Tuesday, April 23, 2013

New Luxi Information Resources

The Luxi lightmeter has been successfully funded on Kickstarter thanks to more than 5200 backers. Thank you all!

While this blog is going into "hibernation mode", be sure to follow our Twitter account @esdevices for all the latest news and updates about Luxi and visit our updated website at www.luximeter.com.

 Thank you.

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Luxi is Live on Kickstarter

Hey everybody -

Luxi has gone live on Kickstarter today. Go here to visit our project page and get the scoop on what Luxi is all about.

Click here to visit esDevices webpage, where most of the Luxi information will be available from now on.

Thanks for your continued interest and support!

-the Luxi team

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Were Going on KICKSTARTER ! Feb 20th

We are launching on Kickstarter to raise funds to make this light meter a reality.


Video Preview for Kickstarter Campaign.

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Luxi the light meter for your iPhone

One of the final prototypes mounted to an iPhone 4.  Hand made Acrylic dome to simulate final translucent dome.  The large dome gathers plenty of light to make a good sample for the camera to meter with.

Friday, January 18, 2013

Side By side Testing

We now have prototypes for both the iPhone 4 & .  Tested them against the Sekonic and they seem to hold up great.  Can't really see a difference more that 1/2 a stop.  The best part is it keeps reading without pressing a button. The data changes as the light changes.  Glad we only rented the Sekonic as this works just as well.

Looks like we are getting close to having a real product. Kickstarter here we come!

Monday, January 14, 2013

Prototype # 3

Prototype #3
This 3d printed prototype was made at Shapeways
It fits perfectly on the iPhone 4 

That one step closer to the final product.  The integration dome is working well and getting good readings.  I think it could be bigger to collect more light for the camera.  We tried to use printed domes, but they were not the correct translucent material.   The dome needs to have 18% light transmission.  Luckily we found stock sheet material that has these exact properties.  We then had to form that material in to the dome shape we needed. 
This is the formed sheet material to make the integration domes.  The real domes will be injection molded.  We will use similar resin to control the transparency of the dome.

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Prototype #2

With our second prototype we looked at using both
 cameras front and back. The idea was to enable metering 
in both directions. Some standalone light meters 
have a swiveling top for this purpose.


We later decided this was unnecessary and focused on the font side camera.  This should give the most ergonomic design for the photographer.  

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Lets print some prototypes.

We have made some cad Models of our prototype and are sending them off to Shapeways.
They will take our 3-d model and make a real physical prototype. 
It's amazing to see a virtual model you have made in a computer just arrive in the mail.  

3-d printing is amazing!

Monday, January 7, 2013

Light meter Prototype 1


Our first try at an integration dome to use as a light meter.  I made it to fit my iPhone 4  covering the front camera ( used for facetime)  We also found a lightmeter app that can access this camera.  The first proto actually works!   The Pocket Light meter app seems to work the best. We will have to test it against a real light meter soon.

Friday, January 4, 2013

Light meter added to an iPhone


As I began to us my new camera I found many light situations where where my DSLRs light meter was failing me. My previous experience with film cameras told me that I need to understand my exposure better.  

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Using a Light meter as a learning tool.

Using a light meter as a learning tool. 
After playing with my D5000 for a while I wanted to try some manual settings. I took some photography classes in college so I knew the basics.  How the aperture and shutter speeds effected the exposure. I was in the dark on how to work with the automatic light meter. In auto mode the the settings are all over the place. Even the film speed was running all over the place.  This gave me the idea to go back to basics. So, I borrowed a friends light meter.  This would give me an exposure I understood and could use to take a photo.  Once i had a meter reading I could set my cameras exposure.   Then get a much better feel for what the camera was doing.

Auto is for amateurs

When I set my DSLR to auto exposure I feel like I gave up.  It's super easy, but the camera is in control.  Great photos are rarely easy. I want to have control of my photos especially the exposure. Using a stand alone light meter gives me great info to base my exposure on.   Once I take a reading of the light available I can choose how to use it.

"bad" exposures can sometimes be good.

Your cameras auto exposure does a great job of making an even flat exposure.  The reflective meter in your DSLR reads the light coming into the lens.  Then it tries to use that reading to set the exposure of your photo. The computer in your camera will try to average out the light and dark areas. Basically trying to make the whole photo exposed for neutral grey.

 This photo was shot with auto exposure 

This one was shot with manual exposure 
and metered with an indecent light meter
Increasing the exposure beyond average lets us see detail in the child's face.  The camera thinks this exposure is wrong, but we can see the result correct.