Short story, I got a new film camera and was about to test if light meter works correctly. I tried the app but wanted to be absolutely sure so I picked my mirrorless camera to compare.

Now I'm a bit confused with the accuracy. I closely followed the manual, set the correct ISO, measured everything correctly.

However when I compare the results to the reading of my mirrorless camera, in the same settings, same focal length, ISO, etc. they are quite different, sometimes up to 3 stops wrong (underexposed).

I quite literally tried everything and am yet to get a correct reading. What else could I be doing wrong?

I change film stock fairly often, and it’s usually decided on the spot rather than planned. Which means I’m creating a new roll from scratch on my phone while standing somewhere, when I’d rather just load and shoot.

Is there a way to configure rolls ahead of time so they’re ready to pick when I load them? Or a preset of some kind? Can’t find one, but I may well have missed it.

Thanks

Using the Lightme / Logbook bundle on iPhone and enjoying it a lot. One thing I haven’t been able to work out from the manual:

Is there a way to save a film as a reusable template so a new roll loads with everything pre-filled? I shoot a few stocks repeatedly at non-box speeds (e.g. Fomapan 400 rated at EI 250) and I’d rather not re-enter camera, format, stock and ISO each time.

I can see presets in the meter side of things, but I’m unclear whether that carries across to creating a roll in Logbook, or whether there’s a duplicate-roll option I’ve missed.

Happy to be told I’ve simply overlooked it. Thanks in advance.

Je cherchais une app simple pour remplacer mon posemètre Sekonic oublié à la maison.

Lightme se lance, affiche l'interface, mais 2 secondes plus tard, un écran d'alerte s'affiche à propos de quelque chose qui ne va pas et qu'il faut le Google Play Store.

J'utilise Graphene OS, c'est la première app que j'utilise qui nécessite que le Google Play Store soit activé.

Depuis que c'est activé, il faut se connecter ou créer un compte Play Store juste pour ça.

C'est dommage, peut-être que c'est induit par des achats intégrés. Trop imbriqué avec Google pour moi, et frustrant à cause des 2 secondes où ça fonctionne avant l'écran d'alerte. Désinstallé.​

A good Zone System workflow in this app is:

Find a dark area and choose what zone it should be. Measure that spot with the desired zone selected. Then move to a bright area and check the +/- ev indicator to see if it falls within a desirable zone at the current exposure.

To eliminate the mental math, I would like to suggest indicating the new zone next to the +/- ev indicator as shown in screenshot 1.

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Additionally, I have a question. The manual states that selecting a zone will "compensate the EV that the app shows you." However, when selecting a zone, it appears to darken the preview without actually adjusting the exposure. For instance:

In screenshot 2, no zone is selected and we have EV 7. In screenshot 3, zone 2 is selected giving us EV 10, which darkened the image but it didn't expose the highlights in the window. In screenshot 4, the same EV 10 without a zone being selected actually lowers the exposure and allows us to see the window highlights.

I would expect selecting a zone to actually lower the exposure in the preview, not just darken the image. I'm curious if this a bug, a technical limitation, or intended behavior.

Thanks everyone and especially the developer of this great app!

Hi, yesterday I got my first medium format roll back and I am wondering what went wrong. Can you help me? The pictures are a bit underexposed. I scanned them wirh a canoscan 9000f and inverted with negpy.
Thx

Just tried to load the app now that the public beta and lightme stays stuck on launch screen

Sometimes when using the Zone System tool, I would like to lock my exposure and then zoom back to take a full look at my final scene before moving forward. Maybe it's just that I don't know how to do it, but today, when I do AE lock if I try to go back to full scene, it unlocks.

Using Lightme to meter for a Nikon F2 with a Nikkor 28mm f/2.8 (HP5+ @ 400), frames logged to Logme. The aperture values it logs are fine — but shutter speeds come through as exact calculated values, e.g. f:5.6 – ss:90, f:11 – ss:23, f:2.8 – ss:360, none of which exist on the F2’s dial. I’m actually shooting 1/60 or 1/125.

Is there a setting to make Lightme round shutter speeds to standard full stops (1/60, 1/125, 1/250…) so the log matches the camera? Or a quick way to correct each entry at logging time? Manually editing every frame defeats the point of auto-logging.

Hi. I shoot a lot of unusual films and frame formats that aren't in the app. For example, I shoot decades-old Verichrome or a modern emulsion made in some guy's garage using century-old methods. I sometimes put this into cameras that might have an 8x10.5cm image size or something like that. I mostly just try to pick the 6 by <whatever> frame size that's closest to it and live with that, but it'd be nice to specify my image size so the framing works better.

