Comparison

Lumu Light Meter vs Lightme

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

Head to head
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.

About

Lightme

This powerful light meter app offers a clean, intuitive interface optimized for one-handed use. It displays multiple aperture and shutter speed combinations simultaneously, aiding quick setting selection. Suitable for beginners and experienced photographers alike, it includes advanced features like spot metering, reciprocity failure compensation, and pinhole mode.

Highlights
  • Multiple exposure settings display
  • One-handed operation
  • Spot metering with zoom
  • Reciprocity failure compensation
  • Pinhole mode
  • Incident light metering
  • Film database
Features
Read full description

Lightme - Lightmeter is a clean, simple to use yet very powerful lightmeter. It is optimised for an easy one-handed use, both for left-handed and right-handed users, with the main controls within your thumb's reach, without the fatiguing juggling of your precious smartphone. A core distinguishing feature of Lightme - Lightmeter is that - differently from most of the other apps - it can show multiple combinations of valid settings for aperture and shutterspeed at the same time by working like a - stretched out - old needle and wheel lightmeter. This allows the user to quickly pick the desired settings without having to scroll on a tiny wheel picker. The app is designed to be welcoming to people who are just starting out, with a simple one-button use. But it offers many useful and advanced features for the more experienced shooters/users: Continuous metering (by pressing and holding or double tapping the measure button) Spot metering with a variable zoom (for more precision) which also supports average metering, and a very intuitive implementation of the zone system Automatic reciprocity failure compensation (for 25+ films, if you see exposure times in red, they are being compensated) A dedicated pinhole mode with precise exposure times for user defined apertures (multiple apertures at a time), with the possibility of setting a timer (through a shortcut) Incident light metering with calibration when using the front facing camera And more ... It also includes some other features that are enjoyable by any kind of user: Black and white preview The ability to use any of the cameras on your smartphone (swipe left/right on the preview) Multiple presets for your different camera/film/lens setups Framelines for previewing your shot, before setting up your tripod etc. A searchable list of useful tips to make better use of the application's potential A searchable list of more than 70 films to choose from with the possibility of selecting a few favourites Dark mode support and a useful level of customisation You can find even more info in the tips inside the app or you can have a look at full user manual by tapping on manual (in the settings) The app is free in all its many functionalities, but it offers In-App-Purchases in order to support the project. The only minor perk you can enable only via certain IAPs is the replacement of the Ad button with a label containing the name of your current preset, check under settings -> coffee for more info. Don't panic though, even if there's an Ad button it doesn't mean I'm going to show you ads. In fact unless you decide to tap on that button I'm never going to show you any. But if you have a few minutes to spare, watching a few of them sure helps keeping this project alive :) Try it, and, if you like it, share it with your friends and consider writing a (mini) review ;) Have a nice day, and good light!

Screenshots

Lumu Light Meter4 screens
Lightme4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Lightme at 4.8 against Lumu Light Meter's 3.4. Lightme also leads on review sentiment (91% vs 53%) and ratings volume (912 vs 99). Lumu Light Meter's advantage is iOS requirement (12.0 vs 17.0). 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. Lumu Light Meter sells 3 one-off in-app purchases and Lightme sells 6 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Lightme holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 3.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Lightme has 912 ratings behind it against 99, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 53% of Lumu Light Meter's written reviews are positive against 91% of Lightme's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Lumu Light Meter ships an update monthly, Lightme every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 19, 2026 and September 23, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Lumu Light Meter versus Lightme: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterLumu Light MeterLightme
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.4 (99 ratings)4.8 (912 ratings) — better
Positive reviews52.8% of reviews90.5% of reviews — better
Number of ratings99912 — better
Update frequencyMonthlyEvery 3 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS12.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size52 MB9 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperLumu d.o.o.Giuseppe Bertolini

Customer experience

Lumu Light Meter

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

Lightme

All ratings912 ratings
Positive96.5%
Neutral1.3%
Negative2.2%
Written reviews211 reviews
Positive90.5%
Neutral1.9%
Negative7.6%

User reviews

Lumu Light Meter

From 99 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

Lightme

From 912 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Accurate metering
  • 👍 Intuitive and clean interface
  • 💡 Comprehensive features (spot metering, zone system, film stock selection, etc.)
  • 🚀 Consistently accurate exposures
  • 👍 Thoughtful design with user's needs in mind

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Occasional crashes or freezes
  • 👎 Confusing or cluttered interface for some users
  • 👎 Tedious film selection process
  • 🐛 Inaccurate metering in certain lighting conditions

Bugs and 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
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

Lightme

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Crashes on iOS 16
  • Metering issues with certain camera/lens combinations

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add shutter angle adjustment for cinematography
  • Implement ISO lock feature
  • Add more film stock profiles
  • Improve film selection process (e.g. search, categories)
  • Provide more customization options (e.g. interface themes)

In-app purchases

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
6 purchases

Lightme

One-time6
  • Espresso ristretto$1.99
  • Pecorino Romano$4.99
  • Guanciale$9.99
Show 3 more
  • Parmigiano$16.99
  • Pizza for two$29.99
  • Do this full-time$59.99

Questions

Is Lumu Light Meter free?
Lumu Light Meter is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Lightme free?
Lightme is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Lumu Light Meter or Lightme?
Lightme is rated higher. Lumu Light Meter averages 3.4 out of 5 from 99 ratings, while Lightme averages 4.8 from 912 ratings.
Do Lumu Light Meter or Lightme have ads?
Neither Lumu Light Meter nor Lightme shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Lumu Light Meter or Lightme?
Lumu Light Meter ships an update monthly, and Lightme every 3 weeks. Most recently, Lumu Light Meter was updated on September 19, 2026 and Lightme on September 23, 2026.

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