Us old farts used to use ftp (File Transfer Protocol) for this bonehead-simple function. When “brain-dead AOL-ers” (Weird Al) wanted to send huge pictures attached to E-mail bodies, we’d have to show them how to simply paste links to ftp: sites into E-mails & preserve the sanity of Mail Admins around the world. That seems to be basically how the “Insert Image” function works here.
And as always, if a User can break the system with just a mouse, that’s canonical proof the system isn’t finished yet.
Any suggestions to my earlier questions please
“Now can anybody suggest a light meter app for an Android phone as I would like to reference it against something.
I will use a light with a known ANSI rating first to judge how accurate both the light meter & app are.
Oh & can somebody point me to good thread (or explain) on how best to use the meter & interpret the results please.”
I just DLd a Light Meter app, called (ironically enough) “Light Meter”, but I can’t recommend it until someone (like you ) tests it against a calibrated meter. It’s cute and free, but YMMV depending on how accurate it is.
Ok I will download it when I have a chance then post up some results from the app & meter using an ANSI rated light for accuracy reference.
I still need somebody to tell me the most accurate/easiest way (I do not have an ILS) to obtain readings both using the meter & the phone app.
Probably won”t get any results up till next week as I am busy this evening & all weekend but will check this thread for suggestions.
Thanks for every ones help
The accuracy of this type app is all about pairing the app to the camera. Every Android device is different, the app probably only works correctly on the exact model phone the programmer had.
Not picking on you, but that reminded me of an old bit of wisdom:
That Light Meter app shows the LUX and the CCT (on mine — that may be settable in Prefs) with a cute analog VU-style gauge + numeric data. It also translates what it “sees” into keywords like “SUNLIGHT” etc. for DigiCam users. I’m away from my Droid right now so I can’t confirm any details.
THAT!!! Is the Secret Superpower of BLF!!!
Please take as much time as you need, and THANK YOU for it!
I specifically filtered for that. The one I linked lets you Calibrate it, although the standard question of “Against What” keeps me from using it “for score”.
The meter probably is not in yet
Joshk, I thought the lux meter apps use the lightsensor.
I could not install them on a simple android phone that has a front and back cam but no light sensor (used for dimming screen when talking and turning back on when you are not holding it to your ear or auto brightness setting)
It says device not compatible (I usually find apps on desktop PC and have a drop down menu with all phones I have not logged out on)
There’s a wide choice of luxmeter apps for android and indeed almost all of them use the ambient light sensor (ALS) and not the camera. I did an attempt to explore what those apps do and if they are any good, and although all I did was some pilot-testing, I’m not really hopeful. With a simple adaptation however (diffuser before the ALS) and then calibration (a tiny few luxmeter apps allow calibration over a wide range, you need that), your phone probably is a pretty ok luxmeter, perhaps not much worse than some of the standard cheap ones, even though the V-lambda curve of the average ALS is dreadful.
Sorry I haven”t had time to use the light meter yet but I will & post some results in the next few days.
As I haven”t used one before any advice on how best to use it (settings, distances or anything really) would be greatly appreciated as the instructions are pretty non descript (to me anyway).
I haven’t really used the app much, other than “playing with it”.
When I used an old Light Meter for manual-exposure photography, one would walk up to the Subject, hold the LM against some point on the Subject, read the meter & use it’s reading to set the camera’s exposure.
I would opine that measuring the light output & color of a single flashlight wouldn’t take more than simply shining the light at the ALS holes (usually beside the selfie camera lens) on your droid. So you’d have a “lux at 1 meter” or “lux at 100 atto-parsecs” measurement. If you were comparing different lights, I’d place them all at some “standard” distance to be fair.
The CCT reading on the app is interesting. I have an old 1*AA TrustFire F20 which I upgraded with a 5000K XM-L. I measured it on a commercial light-color meter on a job once, so I’m pretty sure it hits 5000K as advertised. When I tried it on the app, it also showed 5000K, but only at the very center of the beam.
I did a search for Pyle meters and wound up here, this topic looks pretty recent so perhaps I’ll pump some new life into it. Woot has Pyle light meters on sale today, I’m wondering if anyone has any experience with any of the three that are up for sale? Having read the thread, I see that having a sensor that can be held away from the display is a plus. My 16 YO daughter is getting into photography with an old SLR 35 mm camera she got at a yard sale that has no light meter. Using her phone as a has meter has been suggested, but If I can pull off getting one for her and be able to use it myself…
If your daughter has an iPhone, THIS APP seems to offer more functionality (and one less thing to have to carry) than a similarly-priced traditional light meter:
A less functional, free app for Droid has already been discussed in this thread.
Any luxmeter that does not come with a specsheet with a list of what the accuracies are on several apects, and at least the sensitivity curve compared to Vlambda, are AFAIC of the same quality: unspecified. I would buy the cheapest one with the desired range that seems to have a decent housing.
From what I’ve seen, that’s cheaper than a no-name standalone unit, with 4x more information presented. Even my Minolta Auto Meter IV F, several of which are listed, used, on Amazon at $200 (!!) doesn’t really “measure up”…
AFAIK, accuracy depends on the phone (and the ‘Integrating Hemisphere’) & the app just presents the readings on-screen. Not an iPhone user, so IDK and YMMV. I just calibrated my Droid to find Sunlight here, now, is 5047K and 109117 lux. Apparently, my new Convoy C8 is == Sol, since in a dark bathroom (stop that laughing, you!) the C8 gives the same lux (I’m guessing that’s the HighValues mark) & ~the same CCT… (As with all the Cree LEDs I’ve tested, moving the beam slightly will throw the CCT numbers all over the map — thanks for the rainbow, Cree… )
) tests it against a calibrated meter. It’s cute and free, but YMMV depending on how accurate it is.
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