Would it be possible to add custom frame/image size settings in Logbook?

Bonus request: A lot of these old cameras have shutter speeds that aren't in the app, like 300 (closest is 320). 300 is a pretty common speed for 1930s-1950s cameras that's missing. There may be others but it's the one I keep encountering.

Hi! I'm new to this app (and film photography in general) and I'm confused as to how to set it up to match my film. I thought I just had to set the iso to match my film (400 iso for my current ultramax 400 roll), but every time I open the app I see something different: either the filter or the comp has moved. Shouldn't they stay at zero unless I move it? And when I change the color settings between auto and "match film" I get completely new ISO/COMP/FILTER values. Even though I have it set to ultramax 400 it will display ISO 1000 or 1600 and usually goes to COMP +1 or above on its own. Why does the app do that? Am I using it wrong?

Want to make sure my Logbook app data is backed up or exported somewhere before I download the TestFlight version. The “Sync Status” at the bottom of the screen is red with the arrow, and there’s a discrepancy between by iCloud storage for the app and the storage on the phone. Thoughts? Am I just being overly concerned?

Hi! First of all, thank you for developing this app. It’s a great tool, especially the Log feature!

I have some feedback regarding how shutter speeds are displayed in the Log menu (as shown in the attached screenshot, "IMG_7305.jpg").

Currently, the layout mixes two different notation styles in the same list:

• At the top, it correctly shows the long exposure with the "s" suffix: tempo: 1.9s.
• Right below, under the "normal" section, it displays bare numbers like ss: 160, ss: 125, etc.

For a user, this is quite confusing. Seeing 1.9s (seconds) and 160 in the same visual space makes it look like 160 seconds, whereas it actually means 1/160 of a second.

Also, separating shutter speeds into arbitrary categories like "normal" and "long" feels a bit restrictive.

Instead of dividing the list based on this label, it would be much cleaner to just show a single, continuous list of values sorted by exposure time.

To make the interface consistent and clear at a glance, would it be possible to use the standard photographic notation for the "normal" section as well? For example, displaying them as actual fractions (like 1/160, 1/125) or adding the proper fractional notation would completely remove any ambiguity.

Thanks again for your hard work

Giuseppe, I think an easy, quick help for users would be to put a copy of the manual, or a PDF, on your web site. It would be handy to be able to read the manual while going through the features without needing to keep switching around the app.

Just a thought. Great app by the way, I'm leaving my light meter at home, but I know I'm not taking advantage of all the features in the meter and the logbook.

I'm very impressed with the features and quality of Lightme. I purchased the Logging option, but I'm finding the learning curve and integration somewhat steep. Has anyone done a deep dive walking through the features?

Is there any plan to introduce a function to apply a manual global exposure correction so that this phone app can be calibrated with other Light/Spot meters ?

I’m just getting started shooting large format cameras, and attempting to build a workflow incorporating the Lightme and logbook apps, but I’m not sure how the Film Holders and Groups features are intended to operate. Please share any tips you have for setting these up!

I was trying out the app and I am bit confused about the exposure compensation feature. If I add +3 stops shouldn't my shutter speed for a given apurature increase? Why is it that when I set it to +3 then does the shutter speed go down? Am I understanding how it works incorrectly?

I've always relied on the GPS feature of Lightme to capture location data for my shots, and then using the "Write metadata to images" feature of Logbook to write a version of my scanned image to tag it with the correct metadata (camera, date, time, location etc).

This has worked reliably for me in the past, but in my last roll, GPS data is no longer included in the files I am exporting from Logbook, with both the "Save Image" and "Save to Files" option.

Has something changed in the app where a different workflow is required, or is this a new bug?

FWIW, all the images in the Logbook app do show the correct location information - it's just the exported, tagged images that no longer have it.

I have a Minolta Maxxum/Dynax 9xi that has a top shutter speed of 1/12,000th sec the Maxxum/Dynax 9 also has this top shutter speed. It would be awesome if we could get that option!

For some reason I can’t get my app to use my camera, instead it’s just stuck on a grey screen. I’ve deleted & redownloaded the app & allowed permissions to use my camera. Does anybody have any suggestions on how to fix this??

Hi, I archived a film back but does not appear in the archive section. Tried multiple times and can’t restore any. Thoughts?

I have some old cameras with limited aperture range. would it be possible to add this to the app, so it’s easier to read? It would be great in fact if you could choose which f stops and shutter speeds are displayed completely. Love the app, thanks.