The smartphone accessory that makes you a better film photographer
Lumu turns your iPhone into a dead-simple light meter
A circular device roughly the size of an American quarter, the Lumu is much smaller than a traditional light meter, and makes use of the smartphone you’re already carrying around. There’s a special light sensing chip under a plastic diffusion dome on the Lumu, and an app to provide an exposure recommendation based on the measured light. In effect, the Lumu is using today’s technology to make it easier to take pictures with yesterday’s methods.
Lumu-330-7
The Lumu comes in black or silver, is made of aluminum, and requires no batteries of its own. Included in the square tin with the Lumu is a neck strap and leather pouch to store the device when it’s not in use. (The tin can also be repurposed as a film storage container, as it’s just tall enough to accommodate a 35mm roll of film standing up.)
There are two apps that work alongside the Lumu: a standard light-metering app and one designed specifically for pinhole photography. The light metering app offers a variety of settings and can display exposure recommendations in full stop, half stop, or third stop steps. Just as with a traditional light meter, I can set my chosen ISO and aperture, and the app will recommend the right shutter speed for my camera based on the current lighting conditions. Or I can lock my shutter speed and have the app recommend apertures. The app also provides a Dropbox-syncable notes section for jotting down the exposure settings for each frame in a roll of film, which can be referred to later on after the pictures have been developed.
THE LUMU IS CAPABLE OF MEASURING THE LIGHT DIRECTLY FALLING ON YOUR SUBJECT
At $149, the Lumu isn’t a cheap, throwaway accessory. If you shoot with a digital camera, you probably don’t need it, as today’s cameras have excellent metering systems already built in to them. But if you’re exploring the world of analog photography, and you’re using a vintage camera with a limited reflective meter (or no meter at all), the Lumu makes smart use of the phone you’re already carrying without the higher cost and bulk of a traditional light meter.
A circular device roughly the size of an American quarter, the Lumu is much smaller than a traditional light meter, and makes use of the smartphone you’re already carrying around. There’s a special light sensing chip under a plastic diffusion dome on the Lumu, and an app to provide an exposure recommendation based on the measured light. In effect, the Lumu is using today’s technology to make it easier to take pictures with yesterday’s methods.
Lumu-330-7
The Lumu comes in black or silver, is made of aluminum, and requires no batteries of its own. Included in the square tin with the Lumu is a neck strap and leather pouch to store the device when it’s not in use. (The tin can also be repurposed as a film storage container, as it’s just tall enough to accommodate a 35mm roll of film standing up.)
There are two apps that work alongside the Lumu: a standard light-metering app and one designed specifically for pinhole photography. The light metering app offers a variety of settings and can display exposure recommendations in full stop, half stop, or third stop steps. Just as with a traditional light meter, I can set my chosen ISO and aperture, and the app will recommend the right shutter speed for my camera based on the current lighting conditions. Or I can lock my shutter speed and have the app recommend apertures. The app also provides a Dropbox-syncable notes section for jotting down the exposure settings for each frame in a roll of film, which can be referred to later on after the pictures have been developed.
THE LUMU IS CAPABLE OF MEASURING THE LIGHT DIRECTLY FALLING ON YOUR SUBJECT
At $149, the Lumu isn’t a cheap, throwaway accessory. If you shoot with a digital camera, you probably don’t need it, as today’s cameras have excellent metering systems already built in to them. But if you’re exploring the world of analog photography, and you’re using a vintage camera with a limited reflective meter (or no meter at all), the Lumu makes smart use of the phone you’re already carrying without the higher cost and bulk of a traditional light meter.
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