Looking for cheap phone so I can use Viewfinder Preview App

Sirius Glass · Dec 17, 2024

I have had the Viewfinder Preview app for several years now and I occasionally look at it, but I have never compared it to a light meter or camera light meter so I really have no idea how accurate it is. It does seem to be close to Sunny 16, but again I have not compare its results.

pbromaghin · Dec 17, 2024

pbromaghin said:
I have used my old iPhone 6 over w-fi for listening to radio stations all around the US since disconnecting it in 2019. It has full Weather, Maps and website capabilities. The IOS even updates every now and then.

This phone is now at IOS 15.8.3,

Alan Edward Klein · Dec 17, 2024

This is slightly off-topic, maybe. I use my micro 4/3 Olympus digital camera with zoom lens as a director's viewfinder and light meter and to record my settings and other info in video mode to be transcribed when I get home. Its histogram and blinkies help as well when using it as a meter. I switch to a BW display when shooting BW film.

TheYoungPretender · Dec 18, 2024

The iPhone SE 2016 is a pretty nice option. It should be less than $30 used and is still pretty snappy. I just set one up a few months ago and it's small enough to not really be a pain to bring along/slip into a pocket.
~~You could also consider looking at the new Film Photography Viewfinder app for Android that was released a month ago and see how you like it. I believe it is about $5 or so.~~ I don't think it supports metering yet however so that might not be a great option.

Donald Qualls · Dec 18, 2024

I'm an Android user, and I looked at the Film Photography Viewfinder app, and right below it on my search found the Magic Film Viewfinder app -- for free (likely with nags to upgrade to the paid version, or ads, but I can live with those). I've been using Light Meter (Free) for a couple years, and if you have both open it's pretty easy to switch between them. The meter app has a spot option (it's a bit bigger than 1 degree, more like 5, but it's better than averaging). Then you don't have to wonder if that $30 eBay iPhone is unlocked or not, or learn a new interface (I find my partner's iPhone almost unusable because I'm so ingrained from years on Samsung and Google phones).

romosoho · Dec 18, 2024

Donald Qualls said:
I'm an Android user, and I looked at the Film Photography Viewfinder app, and right below it on my search found the Magic Film Viewfinder app -- for free (likely with nags to upgrade to the paid version, or ads, but I can live with those). I've been using Light Meter (Free) for a couple years, and if you have both open it's pretty easy to switch between them. The meter app has a spot option (it's a bit bigger than 1 degree, more like 5, but it's better than averaging). Then you don't have to wonder if that $30 eBay iPhone is unlocked or not, or learn a new interface (I find my partner's iPhone almost unusable because I'm so ingrained from years on Samsung and Google phones).

My only problem with Magic Film Viewfinder is that, for some formats (like 6x17), it doesn't show the full frame. The edges are cut off. I forget if this is because it's using the main camera rather than the wide angle one.

Donald Qualls · Dec 18, 2024

Hmm. Haven't had a chance to check that yet (just installed it on the way into work this morning). My Pixel 7 has dual lenses, let me see what it does on mine. Meanwhile, tried a longer "lens" -- that should reduce the field width a bit...

Alan Edward Klein · Dec 18, 2024

Donald Qualls said:
Hmm. Haven't had a chance to check that yet (just installed it on the way into work this morning). My Pixel 7 has dual lenses, let me see what it does on mine. Meanwhile, tried a longer "lens" -- that should reduce the field width a bit...

A longer lens should decrease the spot size as well. Do you zoom in to take the spot measurement? That makes the spot the smallest.

romosoho · Dec 18, 2024

I"m not talking about metering, I'm talking about the viewfinder feature. If I set it to 6x17 and using the 90mm lens, it will outline the full frame, but the displayed image only covers, say, 80% of it.

Donald Qualls · Dec 19, 2024

Alan Edward Klein said:
A longer lens should decrease the spot size as well.

Oh, nice, that hadn't occurred to me. This is for the metering app, so losing FOV off the edges doesn't matter...

It did occur to me that changing to a longer virtual lens in the viewfinder app, while it will keep the aspect ratio on screen, won't give the full view at the edges of a panoramic field. Might be something to ask the developer about -- whether they can support multiple-camera phones to use the wide lens for very wide or pano settings.

Alan Edward Klein · Dec 19, 2024

Donald Qualls said:
Oh, nice, that hadn't occurred to me. This is for the metering app, so losing FOV off the edges doesn't matter...

It did occur to me that changing to a longer virtual lens in the viewfinder app, while it will keep the aspect ratio on screen, won't give the full view at the edges of a panoramic field. Might be something to ask the developer about -- whether they can support multiple-camera phones to use the wide lens for very wide or pano settings.

When I use my Olympus E-PL1, a micro 4/3 camera, as a director's viewfinder, after I selected which LF lens I want to use, I can zoom in the lens to 70mm (lens is 24-70mm equivalent) to check exposures. That's max and gives me an equivalent 2 degree spot. However, I usually use the full photo to check the exposure settings on my digital camera verifying the "right" exposure with the histogram and blinkies and how it looks in the display.

Donald Qualls · Dec 19, 2024

Alan Edward Klein said:
I usually use the full photo to check the exposure settings on my digital camera

With the level of automatic post processing that occurs in modern phone cameras, this is completely impractical. Fortunately, film has enough latitude that the exposure reading from a light meter app is generally perfectly adequate.

Patrick Robert James · Feb 8, 2025

I still use an old IPhone 5s for the viewfinder app. I have a Schneider super wide attachment for it which works great. I’ve long since moved on from using it as my phone, but I still use it for a lot of other things like timing film development. If I put it in airplane mode and turn off all the signals like WiFi and Bluetooth the battery lasts weeks which is nice. The 5s is undoubtedly too old at this point to start fresh so I wouldn’t recommend it. I think the SE model is the same smaller size which is newer and might work if you want small. Personally I think phones are all way too big these days but if you are going to use it only for the viewfinder app then big might be better.

Looking for cheap phone so I can use Viewfinder Preview App

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