Which Light Meter

[Zarzicki]

There's a free app for the iPhone "Long Exposure Calculator" It's very easy to use. Enter the correct exposure and choose the ND filter and it will calculate the exposure. ND filters could double as a stop if you are not using one.

[Zarzicki]

There's a free app for the iPhone "Long Exposure Calculator" It's very easy to use. Enter the correct exposure and choose the ND filter and it will calculate the exposure. ND filters could double as a stop if you are not using one.

[jcuknz]

. An incident light meter will expose both of these correctly, although I would advise caution in getting the light meter too close to the bear!

This reminds me that when I used a Weston Master for situations like this one uses the back of your hand

[TareqPhoto]

I have Sekonic 758D and i don't know where i lost it, in fact i don't use it at all even for studio, the only times i used it is when i was testing my studio lights for first time or for some portraits of my daughters, but then i never used it again.

I want to buy another light meter for my film cameras, but i wanted one without a battery power, so i can use it always anytime with film without worrying about when the battery is running out.

[rpcrowe]

My "oldie-but-goodie" Sekonic L-718 can measure up to 30 minute exposure.

http://www.sekonic.com/downloads/l-718_english.pdf

It doesn't have all the bells and whistles of a more up-to-date meter but, it does an excellent job measuring incident, reflected and flash exposures...

Best of all, it cost me less that $100 USD on eBay several years ago and it came with the 5 degree viewfinder, an accessory.

[D L]

I thought I wanted a light meter, then checked the price of the sekonic et al.
It got me thinking though...
I checked and my phone (Nokia Lumia 820) has an ambient light meter. I imagine fancier phones like iphones also have this hardware
There are also apps that utilise this meter like this one
http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/st...f-9a2ed83f05b6
I downloaded it and confirmed it is using the light meter and not the phone camera (by covering the camera and seeing if it still works). Now I know where the light meter is on my phone too!

I also saw another app claiming to be a light meter that uses the camera as the exposure meter, i.e. a reflected light meter, which is something to watch out for.

However, the existence of this light meter, I believe, is just to auto adjust screen settings for readability. I don't know how accurate this phone light meter is. Without a good light meter, I 'm not sure how to test it!

Has anyone had success with phone apps as light meters?

P.S. For the OP, that particular app doesn't have longer shutter speeds than 30s for calculation purposes, but there must be an app that does (and who the hell owns a Windows Phone anyway)
Edit: Just saw how old the initial post was. OP is probably sorted for a light meter by now!

[D L]

I found this add-on light meter for iPhone users