Lumu Light Meter vs Light Meter Ultra
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
Light Meter Ultra
This app provides precise light metering for film photography, eliminating the need for external hardware. It offers various metering modes and customizable profiles to ensure perfect exposures for manual cameras. Advanced features like reciprocity failure correction are available with a PRO plan.
- Aperture Priority Metering
- Shutter Priority Metering
- Exposure Priority Metering
- Customizable ISO, Shutter Speed, Aperture
- Exposure Compensation
- Reciprocity Failure Correction
- Custom Camera Profiles
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Fast, precise and easy to use. Get perfect exposures every time. No additional hardware required. Say goodbye to arcane Sunny 16. Figuring out the best exposure settings for your manual camera doesn’t have to be difficult. Light Meter Ultra for iPhone gives you the exact readings you need for your camera by simply pointing your device at the scene. Precise measurements mean you can dial in the perfect exposure settings for capturing the widest dynamic range, whilst customizable shooting profiles allow you to switch between settings with a single tap. Download now and take advantage of our free plan which includes our precision Aperture Priority metering mode, limited settings, and single-use shooting profiles. Or choose one of our PRO plans and gain access to everything the app has to offer, including our full suite of professional metering modes, quick-select reusable shooting profiles, plus advanced features such as reciprocity failure correction that you won't find elsewhere. Capture your creative vision with powerful features, including: - Aperture Priority Metering Mode - Shutter Priority Metering Mode* - Exposure Priority Metering Mode* - Stop increment selection of full, half or third stops* - Customizable ISO, Shutter Speed and Aperture ranges* - Exposure Compensation - Exposure Lock - Sample Offset - Custom Camera Profiles* - Detachable Lens Profiles* - Film/Emulsion Profiles* - Bulb-mode* - Reciprocity Failure Correction* *Features marked with an asterisk require an active PRO plan Download now and start metering on your iPhone today. Terms of Use: https://lightmeterultra.com/terms Privacy Policy: https://lightmeterultra.com/privacy
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Light Meter Ultra at 4.7 against Lumu Light Meter's 3.4. Light Meter Ultra also leads on update cadence (every 8 days vs monthly) and ratings volume (738 vs 103). Lumu Light Meter's advantage is review sentiment (53% vs 38%) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 18.6). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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
Both are free to download. Lumu Light Meter sells 3 one-off in-app purchases and Light Meter Ultra sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $7.99 per 7 days. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Light Meter Ultra holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 3.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Light Meter Ultra has 738 ratings behind it against 103, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 53% of Lumu Light Meter's written reviews are positive against 38% of Light Meter Ultra's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Lumu Light Meter ships an update monthly, Light Meter Ultra every 8 days. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 7, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Lumu Light Meter | Light Meter Ultra |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.4 (103 ratings) | 4.7 (738 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 52.8% of reviews — better | 37.9% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 103 | 738 — better |
| Update frequency | Monthly | Every 8 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 — better | 18.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 52 MB | 81 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Lumu d.o.o. | Ultrafine |
Customer experience
Lumu Light Meter
Light Meter Ultra
User reviews
Lumu Light Meter
From 103 App Store ratingsWhat 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
Light Meter Ultra
From 738 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Accurate and fast metering
- 👍 Clean and intuitive interface
- 💡 Customizable settings (aperture, shutter, ISO)
- 🔍 Useful for analog/film photography
Room to improve
- 💰 Expensive subscription model
- 🔒 Locked features behind paywall
- 🐛 Unreliable performance in low-light conditions
- 📱 Requires internet connection for full functionality
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
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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
Light Meter Ultra
Reported bugs
2 issues- Camera integration issues causing failed exposures
- Inconsistent metering results compared to standalone meters
Requested features
4 requests- Offline mode for remote shooting
- Wider aperture and shutter speed range
- Support for more camera/film types
- Customizable exposure bias/compensation
In-app purchases
Lumu Light Meter
- Lite to Power Upgrade$69.99
- Power to Pro Upgrade$229.99
- Lite to Pro Upgrade$249.99
Light Meter Ultra
- Light Meter7 Days trial2 variants$7.997 Days
- Light Meter2 variants$11.991 Month
- Light Meter2 variants$39.991 Year
Questions
Is Lumu Light Meter free?
Is Light Meter Ultra free?
Which has better reviews, Lumu Light Meter or Light Meter Ultra?
Do Lumu Light Meter or Light Meter Ultra have ads?
Which is updated more often, Lumu Light Meter or Light Meter Ultra?
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