Comparison

Pocket Light Meter vs Light Lamb

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Pocket Light Meter

This app functions as a portable light meter, essential for film photographers using manual cameras. It accurately measures reflected light and provides reciprocity calculations for precise exposure control.

Highlights
  • Portable light meter
  • Reflected light measurement
  • Reciprocity calculations
  • Indispensable for film photography
  • Manual camera compatible
Features
Read full description

A light meter that is always in your pocket. It is indispensable for film photography with all manual camera. Measures reflected light, and allows reciprocity calculations.

About

Light Lamb

This app acts as a light meter for film photographers, offering both automatic and manual control over camera settings. It helps ensure correct exposure by suggesting adjustments based on your chosen parameters and scene conditions. Features include spot metering, safe shutter speed awareness, and the ability to save settings with scene photos.

Highlights
  • Automatic exposure mode for film cameras
  • Assisted manual control of aperture, shutter, ISO
  • Histogram for exposure visualization
  • Safe shutter speed matching
  • Spot metering with 5x zoom
  • Customizable ISO, aperture, shutter speed ranges
  • Save settings with scene photos and location
Read full description

Light Lamb is a free photographers’ light meter app for iOS. You can let Light Lamb decide everything for you like getting an auto mode for your manual film camera, or you could have full manual control of the parameters, or whatever you want in between. - Now with histogram (New in 1.3.0) Use the histogram to make sure the scene is exposed just like how you envisioned. - From full auto to assisted manual control In most cameras if you pick a parameter like aperture, shutter, or ISO, the camera would stick to your chosen values even if it's too dark or too bright for the scene. The reason we made Light Lamb is to have a light meter that would suggest different settings if the chosen parameters are not suitable. For example, you can keep your settings at f/8 and 1/125 for deep depth of field and fast shutter speed, but if it's too dark, Light Lamb would suggest brighter values to make sure it's correctly exposed. Or say you want to set the aperture to f/1.4 for shallow depth of field, and if it's bright outside and the shutter is already at its fastest speed, Light Lamb would suggest a smaller aperture. Just set the parameters to what you want and Light Lamb will handle the rest. - Safe shutter-aware Pick a preferred slowest shutter speed you want and Light Lamb will match it. If the scene is too dark, Light Lamb automatically pick a slower shutter speed beyond the safe shutter to achieve the correct exposure. - Spot metering Zoom in 5x to focus the measurements to small areas in contrasting scenes. - Match your equipment Choose the range and increment of ISO, aperture, and shutter speed to match your equipment. Choose between whole-stop, half-stop, and one-third EV increments for each parameter. - Keep a memo Keep a memo of the settings used, including a photo of the scene and the location. Export it as a beautiful picture note formatted in 4:5 aspect ratio, great for posting to Instagram along with your photo.

Screenshots

Pocket Light Meter3 screens
Light Lamb4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Light Lamb at Free against Pocket Light Meter's $9.99. Light Lamb also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.5) and in-app purchases (none vs 3). Pocket Light Meter's advantage is update cadence (fortnightly vs every 3 months) and ratings volume (1K vs 1). On ads and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Light Lamb is free to download; Pocket Light Meter costs $9.99 up front. Pocket Light Meter sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. Light Lamb asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Light Lamb holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Pocket Light Meter has 1K ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 87% of Pocket Light Meter's written reviews are positive against 100% of Light Lamb's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Pocket Light Meter ships an update fortnightly, Light Lamb every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on September 25, 2026 and June 11, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard9 real differences · 2 level
Pocket Light Meter versus Light Lamb: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPocket Light MeterLight Lamb
Price$9.99Free — better
Rating4.5 (1K ratings)5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews87.1% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings1K — better1
Update frequencyFortnightly — betterEvery 3 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
Best chart rank#52 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS15.6 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size34 MB4 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperNuwaste studiosCHUN YIN FUNG

Customer experience

Pocket Light Meter

All ratings1,045 ratings
Positive87.1%
Neutral5.1%
Negative7.8%
Written reviews1,058 reviews
Positive87.1%
Neutral5.6%
Negative7.3%

Light Lamb

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

Pocket Light Meter

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Crashes or freezes with recent iOS updates
  • Inconsistent metering in low light conditions
  • Issues with saving metering data to photos

Requested features

6 requests
  • Add histogram display
  • Implement manual mode to lock aperture/shutter
  • Support for flash metering
  • Improve low-light performance
  • Provide more metering mode options (spot, center-weighted, etc.)
Show 1 more
  • Add option to save metering data to photo metadata

Light Lamb

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Pocket Light Meter

One-time3
  • ads remover$1.99
  • pint for the developer and get rid of the ads$5.99
  • donation to the developer$5.99
None

Light Lamb

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Pocket Light Meter free?
Pocket Light Meter costs $9.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Is Light Lamb free?
Light Lamb is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Pocket Light Meter or Light Lamb?
Light Lamb is rated higher. Pocket Light Meter averages 4.5 out of 5 from 1K ratings, while Light Lamb averages 5.0 from 1 ratings.
Do Pocket Light Meter or Light Lamb have ads?
Neither Pocket Light Meter nor Light Lamb shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Pocket Light Meter or Light Lamb?
Pocket Light Meter ships an update fortnightly, and Light Lamb every 3 months. Most recently, Pocket Light Meter was updated on September 25, 2026 and Light Lamb on June 11, 2026.

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