Do I need a light meter? Can I use Android or iPhone??

[Halfrack]

So to answer the original question, both are a solid maybe. iPhone and Android based light meters can be used for constant lights - stuff you'd use to shoot video. Light meters that understand what a strobe is are worth their weight in gold, as it allows you to construct a photo, building an image in layers, and lighting each layer independently.

So the next question is if you need a light meter. Long story short it depends on what you're shooting. Light meters are used in fine art and portraiture, mostly when using strobes. If you do this style of photography AND you are doing off camera flash, then it would be a good idea to pick up a light meter. Otherwise, save your money.

 

[docholliday]

A real meter offers something that an iPhone or android box can't - repeatability. The whole point of a real, calibrated meter is to insure consistency shot to shot. Your in-camera meter will do more than any phone will. Using a histogram is only good for verifying the shot, and will only show exposure truly correct if the whole frame consists of mostly midtones. Having a lot of sky will push the histogram more one way and having a lot of shadows will push it the other - not the proper tool for determining exposure, but for verifying that you have given the most info you can to the sensor without going outside the limits.

Why not pick up a good, used meter, such as the Sekonic L-328 and learn the concepts of photography - light control? You can get the 328 for under $100, with the incident dome, and be able to do still, cine, and strobe. There's also the Minolta AutoMeter IIIF for around $50. Somewhere like KEH http://www.keh.com/Camera/format-Accessories/system-Light-Meters/category-Light-and-Exposure-Meters?s=1&bcode=GM&ccode=70&cc=80576&r=WG&fwould be a good place to start.

Then, pick up a cheap beginner's book on photography and learn something like the SLAT (SL=AT) relationship and you'll be doing more than randomly firing off shots trying to "dial-in" proper exposure. What looks right at the time of exposure on your tiny little view screen to your eyes may not actually be proper, you may be off by 1-2 stops - which will be enough to destroy shadow or highlight detail (Zones 1-2 and 8-9). Not to mention the needless number of wasted exposures and time and will piss you off when you get to editing and realize that you can't push the recover/highlight slider in Lightroom far enough to get back the detail you saw when you shot it.

 

[Adrian2]

So to answer the original question, both are a solid maybe. iPhone and Android based light meters can be used for constant lights - stuff you'd use to shoot video. Light meters that understand what a strobe is are worth their weight in gold, as it allows you to construct a photo, building an image in layers, and lighting each layer independently.

Time is passed and things are changed. Now you can plug a simple add-on sensor in your smartphone and turn it into a high performance light/flash meter. Here are two examples:

- http://www.lu.mu/lightmeter/
- http://www.optivelox.com/app_en/lxmeter.htm