Comparison

Shot Designer vs Lumu Light Meter

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

Head to head
About

Shot Designer

Create detailed camera diagrams and shot lists quickly. Animate characters and cameras in real-time to visualize scene rhythm. Import storyboards and sync projects with your team.

Highlights
  • Real-time camera and character animation
  • Integrated shot list generation
  • Director's viewfinder and storyboard import
  • Set and lighting design tools
  • Team sharing and syncing
  • Template creation and library
Features
Read full description

WHAT IS SHOT DESIGNER? • CAMERA DIAGRAM - Shot Designer dramatically speeds up the Director's process of making camera diagrams. Create full-blown diagrams in seconds. The software does most of the work. • ANIMATION - Animate your characters and cameras to move around your diagram in real-time. Previsualize the rhythm of a scene by seeing it play out. • SHOT LIST - The integrated Shot List is tied into the diagram and writes itself while you work. Edit shots intuitively in the diagram, not in a confusing spreadsheet. • DIRECTOR'S VIEWFINDER / STORYBOARDS - Bring in lens-accurate camera angles via the integrated Director's Viewfinder or Storyboard Import. • MAC/PC DESKTOP VERSION - An identical Mac/PC Desktop Version is included with the Pro Version (in-app upgrade). • SYNC & TEAM SHARING - Sync your scenes across all your devices. Share scene folders with teams. Control who owns which scene. (Pro Feature) Watch the feature-demo at https://www.hollywoodcamerawork.com/shot-designer-videos.html CAMERA-BLOCKING ON STEROIDS Shot Designer was developed by Per Holmes, the creator of the renowned Hollywood Camera Work training, and has been developed in conjunction with major TV and Film productions. Shot Designer is based on the realization that neither Camera Diagrams, Shot Lists, or Storyboards by themselves give you a satisfying understanding of camera-blocking -- you have to use them *together*. Shot Designer is FAST. The app knows how Directing works and automatically does most of the work for you. Cameras rearrange themselves when you move characters. Animate characters and cameras with simple Walk To and Track To commands. Create sophisticated tracking shots with multiple marks. Shot Designer is fast enough that you can rearrange the diagram with actors waiting. OTHER FEATURES • Integrated Set Designer for building floor plans. • Integrated Lighting Designer for DPs, with lighting symbols provided by Ari Golan of Atomic Imaging Studios Chicago. • Import production drawings as backgrounds and block on top of them. • Factory Templates of pre-made camera setups for any situation. • Make your own templates as starting points for new scenes. • Large and growing prop/furniture library. Email us requests, we'll build them. • Scene Freeze: Experiment easily by taking snapshots you can return to (Pro). • PDF/JPG/Excel export and emailing of Camera Diagrams and Shot Lists (Pro). • Unlimited Folder Structure for organizing scenes (Pro). The Free Version of Shot Designer is full-featured except for Save, Export and Sync/Team. Your current scene is always saved, and you can be fully productive working on one scene at a time. The Pro Version (in-app upgrade) adds File Management, identical Mac/PC Desktop Version, Sync and Team Sharing, PDF/JPG/Excel Export and more.

About

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.

Highlights
  • Standalone reflective light meter
  • Flash and color temperature metering
  • Photo and cine/video modes
  • Spot metering
  • Color temperature in Kelvin
  • Store measurements with notes
Read full description

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

Shot Designer3 screens
Lumu Light Meter4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Shot Designer at 3.8 against Lumu Light Meter's 3.4. Shot Designer also leads on review sentiment (68% vs 53%). Lumu Light Meter's advantage is ratings volume (103 vs 10). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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

Both are free to download. Shot Designer sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Lumu Light Meter sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Shot Designer holds the better App Store score, 3.8 against 3.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Lumu Light Meter has 103 ratings behind it against 10, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 68% of Shot Designer's written reviews are positive against 53% of Lumu Light Meter's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 29, 2026 and October 20, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Shot Designer versus Lumu Light Meter: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterShot DesignerLumu Light Meter
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.8 (10 ratings) — better3.4 (103 ratings)
Positive reviews68.0% of reviews — better52.8% of reviews
Number of ratings10103 — better
Update frequencyMonthlyMonthly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS12.012.0
Further details — not scored
Size82 MB52 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperHollywood Camera Work SRLLumu d.o.o.

