Pocket Light Meter vs Lumu Light Meter
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
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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.
Lumu Light Meter
This app functions as a standalone reflective light meter or pairs with hardware for professional flash and color temperature measurements. It offers various modes for photography and videography, storing measurements with notes and location.
- Standalone reflective light meter
- Flash and color temperature metering
- Photo and cine/video modes
- Spot metering
- Color temperature in Kelvin
- Store measurements with notes
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The light metering tool for every great image maker. Use the standalone app as a reflective light meter or use it in combination with Lumu Power hardware for professional Flash and Color Temperature measurements. Lumu Power is an easy-to-use digital incident color and light meter that works seamlessly with the free Lumu app to deliver Color Temperature, Illuminance, Spot, Ambient, and Flash Exposure metering functionality on your iPhone. A new expression of what a light meter can be, Lumu meets the needs of enthusiasts, professionals, and students who find existing light metering solutions too bulky, expensive, and complicated. “The Lumu Power is without any doubt the most full featured light meter I have ever owned. It’s tiny, it weighs hardly anything, it manages to offer a feature set that expands way beyond what most will ever need from such a device.” - www.35mmc.com Key features: - SPOT METERING: Use your phone’s camera as a reflective light meter. With Lumu Power: - PHOTO SINGLE mode: Giving you exact parameters: exposure time, f-number, ISO, EV, lux. - PHOTO MULTI mode: Calculating average value or contrast between multiple measurements. - PHOTO PINHOLE mode: Measuring exposure time for custom pinhole camera settings. - CINE/VIDEO mode: Set FPS, F-number, exposure time and ISO. Get the values for the ambiental light. - FLASH EXPOSURE: See the graph of flash duration, measure its intensity. - COLOR TEMPERATURE: Read light Color temperature in Kelvin and Green/Magenta shift. - CHROMATICITY: See light colour in CIE1931 diagram and get X,Y,Z coordinates. - ILLUMINANCE mode: showing incident light level in lux / foot-candle values. - NOTES: Store all your measurements together with geo-location, custom notes and your photo in one place. + ND FILTERS, EXPOSURE COMPENSATION and more… Visit http://lu.mu/ to learn more.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Lumu Light Meter at Free against Pocket Light Meter's $9.99. Lumu Light Meter also leads on iOS requirement (12.0 vs 15.6). Pocket Light Meter's advantage is rating (4.5 vs 3.4) and review sentiment (87% vs 53%). On ads, in-app purchases, monetization model 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
Lumu Light Meter is free to download; Pocket Light Meter costs $9.99 up front. Pocket Light Meter sells 3 one-off in-app purchases and Lumu Light Meter sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Pocket Light Meter holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 3.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Pocket Light Meter has 1K ratings behind it against 99, 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 53% of Lumu Light Meter's.
Pocket Light Meter ships an update fortnightly, Lumu Light Meter monthly. The most recent releases landed on September 22, 2026 and September 19, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Pocket Light Meter | Lumu Light Meter |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $9.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 4.5 (1K ratings) — better | 3.4 (99 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 87.1% of reviews — better | 52.8% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 1K — better | 99 |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly — better | Monthly |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Best chart rank | #48 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 15.6 | 12.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 34 MB | 52 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Nuwaste studios | Lumu d.o.o. |
Customer experience
Pocket Light Meter
Lumu Light Meter
User reviews
Pocket Light Meter
From 1K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Accurate light metering
- 📷 Useful for film photography
- 🔍 Spot metering feature
- 🔧 Customizable settings
- 🔋 Always available on phone
Room to improve
- 🐛 Freezes or crashes in low light or with recent iOS updates
- 🔍 Unclear if spot or average metering
- 📊 Outdated user interface design
- 🔌 Ads can be distracting
Lumu Light Meter
From 99 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- ✨ Accurate light metering
- ✨ Precise color meter readings
- 👍 Intuitive and clean UI
- 👍 Great for film photography
- 👍 Convenient pocket-sized tool
Room to improve
- 😞 Terrible customer service
- 😞 Unresponsive support
- 😞 Expensive hardware
- 😞 Misleading advertising
- 😞 Inconsistent accuracy
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
Lumu Light Meter
Reported bugs
14 issues- 🐛 LUX value shown as FootCandle
- 🐛 ISO keeps changing when metering
- 🐛 Color temp readout option disappeared
- 🐛 Error when factory resetting module
- 🐛 Cannot read CCT
Show 9 moreShow fewer
- 🐛 App no longer recognizes original Lumu
- 🐛 Photo Ambient mode turns off
- 🐛 Device not recognized after app update
- 🐛 High-pitched squeal on app open
- 🐛 Loud painful high frequency noise with earphones
- 🐛 Saved files not found
- 🐛 App not working with older iPhones
- 🐛 Exposure compensation backwards
- 🐛 Extremely high pitched squeal
Requested features
11 requests- 💡 Aperture priority mode
- 💡 Ability to lock aperture
- 💡 Analog style shutter speed/aperture display
- 💡 Option to see all equivalent exposure settings at a glance
- 💡 Ability to take two readings and see difference in stops
Show 6 moreShow fewer
- 💡 Use phone's volume button to take reading
- 💡 Add lower ISO options (below 50)
- 💡 Half-stop increments for ISO/aperture
- 💡 Video mode
- 💡 Location tracking for readings
- 💡 Sync only on Wi-Fi setting
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
Lumu Light Meter
- Lite to Power Upgrade$69.99
- Power to Pro Upgrade$229.99
- Lite to Pro Upgrade$249.99
Questions
Is Pocket Light Meter free?
Is Lumu Light Meter free?
Which has better reviews, Pocket Light Meter or Lumu Light Meter?
Do Pocket Light Meter or Lumu Light Meter have ads?
Which is updated more often, Pocket Light Meter or Lumu Light Meter?
Other comparisons
