Lumu's new Kickstarter project for a light/color meter for iPhones

[inkista]

Saw this on Flash Havoc the other day. I'm don't throw money at Kickstarters, but I do like seeing innovative ideas and whether they can be turned into products. And in this case, Sekonic needs the competition.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...ture?ref=users

They're overfunded at 8x about now, probably because they delivered on their first KS (the ambient meter):

http://ww.lu.mu/lightmeter/

Then again, Triggertrap delivered on their first round, and died on their second...

[Shadowman]

Saw this on Flash Havoc the other day. I'm don't throw money at Kickstarters, but I do like seeing innovative ideas and whether they can be turned into products. And in this case, Sekonic needs the competition.

Then again, Triggertrap delivered on their first round, and died on their second...

Impressive if they can refund most of the funds.

[Clactonian]

I'm now very cautious financing Kickstarter projects, in fact I won't do it again. Invested in one on the promise of a free high speed trigger and am still waiting over twelve months from the time the project reached target funding.

[DanK]

well, I recently gambled on two--the Breakthrough CPL, which should in theory arrive this month, and the iPhone-based remote control by Pulse, which in theory should arrive in a few months. Both were impulse buys, to be frank. This one doesn't tempt me in the slightest. I haven't felt the lack of an ambient light meter in years, and I don't need yet another device to estimate color balance.

[inkista]

... I haven't felt the lack of an ambient light meter in years...

Their first project was the ambient meter.

This one's the ambient/flash/video meter, as well an illumination and color meter. With an API. But yeah. For some folks, this is a yawn (and of course it's a complete non-starter for folks who don't have an iPhone).

It's the API that really intrigues me, though. Since that means anyone who doesn't like the software interface could conceivably roll their own. And existing apps can work the sensor readings into their UI.

[Bobobird]

Given Apple's history without Jobs, and slowly repeating already, I have little faith in the longer term viability of the "i" line.

[silvolux]

It's the API that really intrigues me, though. Since that means anyone who doesn't like the software interface could conceivably roll their own. And existing apps can work the sensor readings into their UI.

Hey Kathy,

It's Silvo, from Lumulabs.

You are correct, this already happened with our previous Lumu and we're counting on our community to make the most out of our new Lumu Power too, especially since they'll now have two powerful sensors to play with.

Let me know if you have any more questions! Take care!

[inkista]

Hey, look! They shipped to backers! Curious to see if/when B&H offers it, the way they do the incident (no flash/color) Lumu meter.

[rpcrowe]

I just can't envision the average user of a cell phone for photography lugging any extra equipment around...

[lunaticitizen]

Too bad there is no API for Android or Linux. I can imagine a few Raspberry Pi-related projects.

[Mike Buckley]

I just can't envision the average user of a cell phone for photography lugging any extra equipment around...

I think you're mistaken about the target market, which is the advanced photographer and others using a cell phone to determine various facts with ease that will improve the quality of their capture.

[inkista]

i just can't envision the average user of a cell phone for photography lugging any extra equipment around...

It's not about iPhone photography--it's about using your iPhone as your incident/flash/color meter.

I can easily envision a lot of studio photographers who already own an iPhone, who don't want to pay $1500 for a Sekonic color/incident/flash meter, and/or make space in the bag for said meter + batteries, but would be willing to blow $300 on a little phone dongle to do all the same stuff.

Not to mention. Now that it's iPhone app-accessible as hardware with an open SDK, there's nothing to stop some clever photographer/programmer type from coming up with all new displays of the sensor readings that Sekonic wouldn't bother thinking you might want/need and making an app for that. For example, right now, the Lumu app for this sensor shows the ambient/flash ratio as a slider, but maybe you want it as actual numbers: you could write your own app to do that.