iPhone Light Meters & Film Developing

Ruffmeister

Ruffmeister

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Dan
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Morning all,

Couple of quick Q's

I have just picked up a Rollei and am in need of a light meter. Are the iPhone meters any good overall? I know they aren't going to be as good as a conventional light meter but for general outdoor/good light shooting how are they? And can anyone recommend an app? As there are several on the app store. I will probably get an actual light meter later down the line but if I can just get started out with an app that would be a good start.

Also, who is good for film developing by post? I have used AG Photographics in the past and have been pleased with the results. Just usually takes a couple of weeks to come through.

Cheers

Dan
 
I use the "Light Meter" app which was free and get good results from it even with slide film. To me, the major benefit of using the iPhone app over a real meter is that the exposure on screen changes as you point the camera towards your subject so you see what effect it has. That is, if you point towards the ground in a landscape image you'll see the sky start to blow out and vice versa with the land being underexposed.

This lets you chimp the exposure a little as you would with digital to get the best results.

I've got a couple of rolls with AG at the moment. Not the fastest turnaround but good consistent results.

Cheers
Steve
 
stevelmx5 said:
I use the "Light Meter" app which was free and get good results from it even with slide film. To me, the major benefit of using the iPhone app over a real meter is that the exposure on screen changes as you point the camera towards your subject so you see what effect it has. That is, if you point towards the ground in a landscape image you'll see the sky start to blow out and vice versa with the land being underexposed.

This lets you chimp the exposure a little as you would with digital to get the best results.

I've got a couple of rolls with AG at the moment. Not the fastest turnaround but good consistent results.

Cheers
Steve
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Thank you. I will download it and see how I get on. :) As for AG, yes I have found the results good which is worth the wait usually but wasn't sure if there was anyone else worth considering.
 
Ruffmeister said:
Morning all,

Couple of quick Q's

I have just picked up a Rollei and am in need of a light meter. Are the iPhone meters any good overall? I know they aren't going to be as good as a conventional light meter but for general outdoor/good light shooting how are they? And can anyone recommend an app? As there are several on the app store. I will probably get an actual light meter later down the line but if I can just get started out with an app that would be a good start.

Also, who is good for film developing by post? I have used AG Photographics in the past and have been pleased with the results. Just usually takes a couple of weeks to come through.

Cheers

Dan
Click to expand...
As a reflected light meter, an iPhone app will produce results more or less as good as your iPhone camera. Incident light meters are probably not ideal as they are necessarily unidirectional. That said, I've never used an incident light meter app.
 
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My Sekonic 308 has incident and the dome sphere, worth a look when you fancy buying one.
 
Ruffmeister said:
Thank you. I will download it and see how I get on. :) As for AG, yes I have found the results good which is worth the wait usually but wasn't sure if there was anyone else worth considering.
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AG is good and priced well but they tend to be slow (averaging 7.5 days for me). Peak are much faster, sometimes you can send on a Monday and get your negs back on Wednesday (they have been averaging 4 days for me, though). Their scan prices are horrendous though. If you just do C41 35mm though you should try Photo Express in Hull; they have a 50p per film discount for TP members, and are averaging 3 days for me. Also, their basic scan is 2000 dpi, which gives you 6mp for a 35mm frame, quite good enough for what I need (most others have 1200 dpi as the base scan, enough for a 6"*4" print, but I find a bit limited in terms of cropping, straightening etc).

Then there are a few of the larger Asdas that offer process and scan (CD) while you shop for £3. Tend to be over-sharpened 1200 dpi scans though. And I've just had some done by Boots in-store, one hour process and scan service at £7.49 and I'm Not Happy at the results.
 
ChrisR said:
AG is good and priced well but they tend to be slow (averaging 7.5 days for me). Peak are much faster, sometimes you can send on a Monday and get your negs back on Wednesday (they have been averaging 4 days for me, though). Their scan prices are horrendous though. If you just do C41 35mm though you should try Photo Express in Hull; they have a 50p per film discount for TP members, and are averaging 3 days for me. Also, their basic scan is 2000 dpi, which gives you 6mp for a 35mm frame, quite good enough for what I need (most others have 1200 dpi as the base scan, enough for a 6"*4" print, but I find a bit limited in terms of cropping, straightening etc).

Then there are a few of the larger Asdas that offer process and scan (CD) while you shop for £3. Tend to be over-sharpened 1200 dpi scans though. And I've just had some done by Boots in-store, one hour process and scan service at £7.49 and I'm Not Happy at the results.
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Thanks, that's definitely worth bearing in mind. I will check out Photo Express and see what options they have
 
The iPhone app is great when I am stuck but, my exposure control improved some years ago when I stopped using reflected readings, ie metering of the subject and started using incident readings, ie measuring the light falling on the subject. You need a meter with an incident dome of filter to do this. I use a hand held incident meter sometime instead of the meter in my Nikon's. I am with @Mr Bump on this and use a Sekonic 308 and 398. I stated with a cheap Leningrad meter with its incident filter. These can be had sometime for not much more than the cost of an app!
 
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These shots were all metered using the free IPhone Light Meter app. The first three were shot on Velvia in bright early afternoon sunshine in Fuerteventura so some very strong shadows. The last was inside a dull hotel room on Provia. These are as scanned from the slides and show how effective the metering is with the app.


View attachment 7097
View attachment 7098
View attachment 7099
View attachment 7100

For the flexibility the iPhone/app offers me over carrying a separate light meter I think the results are excellent.

