interface. He seemed a bit enamored over the novelty of writing software, I think.

I lost that novelty decades ago, but he appeared more interested in the software angle than the light source angle. All my attempts (and everyone else's in that thread he started) to convince him to offer a non-smartphone interface went nowhere. So I never pursued it any further and so no sale was made.

Another case of the high tech tail wagging the dog...

Ken
 
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