Pocket Light Meter vs Light Lamb
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- Portable light meter
- Reflected light measurement
- Reciprocity calculations
- Indispensable for film photography
- Manual camera compatible
Read full descriptionHide 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.
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.
- 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 descriptionHide 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
Verdict
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
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.
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.
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.
| Parameter | Pocket Light Meter | Light Lamb |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $9.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 4.5 (1K ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 87.1% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 1K — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly — better | Every 3 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Best chart rank | #52 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 15.6 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 34 MB | 4 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Nuwaste studios | CHUN YIN FUNG |
Customer experience
Pocket Light Meter
Light Lamb
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 moreShow fewer
- Add option to save metering data to photo metadata
Light Lamb
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Pocket Light Meter
- ads remover$1.99
- pint for the developer and get rid of the ads$5.99
- donation to the developer$5.99
Light Lamb
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Pocket Light Meter free?
Is Light Lamb free?
Which has better reviews, Pocket Light Meter or Light Lamb?
Do Pocket Light Meter or Light Lamb have ads?
Which is updated more often, Pocket Light Meter or Light Lamb?
Other comparisons















