Comparison

Pocket Light Meter vs Long Exposure Toolkit

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

Long Exposure Toolkit

This app provides DSLR photographers with a suite of tools for creating long exposure photographs. It includes calculators for ND filters, light metering, time-lapses, and exposure values, along with tips and a photo feed for inspiration.

Highlights
  • ND Calculator
  • Light Meter
  • Timelapse Calculator
  • Exposure Value (EV) Calculator
  • Star Trail Calculator
  • Exposure Timer
  • Flickr Photo Feed
Features
Read full description

Beautiful light doesn’t happen by accident. Long Exposure Toolkit gives creative photographers the tools to plan the light, find the moon and stars, calculate long exposures, and get the shot right — from golden hour to deep into the night. PLAN THE LIGHT, NOT JUST THE SHOT Track every phase of natural light throughout the day, including civil and nautical dawn, blue hour, golden hour, solar noon, sunset and dusk. Follow the live sun-path arc, see exact times for every transition, and get a live countdown to your next photographic window. MOON, STARS, AND THE NIGHT SKY Point your iPhone at the sky and the Moon Finder guides you towards the moon using the live camera and a precision compass rose. Follow the moon’s path through the night, check moonrise and moonset for your location, and plan for upcoming lunar eclipses. For star-trail photography, choose any star or constellation from the built-in catalogue and view its declination arc — ideal for planning and compositing very long star-trail exposures. LONG EXPOSURES, MADE PRECISE Use the built-in light meter to measure the scene, select your ND filter strength, and quickly calculate the corrected shutter speed. When exposures run into minutes or hours, the built-in timer counts them for you and chimes when they’re complete. THE COMPLETE TOOLKIT • Golden Hour — a light planner for golden hour, blue hour, dawn, dusk, solar noon and live sun-path tracking • Moon Finder — locate the moon, follow its path, and check moonrise, moonset, eclipse and other information • Star Trails — view declination arcs for stars and constellations to help plan long star-trail exposures • Light Meter — live camera metering with ISO, aperture and shutter-speed readout • ND Calculator — calculate corrected exposure times for ND filters • Timelapse — calculate the interval and number of shots required for your chosen movie length • Stops — calculate the exposure difference between any two f-stops, shutter speeds or ISO values • EV Calculator — calculate exposure value from camera settings or measure the EV of the current scene • Timer — time long exposures with an audible alert when the exposure is complete • Torch — adjustable LED torch plus a screen light with a full colour picker for light painting; save your favourite colours for quick access • Inspiration — browse long-exposure photography from the Flickr community and see the camera settings used to create each image • Technique — more than 70 tips covering long-exposure technique, ND filters, subjects, camera settings, focusing and field craft Whether you’re photographing silky water, moving clouds, city lights, the moon, blue hour or star trails, Long Exposure Toolkit gives you the essential planning and exposure tools all in one place.

Screenshots

Pocket Light Meter3 screens
Long Exposure Toolkit4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Long Exposure Toolkit at none against Pocket Light Meter's 3. Long Exposure Toolkit also leads on price ($5.99 vs $9.99) and review sentiment (100% vs 87%). Pocket Light Meter's advantage is update cadence (fortnightly vs every 3 months) and ratings volume (1K vs 4). On rating, 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

Pocket Light Meter costs $9.99 and Long Exposure Toolkit $5.99 up front. Pocket Light Meter sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. Long Exposure Toolkit asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.5 for Pocket Light Meter against 4.5 for Long Exposure Toolkit. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Pocket Light Meter has 1K ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 87% of Pocket Light Meter's written reviews are positive against 100% of Long Exposure Toolkit's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Pocket Light Meter ships an update fortnightly, Long Exposure Toolkit every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on October 19, 2026 and October 2, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard8 real differences · 3 level
Pocket Light Meter versus Long Exposure Toolkit: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPocket Light MeterLong Exposure Toolkit
Price$9.99$5.99 — better
Rating4.5 (1K ratings)4.5 (4 ratings)
Positive reviews87.1% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings1K — better4
Update frequencyFortnightly — betterEvery 3 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases — betterPaid
Best chart rank#124 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.6 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size34 MB30 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperNuwaste studiosAndrew Offield

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%

Long Exposure Toolkit

All ratings4 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews6 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

Long Exposure Toolkit

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

Long Exposure Toolkit

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Pocket Light Meter free?
Pocket Light Meter costs $9.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Is Long Exposure Toolkit free?
Long Exposure Toolkit costs $5.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Pocket Light Meter or Long Exposure Toolkit?
Pocket Light Meter and Long Exposure Toolkit are both rated 4.5 out of 5 on the App Store, from 1K and 4 ratings respectively.
Do Pocket Light Meter or Long Exposure Toolkit have ads?
Neither Pocket Light Meter nor Long Exposure Toolkit shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Pocket Light Meter or Long Exposure Toolkit?
Pocket Light Meter ships an update fortnightly, and Long Exposure Toolkit every 3 months. Most recently, Pocket Light Meter was updated on October 19, 2026 and Long Exposure Toolkit on October 2, 2026.

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