Luxi Incident Light Meter for iPhone is a Cheaper Alternative

Taking picture on a DSLR can be challenging to some as there are a number of settings that need to be taken in to account such as shutter speed, ISO and aperture all of which need to be balanced to get just the right amount of light to the sensor without making the shutter open so long that you get blurry images. Under or over exposed images are also too easy to create if settings are not correct for the environment around you.

A traditional way of working with this challenge is either by experience gained over a number of years, or by using an expensive light meter that can detect the light around you and provide the settings you need.

To lower the cost of light meters, one company is launching a device called Luxi that attaches to the front facing camera on your iPhone. It is compatible with the iPhone 4/4S and iPhone 5 and fits snugly over the camera. You then fire up an app and can find the best settings for the current lighting available.

Luxi-iPhone

The app for the Luxi allows you to scroll through various settings such as making the shutter quicker, opening or closing the aperture more and changing the ISO. When you flick through the settings, the other settings adjust to ensure your photos are exposed at the correct amount.

It’s an impressive device which is a low cost option to the more expensive dedicated light meters. For example, if you back now on Kickstarter you can get a Luxi for $19 at the time of writing which is far cheaper than a low end dedicated device which costs over $100. Of course, this is aimed at iPhone owners as an addition.

Unfortunately the Luxi isn’t being planned for Android devices. The only reason for this is that there are a number of Android devices on the market and to create a Luxi just the right size for a snug fit is quite a challenge across so many different devices.

The company behind it expect that the first units will ship in May.

You can check out the project over on Kickstarter which has already reached its goal of $10,000 within days of launching… at the moment it is 5 times that amount at $51,804 with 2,375 backers.

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