Long Exposure Toolkit vs Lumu Light Meter
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- ND Calculator
- Light Meter
- Timelapse Calculator
- Exposure Value (EV) Calculator
- Star Trail Calculator
- Exposure Timer
- Flickr Photo Feed
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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.
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 review sentiment: Long Exposure Toolkit at 100% against Lumu Light Meter's 53%. Long Exposure Toolkit also leads on rating (4.5 vs 3.4) and in-app purchases (none vs 3). Lumu Light Meter's advantage is price (Free vs $5.99) and ratings volume (99 vs 4). 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
Lumu Light Meter is free to download; Long Exposure Toolkit costs $5.99 up front. Lumu Light Meter sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. Long Exposure Toolkit asks for nothing beyond the download.
Long Exposure Toolkit holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 3.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Lumu Light Meter has 99 ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 100% of Long Exposure Toolkit's written reviews are positive against 53% of Lumu Light Meter's.
Long Exposure Toolkit ships an update every 3 months, Lumu Light Meter monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 2, 2026 and October 12, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Long Exposure Toolkit | Lumu Light Meter |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $5.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 4.5 (4 ratings) — better | 3.4 (99 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better | 52.8% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 4 | 99 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Monthly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Paid | Free with in-app purchases — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 12.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 30 MB | 52 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Andrew Offield | Lumu d.o.o. |
Customer experience
Long Exposure Toolkit
Lumu Light Meter
Bugs and requests
Long Exposure Toolkit
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
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
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- 🐛 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
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- 💡 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
Long Exposure Toolkit
No in-app purchases
Lumu Light Meter
- Lite to Power Upgrade$69.99
- Power to Pro Upgrade$229.99
- Lite to Pro Upgrade$249.99
Questions
Is Long Exposure Toolkit free?
Is Lumu Light Meter free?
Which has better reviews, Long Exposure Toolkit or Lumu Light Meter?
Do Long Exposure Toolkit or Lumu Light Meter have ads?
Which is updated more often, Long Exposure Toolkit or Lumu Light Meter?
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