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Luxi For All is a small attachment for iOS devices which works with a FREE app to turn your device into an incident light meter. When paired with the FREE Luxi™ app, Luxi For All will help you determine the best settings for your DSLR or other camera, so you can take perfectly exposed pictures.
Luxi For All is a diffusion dome attachment for your iOS device's front-facing camera. When paired with the free Luxi app, Luxi For All will help you determine the best settings for your DSLR or other camera, so you can take perfectly exposed pictures. It's just like one of those fancy old-school light meters, but at a far better price. And because it works with the gadget you already have in your pocket, it's way more convenient!
Luxi For All on an iPod Touch with a case
"I already have a light meter built into my camera; why do I need a separate device?"
The light meter built into cameras measures reflected light. A reflected light meter shows an appropriate setting for an average of the whole scene. If you are taking a picture of a scene that does has neither an average, nor internally consistent lighting situation, your camera's built-in light meter will not be accurate. Usually, that causes an overexposed or underexposed picture.
Sunset portraits and other pictures with strong back-lighting are common situations, and can be aided by using an incident light meter like Luxi For All.
Photo credit: Photojojo
Luxi For All builds upon the design of the original Luxi to bring convenient, inexpensive light metering to everybody who owns a mobile device. While the original Luxi was designed specifically for iPhone, Luxi For All will fit onto almost any of your iOS devices: iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad...you name it. Even if your device is inside a case!
Luxi for All fits on any device!
Luxi for All on an iPad Mini
Smart Cover? No problem.
Well done, interesting and simple design.
— Dr. Vlad Vyshemirsky, Developer of the Pocket Light Meter app
I love the idea.
— Mark Meyers, Professional movie camera operator/ steadicam operator. Credits include: Mission Impossible III , Pirates of the Caribbean. IMDB
Professional photography on your keychain
— David Weber, Professional Photographer
In both our initial testing of Luxi For All and in nearly a year of experience with the original Luxi attachment, we have found the readings provided by iPhone apps paired with our devices to be highly comparable to readings taken with those old-school purpose-built light meters. The following picture shows a Luxi For All side-by-side with a relatively low-end Minolta Auto Meter IV F handheld light meter under even lighting conditions.
Light reading results of Luxi For All (L) and Minolta Auto Meter IV F (R) for price/performance comparison.
Professional videographer / cinematographer Adam Wilt's really thorough examination of our original Luxi demonstrates just how accurate our device's readings are.
Below is a current list of software applications which are compatible with our Luxi hardware. Some of these apps address the specialized needs of niche interests and professions, so we've also attempted here to provide some help in deciding which app(s) is/are right for you and your preferred usage.
Luxi is a small attachment for smartphones and tablets which works with an app to turn your device into an incident light meter. This type of light meter measures the amount of light striking a photographic subject, rather than simply measuring the subject's brightness (which is called "spot metering," and it's how the meter in your camera works). Photos taken with settings suggested by a light meter are often much more pleasing to the eye than photos taken with a simple spot meter.
Beyond its primary use as an incident light meter for use in photography, Luxi can be used with special apps by third-party developers to measure light in other ways. For example, when paired with an app called Cine Meter II, Luxi can be used to measure the color temperature of a given light source. With other apps, Luxi can be used to measure a room's lighting conditions in LUX or footcandle units. See our list of compatible third party apps for more information.
It is important to capture all of the light falling on your subject. Luxi For All is designed to work just like a professional incident light meter which can capture light from a 180° angle. When using a light meter app without Luxi For All, the iPhone camera only receives light from a limited angle which means it doesn't capture all the light. This will produce readings that are both inconsistent and inaccurate. The Luxi For All effectively captures and averages all the incident light.
The original models of Luxi (the ones designed for iPhones 4/4S and 5/5s) will not work with cases; the newer Luxi For All will work with any case which is less than half an inch in thickness at the point where the phone's front-facing camera is located.
Luxi works with any light meter app that can use the front-facing camera and can be calibrated with an offset. We have tested Luxi with many of the light meter apps available for the iPhone. Please see our list of compatible applications.
Unfortunately not. While Luxi itself has no limitations on this, light meter apps are unable to detect light coming from flashes due to smartphone / tablet hardware limitations.
Luxi For All will work with any iOS device which has a front-facing camera, including all iPhones, all iPads except for the first-generation model, and all iPods Touch with a front-facing camera.
Yes, it's possible with apps which include this feature. However, we recommend using Luxi for reference purposes only.
We designed Luxi to be as accurate as possible. However, due to variances in the camera hardware from one phone to the next, some form of calibration must be done by the customer in order to ensure optimal accuracy. The good news is that this step should really only need to be taken once.
The specific steps required for calibration depend upon which application you’re using, but the basics are pretty much the same across light meter apps. Our own Luxi app can be calibrated by completing the process below.
There may be a brief period of trial and error while you make calibration refinements, but before very long at all your calibration will be set and you won’t have to bother with it any longer.