Cheers
Steve
 
I used to use my Samsung and it was accurate enough for slides but my nexus just doesn't work nor did my HTC Desire.
 
I use the iPhone Lightmeter app with all my non-metered cameras aprt from my 5x4 Nagoaka when I bring out the Minolta spotmeter, it's a great app and does everything I need it to, it's cheap too.
 
Having recently been dragged into the 21st Century and been given an iPhone I tested it yesterday against my Gossen Lunasix F they were within 1/2 to 1/3 ev of each other.
 
Great stuff. Appreciate the responses guys. Have downloaded 'Light Meter' and looks pretty good. The Rollei turned up today! Looking forward to running my first roll through it, hopefully over the weekend if the weathers good :)
 
I'm still not quite in the smart phone world, but soon, maybe. Are there any apps that combine light meter capability with logging of shot details? See,s to me that might be a powerful and useful combination...
 
ChrisR said:
I'm still not quite in the smart phone world, but soon, maybe. Are there any apps that combine light meter capability with logging of shot details? See,s to me that might be a powerful and useful combination...
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This particular app does go some way to logging the shot details https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/pocket-light-meter/id381698089?mt=8

It saves a copy of the picture on the light meter screen with exposure, date, time and location details; and it allows you to make notes on each shot.
 
I use one called 'Photographer's Tools' its on a windows phone though so I don't know if you can get it on android etc. It has a lightmeter which seems to be pretty accurate, a hyperfocal distance calculator, a DOF calculator, equivalent focal lengths/sensor size, a triple timer, an angle of view calculator, a pinhole exposure calculator, film DX codes list, flash guide number/aperture indicator, a thing that shows the effects of different filters, a list of written filters with their uses, film data sheets for about 50 different films, something for measuring chems/water in different capacity tanks (haven't worked out what its for yet), some kind of temperature gizmo ???, and the massive dev charts list. It was £1.29.
 
stevelmx5 said:
These shots were all metered using the free IPhone Light Meter app. The first three were shot on Velvia in bright early afternoon sunshine in Fuerteventura so some very strong shadows. The last was inside a dull hotel room on Provia. These are as scanned from the slides and show how effective the metering is with the app.


View attachment 7097
View attachment 7098
View attachment 7099
View attachment 7100

For the flexibility the iPhone/app offers me over carrying a separate light meter I think the results are excellent.

Cheers
Steve
Click to expand...

Pretty damn good for an iphone app light meter. Just goes to show. I'm finishing a film in my 35RC all metered with a phone meter so looking forward to see how they turn out.
 
Andysnap said:
I use one called 'Photographer's Tools' its on a windows phone though so I don't know if you can get it on android etc. It has a lightmeter which seems to be pretty accurate, a hyperfocal distance calculator, a DOF calculator, equivalent focal lengths/sensor size, a triple timer, an angle of view calculator, a pinhole exposure calculator, film DX codes list, flash guide number/aperture indicator, a thing that shows the effects of different filters, a list of written filters with their uses, film data sheets for about 50 different films, something for measuring chems/water in different capacity tanks (haven't worked out what its for yet), some kind of temperature gizmo ???, and the massive dev charts list. It was £1.29.
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That sounds like a deal, will look that up!
 
ChrisR said:
I'm still not quite in the smart phone world, but soon, maybe.

steveo_mcg said:
I used to use my Samsung and it was accurate enough for slides but my nexus just doesn't work nor did my HTC Desire.
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Well I've arrived in the smart phone world, but 3 separate light meter apps tell me that my Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini doesn't have a light sensor suitable for a meter! Bummer. I guess I'll have to buy a real light meter!
 
ChrisR said:
Well I've arrived in the smart phone world, but 3 separate light meter apps tell me that my Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini doesn't have a light sensor suitable for a meter! Bummer. I guess I'll have to buy a real light meter!
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Bad times :( Have you considered the Sunny 16 rule? I shot a roll on my Bronica the other weekend and pretty much shot every shot based on this rule. A good 90%+ of the shots came out well :)
 
ChrisR said:
I guess I'll have to buy a real light meter!
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Although I've found the iPhone light meters to be pretty solid, a good light meter is such a great investment for anyone that's shooting film. It takes all the guess work out of exposure and it means that you won't be wasting film on duff exposures. They also seem to last forever and hold their value.

Ruffmeister said:
Bad times :( Have you considered the Sunny 16 rule? I shot a roll on my Bronica the other weekend and pretty much shot every shot based on this rule. A good 90%+ of the shots came out well :)
Click to expand...

I usually carry one of my Sekonic meters with me, but I'll use sunny 16 (or sunny 11 usually in the UK) to double check my readings or when I've accidentally forgotten to bring a light meter out with me. I typically like to shoot toward the sun with my subjects backlit though, so I'll often add another 3 stops. This really only works well for negative film, however.
 
There's a Weston Master V in the F&C classifieds. It even comes with the original string . . .
 
ChrisR said:
Well I've arrived in the smart phone world, but 3 separate light meter apps tell me that my Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini doesn't have a light sensor suitable for a meter! Bummer. I guess I'll have to buy a real light meter!
Click to expand...

Drat, that's annoying. Probably the biggest single issue with android, every model is slightly different.
 
Whilst trying to find a list of phones with usable light sensors I stumbled across the kickstarter for this Lumu phone light meter adaptor. It fits in the headphone socket and uses the light intensity to send an audio signal which is interpreted by software on the phone. Quite clever but very expensive since it still needs your phones battery unlike a stand alone incident meter which is broadly similar money.
 
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