Comparison

Pocket Light Meter vs Cine Meter II

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

Cine Meter II

This app functions as a professional light and color meter for cinematographers. It offers zoomable spot metering, RGB waveform monitoring, and false-color capabilities to analyze and adjust lighting for optimal shots. It also provides calculations for exposure settings like shutter speed and aperture.

Highlights
  • Zoomable spotmeter
  • RGB waveform monitor
  • False-color mode
  • Incident meter with lux/foot-candle
  • Color temperature and tint readings
  • Exposure calculation (shutter speed, aperture, ND, ISO)
  • Shutter angle support
Features
Read full description

Cine Meter II measures light and color, so you can light and shoot and know what you'll get. “Cine Meter II is an essential app for every cinematographer.” — Jon Fauer, ASC “[T]he perfect app to have with you at all times.” — Roberto “Ganzo” Schaefer, ASC, AIC It's a zoomable spotmeter with an RGB waveform monitor and a false-color picture. It's an incident meter using a Lenny Hat or other diffusion, or Lumu™ Lite attachment, with lux and foot-candle readouts. (Lumu Power is NOT supported, and flash metering is NOT possible.) It's a color meter, showing color temperature and green/magenta tint, and giving you corrections to or from your target color. Measure more than just shutter-priority or aperture-priority: calculate shutter speed, shutter angle, aperture, ND, or ISO directly. • The exposure meter shows your stop as a decimal value (for cameras with EVF iris readouts) or as a full stop and fraction (for cine lenses with marked iris rings). Cine Meter II lets you use shutter angles – ideal for Digital Bolex and Blackmagic cameras – as well as speeds, and you can dial in ND filters and arbitrary exposure compensations. The spotmeter is zoomable up to 15x magnification (on devices that support camera zooming), using either the front or back camera. • The waveform monitor shows you how light levels vary across a scene. You'll see how smooth and even the lighting is on a greenscreen or background, and find subtle hotspots and shadows at a glance. The waveform’s RGB mode shows you color imbalances in the image and gives you a handy way to check color purity and separation for chroma-keying. • False-color mode lets you define allowable contrast ranges, and see instantly which shadows are underexposed and what highlights risk clipping. _______________________ READ BEFORE YOU BUY: Cine Meter II is NOT a flash meter; it can't measure strobes. Cine Meter II does NOT work with Lumu Power (the Lightning port Lumu), only Lumu Lite (the headphone jack Lumu). Cine Meter II gives you *absolute* light meter readings, but *relative* picture and waveform monitor levels: Cine Meter II’s picture and waveform monitor do not use the *exact* exposure shown by the light meter (they are close to the meter reading, but can differ from it slightly). The picture and waveform monitor show you *relative* levels within a scene, not *absolute* levels based on the meter reading. Shutter speeds, apertures, and ISOs shown in Cine Meter II are for metering purposes only and do not control the shutter speed, aperture, and ISO of the iPhone camera. The iPhone camera uses whatever exposure settings it needs to capture a reading. Cine Meter II is a light and color meter only; it is *not* a camera simulator. See http://www.adamwilt.com/cinemeterii/details.html#How_It_Works for details.

Screenshots

Pocket Light Meter3 screens
Cine Meter II4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Pocket Light Meter at $9.99 against Cine Meter II's $24.99. Pocket Light Meter also leads on update cadence (fortnightly vs every 3 months) and ratings volume (1K vs 25). Cine Meter II's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 3). On rating, review sentiment, 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 Cine Meter II $24.99 up front. Pocket Light Meter sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. Cine Meter II 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 Cine Meter II. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Pocket Light Meter has 1K ratings behind it against 25, 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 79% of Cine Meter II's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Pocket Light Meter ships an update fortnightly, Cine Meter II every 3 months. Both last shipped on November 6, 2026.

Scorecard6 real differences · 5 level
Pocket Light Meter versus Cine Meter II: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPocket Light MeterCine Meter II
Price$9.99 — better$24.99
Rating4.5 (1K ratings)4.5 (25 ratings) — better
Positive reviews87.1% of reviews — better79.2% of reviews
Number of ratings1K — better25
Update frequencyFortnightly — betterEvery 3 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases — betterPaid
Best chart rank#63 — better#200
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS15.615.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size34 MB3 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperNuwaste studiosAdam Wilt

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%

Cine Meter II

All ratings25 ratings
Positive84.0%
Neutral8.0%
Negative8.0%
Written reviews24 reviews
Positive79.2%
Neutral4.2%
Negative16.7%

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

Cine Meter II

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

Cine Meter II

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Pocket Light Meter free?
Pocket Light Meter costs $9.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Is Cine Meter II free?
Cine Meter II costs $24.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Pocket Light Meter or Cine Meter II?
Cine Meter II is rated higher. Pocket Light Meter averages 4.5 out of 5 from 1K ratings, while Cine Meter II averages 4.5 from 25 ratings.
Do Pocket Light Meter or Cine Meter II have ads?
Neither Pocket Light Meter nor Cine Meter II shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Pocket Light Meter or Cine Meter II?
Pocket Light Meter ships an update fortnightly, and Cine Meter II every 3 months. Most recently, Pocket Light Meter was updated on November 6, 2026 and Cine Meter II on November 6, 2026.
Which is more popular, Pocket Light Meter or Cine Meter II?
Pocket Light Meter currently peaks at #63 in the App Store charts, and Cine Meter II at #200. Chart position reflects recent download velocity rather than total install base.

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