Before
cameras had built-in light meters, photographers used to wave hand-held
meters around to measure light intensity and work out their aperture
and shutter-speed settings. If you think that sounds like fun, meet the
Lumu – a light meter attachment that's currently being developed for the
iPhone.
The tiny device connects to the iPhone's headphone jack
and has a claimed light measuring range of -4 to 20EV, with an accuracy (according to the manufacturer) of 0.1EV.
But why would you want a
separate light meter when there's one built into your camera? Although
you don't see them around as much these days light meters are still
widely used by pro photographers because they are more accurate than the
meters in cameras. The light meter in your camera measures reflected
light. That is, the light reflected off the subject. This works pretty
well most of the time, but it assumes that everything in the scene is
mid-grey and it can be tricked if the subject is very dark or very
light. Incidence light metering, used by hand-held light meters,
measures the light falling directly onto the subject and in most cases
should be much more accurate.
The Lumu is supported by an accompanying iPhone app and comes with a leather case and a necklace holder.
Lumu's inventors are seeking funding on Kickstarter to bring the Lumu to market. You can kick in $99 to get an early delivery or wait to see if it turns up in your local store.
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Lumu's digital light sensor has a claimed light measuring range of 0.15 to 250,000 lux (-4 to 20 EV).
Accessories include a leather case and a necklace holder.
