Lens. vs Luma · Light Meter
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Lens.
Read full descriptionHide full description
Experience photography the way it used to feel—slow, tactile, and full of anticipation. This app brings the warmth of vintage cameras into today’s world, blending nostalgic mechanics with the simplicity of your phone. Every interaction is designed to feel real: toggle the flash with a gentle click, slide the exposure dial, set a timer, and capture a moment that doesn’t appear instantly. Instead, it develops gradually, inviting you to pause and appreciate the magic of discovery. Shake your device to speed up the reveal, feel subtle haptics that mimic the touch of classic hardware, and listen to soft mechanical sounds crafted to recreate an authentic analog experience. Store your photos, curate your own board, and explore them in a fully immersive 3D Wall, where each memory gains depth, presence, and a sense of physicality—just like displaying prints in your own creative space. Features: • Flash, exposure, and timer controls inspired by old cameras • Gradual photo development with shake interaction • Carefully designed haptics for tactile realism • Soft, minimal mechanical sound effects • Personal board to keep your favorite memories • 3D Wall to showcase your photos in an immersive space • A nostalgic, immersive take on mobile photography Capture the moment. Feel the moment. Reveal the moment.
Luma · Light Meter
Read full descriptionHide full description
A mechanical camera does not forgive an exposure mistake: on a roll of 36, you only see your misses at the lab. Luma answers the one question that matters as you raise the camera — which aperture, which shutter speed, for this scene and this film? No shot log, no frame counter, no hidden settings. One screen, three values. LIVE METERING Your iPhone's camera becomes the meter. Luma continuously reads the exposure the phone settles on and converts it into an ISO 100 normalised EV, smoothed for a stable reading. No photo is ever saved: the image is analysed, then forgotten. ONE RECOMMENDATION, NOT A LIST Luma shows a single aperture and shutter pair, chosen for handheld shooting: at least 1/125 s to stay clear of camera shake, then f/5.6 to f/8 where the lens is sharpest. When light runs short, it opens the aperture before slowing the shutter. THE DIAL Every equivalent aperture / shutter pair scrolls under your thumb with clicking haptic feedback, like the shutter dial on the body. Pick f/2.8 to lift a portrait off its background, f/16 for a landscape sharp front to back — the shutter speed follows. SPOT METERING Tap the viewfinder to place the metering circle on your subject: a backlit face, a shadow worth keeping. Tap the circle to return to average metering. IT REFUSES TO LIE When the scene falls outside the camera's range, Luma says so — too dark, too bright — and shows no values at all. A wrong recommendation would be worse than none. IT EXPLAINS Two lines under the values: what the shown aperture does to depth of field, what the shown shutter speed means for shake. Enough to learn, roll after roll. FILM STOCKS Portra 160/400/800, Ektar 100, Gold 200, UltraMax 400, HP5+ 400, Tri-X 400, Delta 100/400, Fomapan 100/400 — plus manual ISO entry for everything else, including pushed or pulled film. Your choice stays loaded for the whole roll. BUILT FOR A SPECIFIC CAMERA Luma is calibrated for a Nikon FM2 with a 28 mm f/2.8 lens: 1 s to 1/4000 s, f/2.8 to f/22. It serves any manual camera sharing that range just as well — simply transfer the values to the stops your gear actually has. Independent project, not affiliated with Nikon; trademarks are named only to describe compatibility. IT ASKS FOR NOTHING No account, no ads, no network access: Luma works fully offline and collects no data whatsoever. Free, no in-app purchases, open source. Please note: the app's interface is in French. Luma is an aid, not a guarantee — cross-check it against a reference meter on a few scenes before trusting it with a roll.
Screenshots
Verdict
Lens. and Luma · Light Meter are too close to call on the numbers: across 5 compared parameters — price, ads, in-app purchases and device support among them — neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
| Parameter | Lens. | Luma · Light Meter |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | Daily | — |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 18.6 | 17.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 35 MB | 1 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Leonardo Monteiro | Élite Dangereuse |
In-app purchases
Lens.
No in-app purchases
Luma · Light Meter
No in-app purchases









