Lumu Light Meter vs FilmMeter
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
Read full descriptionHide 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.
FilmMeter
This app transforms your iPhone into a professional light meter for film photography. It offers real-time metering, LiDAR ranging for accurate focus, and comprehensive film roll management. Features include reciprocity calculation, ND filter compensation, and an exposure log to streamline your shooting workflow.
- Real-time light metering
- LiDAR ranging and depth of field
- Film roll and camera management
- Reciprocity and ND filter compensation
- Long exposure timer
- Exposure logging
Read full descriptionHide full description
FilmMeter turns your iPhone into a professional light meter for film cameras. Real-time metering, LiDAR ranging, reciprocity calculation, and exposure logging — one app covers your entire shooting workflow from loading film to the final frame. Metering Measure exposure in real-time using your iPhone camera. Spot metering reads any point precisely, while average metering balances the whole scene. Full control over aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. iPhone 16 users can meter and adjust EV directly with the Camera Control button. Ranging & Depth of Field Get accurate focus distance with LiDAR-enabled devices. The depth of field scale shows your sharp range and hyperfocal distance, supporting 35mm (full frame) and medium format calculations. Camera Management Create profiles for your cameras and lenses. Set focal length and aperture range for each lens, then link a camera when loading film — aperture selection is automatically constrained to your lens's actual range. Manage your digital film bag the way you manage your real gear. Film Roll Management Create a roll, select your film stock, start shooting. Push/pull processing support lets you set development stops and automatically converts to effective ISO. Each metering links to your current roll automatically. The frame counter tracks remaining shots. Mark rolls as in progress, finished, or developed. ND Filters Built-in support for ND2 through ND10000. Select a filter and exposure is compensated automatically — no manual stop conversion needed. Pair with the long exposure timer to master daytime slow shutter work. Reciprocity Compensation Film loses sensitivity during long exposures. FilmMeter includes reciprocity data for popular film stocks and calculates the corrected shutter time automatically. Long Exposure Timer Long-press the metering button to start a countdown. The timer integrates with Dynamic Island — visible even when locked. Get notified when your exposure completes. No more counting seconds for star trails or light painting. Smart Exposure Suggestions Built-in scene recognition analyzes your frame. In tricky lighting like snow, backlight, or night scenes, it tells you "add one stop" instead of leaving you to figure it out. Exposure Log Every metering saves full parameters and location. Export to CSV. Review your decisions, build your film notes. More Features • ND filter auto exposure compensation • Film LUT live preview • Aspect ratio overlays (135/120 formats) • Focal length frame lines (28-200mm) • Darkroom-friendly red-on-black interface • Metric and imperial units Free to Use • No subscription, no account required • Fully offline, no ads • English and Chinese Designed for film photography. Professional enough for experienced shooters, simple enough for beginners.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: FilmMeter at 96% against Lumu Light Meter's 53%. FilmMeter also leads on rating (4.8 vs 3.4) and update cadence (every 2 days vs monthly). Lumu Light Meter's advantage is device support (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 17.0). On price, ratings volume, 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
Both are free to download. Lumu Light Meter sells 3 one-off in-app purchases and FilmMeter sells 4 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
FilmMeter holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 3.4. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 103 and 64 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 53% of Lumu Light Meter's written reviews are positive against 96% of FilmMeter's.
Lumu Light Meter ships an update monthly, FilmMeter every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on October 20, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Lumu Light Meter | FilmMeter |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.4 (103 ratings) | 4.8 (64 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 52.8% of reviews | 96.2% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 103 — better | 64 |
| Update frequency | Monthly | Every 2 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 52 MB | 143 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Lumu d.o.o. | 宗 侯 |
Customer experience
Lumu Light Meter
FilmMeter
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 moreShow fewer
- 🐛 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 moreShow fewer
- 💡 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
FilmMeter
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Lumu Light Meter
- Lite to Power Upgrade$69.99
- Power to Pro Upgrade$229.99
- Lite to Pro Upgrade$249.99
FilmMeter
- Buy me a coffee$0.99
- Buy me lunch$2.99
- 请我吃块蛋糕$9.99
Show 1 moreShow fewer
- 赞助开发$19.99









