IPhone light meter apps, are they good enough?

[Chan Tran]

No. You have to test app readings with camera meter reading under different light scenarios.

I don't care what they read. I just want to know if 2 phones (say 2 Iphone 14 pro) loaded with the same ligh meter app do they give you the same reading. I don't care about comparing them to the camera or a real light meter. Or how accurate they are.

 

[Nikon 2]

What exactly "better phone" means?
I had free light metering app on iPhone 4 which is very limited device and it worked so good, My Seconic in the the storage since then.

There was a review on the myLightMeter pro using an iPhone 6 and iPhone 12. The iPhone 12 was much more accurate…!

 

[Nikon 2]

I don't care what they read. I just want to know if 2 phones (say 2 Iphone 14 pro) loaded with the same ligh meter app do they give you the same reading. I don't care about comparing them to the camera or a real light meter. Or how accurate they are.

Good question…!

 

[Nikon 2]

If you prefer:
The quality of your results also depends on the quality and features of the phone.
And it is difficult to evaluate how suitable your phone is, without trying the app.

 

[wiltw]

It has been proven that the better the phone the more accurate the results would be…!

The fundamental issue is that the app would have to ASSume that the photosensor of every different model (if Apple) or of every different make and model of non-Apple phone has identical electrical characteristic with virtually no variation caused by sensor or by supportng circuitry that converts sensor data to image data, for there to be zero need for a correction factor.

 

[wiltw]

I have question for those who use light meter app. If you use 2 phones of same make and model and load the same app do they read the same? I can't do the test but I think that they don't.

I don't care what they read. I just want to know if 2 phones (say 2 Iphone 14 pro) loaded with the same ligh meter app do they give you the same reading. I don't care about comparing them to the camera or a real light meter. Or how accurate they are.

But if you have 5 guys with 5 cameras compare their meter readings, you will likely to find one or more which are in disagreement with the others.
Why would you then automatically expect 5 guys with 5 phones with metering apps to all be in agreement?...ergo, the need to compare a new app in a phone against a known (existing camera) meter with processed film results corroborating the accuracy of the camera's meter.

 

[Chan Tran]

But if you have 5 guys with 5 cameras compare their meter readings, you will likely to find one or more which are in disagreement with the others.
Why would you then automatically expect 5 guys with 5 phones with metering apps to all be in agreement?...ergo, the need to compare a new app in a phone against a known (existing camera) meter with processed film results corroborating the accuracy of the camera's meter.

I am sure the apps being software, so there is no variation with one apps. I want to know how consistent are the phone hardware. Camera meters or hand held meter have the advantage of the same company makes the hardware as well as the software/firmware for them and they do calibrate them in the factory to take into account of hardware variations. No such calibration is possible with the phone app. If any you the user has to do it yourself.

 

[Sirius Glass]

The fundamental issue is that the app would have to ASSume that the photosensor of every different model (if Apple) or of every different make and model of non-Apple phone has identical electrical characteristic with virtually no variation caused by sensor or by supportng circuitry that converts sensor data to image data, for there to be zero need for a correction factor.

NO, a good software programmer would have different sets of parameters or code based on the iPhone used so that the user would not have to make any adjustment. This is done in software development for decades, nothing new or adventuristic about it.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

I am sure the apps being software, so there is no variation with one apps. I want to know how consistent are the phone hardware. Camera meters or hand held meter have the advantage of the same company makes the hardware as well as the software/firmware for them and they do calibrate them in the factory to take into account of hardware variations. No such calibration is possible with the phone app. If any you the user has to do it yourself.

If there's no direct calibvration adjustment, can't you change the ISO by third of stops to "fake" the adjustment?

 

[wiltw]

NO, a good software programmer would have different sets of parameters or code based on the iPhone used so that the user would not have to make any adjustment. This is done in software development for decades, nothing new or adventuristic about it.

But one has to assume that, for a given electrical response to a given amount of light, that the D/A circuitry will always have one specific response, so that the software will interpret that to be a specific value (e.g. EV10).
I have several generations of Motorola smartphone sitting around (not having gotten rid of phones when they are replaced), so I just charged them up, loaded the same program on each, and I find that the same app does not even RUN on the phone launched in 2015, that is loaded on my 2018 and 2021 model phones. So much for 'the same' assumptions!

 

[madNbad]

I have used myLightMeter Pro on three different iPhones, 5,7 and 11 and never saw any difference in how it read a scene. The camera in the phone has improved and the lenses are better but it hasn’t made any difference in how it meters. There have been updates to the app and it’s more reliable. It has always been close to my hand held meters, I just don’t use it much because if I have my camera, I have a meter.

 

[Sirius Glass]

NO, a good software programmer would have different sets of parameters or code based on the iPhone used so that the user would not have to make any adjustment. This is done in software development for decades, nothing new or adventuristic about it.

I have used myLightMeter Pro on three different iPhones, 5,7 and 11 and never saw any difference in how it read a scene. The camera in the phone has improved and the lenses are better but it hasn’t made any difference in how it meters. There have been updates to the app and it’s more reliable. It has always been close to my hand held meters, I just don’t use it much because if I have my camera, I have a meter.

Cell phone updates differ by the cell phone model when necessary.

 

[quilts]

Little late to this thread, but I've had really good luck with the Lightme app for iOS. Exposure readings are dead on compared to my in camera light meters. I paid a small fee (I think $10) to support the developer, but it has a decent amount of features that made it well worth it to me. Always nice to have on hand just in case I'm without a light meter.

 

[DWThomas]

Just this past Sunday I used used the Pinhole Assist app for my Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day efforts and am quite pleased with the outcome. (I'm currently running it on an iPhone 13 Pro.)

 

[AKodakZen]

Little late to this thread, but I've had really good luck with the Lightme app for iOS. Exposure readings are dead on compared to my in camera light meters. I paid a small fee (I think $10) to support the developer, but it has a decent amount of features that made it well worth it to me. Always nice to have on hand just in case I'm without a light meter.

I use Lightmate and I’ve always had good results. I like being able to tap different areas of the screen to verify which spot I’m metering for. My only complaint is a dumb and not the apps fault: pulling my phone out is annoying so I ordered a Doomo D to mount on my Retina without a meter and maybe the one with (questionably accurate).
I’ll still likely use light might when I’m metering for very dark scenes though.

 

[Sirius Glass]

I like to play with ZoneView on my iPhone to see the SBR in EVs because I can, but I have not used it when I was taking photographs.

 

[EggFriedRice]

It works fine. Just a little tricky to hold both my phone and mamiya 645.

 

[Nikon 2]

It works fine. Just a little tricky to hold both my phone and mamiya 645.

My F2 on a strap while I use MyLightMeter Pro…!

 

[wiltw]

I don't care what they read. I just want to know if 2 phones (say 2 Iphone 14 pro) loaded with the same ligh meter app do they give you the same reading. I don't care about comparing them to the camera or a real light meter. Or how accurate they are.

My wife and I used to use two of the same model Android phone by Motorola. I just loaded both up with a randomly selected light meter app...both MATCHED.

When I compared their reading to Minolta Spotmeter, they both differed from a known-good spotmeter (and I made sure their wider fields of view were not including something that might bias them wrongly) they differed from the spotmeter by -1EV...ergo my prior comment about making sure the results matched known-good meter, and you could dial in correction!

I make no claim about my result necessarily applying to Apple product, but it does represent what can really happen when relying upon a general program written to run on general product.
Someone else with two iPhone same model would need to also compare to known photographic meter to see what results.