Customer experience

Shot Designer

All ratings10 ratings
Positive60.0%
Neutral20.0%
Negative20.0%
Written reviews175 reviews
Positive68.0%
Neutral9.1%
Negative22.9%

Lumu Light Meter

All ratings99 ratings
Positive56.6%
Neutral6.1%
Negative37.4%
Written reviews106 reviews
Positive52.8%
Neutral4.7%
Negative42.5%

User reviews

Shot Designer

From 10 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Intuitive and easy-to-use interface
  • 🎬 Excellent tool for shot planning and blocking
  • 📱 Seamless cross-device sync (iPad, iPhone, Mac, PC)
  • 🎨 Useful for visualizing camera movements and lighting setups
  • 📊 Ability to export to PDF and share with crew

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Frequent crashes and white screen issues
  • 😞 App feels outdated and abandoned
  • 🔐 Login and account synchronization problems
  • 📱 Poor optimization for modern devices and screen sizes
  • ⚠️ Limited props and lighting equipment library

Lumu Light Meter

From 103 App Store ratings

What 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

Shot Designer

Reported bugs

17 issues
  • White screen of death on app launch
  • App crashes when adding image props
  • Login not working on iPhone devices
  • Cannot register due to UI form scrolling errors
  • Keyboard overlay blocking sign-in form
Show 12 more
  • Sync deletes user work unexpectedly
  • Pro version purchase not recognized after updates
  • Cannot save designs to phone
  • App doesn't fill entire screen on modern devices
  • Lag when renaming scenes
  • Keyboard doesn't appear when naming files
  • Difficulty selecting objects when grouped closely together
  • App crashes on iPhone 6s and newer devices
  • Incompatibility with iOS 10.2 and later
  • Director's viewfinder doesn't save metadata to photo gallery
  • Cross-device sync losing work
  • Account login issues between iOS and desktop versions

Requested features

25 requests
  • Apple Pencil integration for iPad
  • Import custom designs and elements
  • Drag-and-drop file import from Files app
  • More lighting instruments and props
  • PDF export functionality
Show 20 more
  • Ability to import background images from Files app (not just Photos)
  • Copy and paste functionality
  • Assignable character names for multiple scenes
  • Moveable background images
  • Scene metadata for automatic camera labeling
  • Ability to reorder shots in Mac version
  • Undo functionality
  • iCloud sync support
  • Google Drive integration
  • Full-screen mode for modern iPhones
  • French language support
  • Spanish language support
  • Scene duplication feature
  • More than 5 pages available
  • Storyboard animation export
  • Audio/soundtrack integration
  • Script import capability
  • Hide individual objects instead of entire categories
  • Retina Display support for Mac
  • Real-time sync between devices

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 more
  • 🐛 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 more
  • 💡 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

1 purchases

Shot Designer

One-time1
  • Pro Version Upgrade$19.99
3 purchases

Lumu Light Meter

One-time3
  • Lite to Power Upgrade$69.99
  • Power to Pro Upgrade$229.99
  • Lite to Pro Upgrade$249.99

Questions

Is Shot Designer free?
Shot Designer is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Lumu Light Meter free?
Lumu Light Meter is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Shot Designer or Lumu Light Meter?
Shot Designer is rated higher. Shot Designer averages 3.8 out of 5 from 10 ratings, while Lumu Light Meter averages 3.4 from 103 ratings.
Do Shot Designer or Lumu Light Meter have ads?
Neither Shot Designer nor Lumu Light Meter shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Shot Designer or Lumu Light Meter?
Shot Designer ships an update monthly, and Lumu Light Meter monthly. Most recently, Shot Designer was updated on October 29, 2026 and Lumu Light Meter on October 20, 2026.

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