VBR-PHO Photograghy Light Meter,Shutter Speed,Aperture,Color Temperature

This inexpensive light meter can help you to dial in your camera settings albeit with somewhat mediocre accuracy. I found that both the reflective and incident readings got me within the ballpark of a stop or so of what the settings needed to be for a properly exposed image. It can be a bit finicky though and takes some time to get used to its idiosyncrasies.Before I got this light meter, I was already using the Vsensor app with the VBR-300 light meter. In order for the app to recognize the newer VBR-PHO, I had to upgrade to the latest version of the app. Once I did that, I could connect to either meter. I did like the ease of testing different settings of ISO, f-stop, and shutter speed in the updated Vsensor app. Not sure if it's possible, but it would be nice if the app had direct real-time LUX reading like in the VBR-300 app in addition to the camera settings.I found that the CCT meter on the VBR-PHO was way off compared to both the VBR-300 meter and a CCT app that I use. At this point in time it does not seem to be reliable, at least not for LED lights. But while not perfect, for the price, this meter can help get your lighting dialed in without having to go back and forth to the camera to check settings every time you make a lighting adjustment.

I wanted this to be awesome... but it is more of a curiosity. I believe that the price point justified it lacking a screen and relying on teh phone app, and while this will be great as the dev updates (if they do) to ne functionality in the future, right now it is cumbersome and frustrating in use. Bluetooth is inconsistent for me. it does not have an off button, you have to remove the battery (it does come with an extra one). I have yet to find a use that it gives a better or more consistent reading that the camera (or guess work) didn't. I suppose that this could be user error and I just need to fiddle a bit more, we shall see. I will come back and add to this if I am able to get better results out of it when I am doing studio work.

This item is not at all what I expected. I was hoping that I could manipulate all fields but that’s not an option. Sometimes with studio work or product photography, you may want to operate above shutter sync speed and just need to know the best aperture or ISO and this doesn’t really help with that. I do not believe this is meant for photography but may be better suited for video.

***Review update 11/16/23***App has been updated and while it's still not as polished as it could be, developer is improving the app and it now properly displays values in 1/2 and 1/3 stops. It still can use improvements in its functionality and flexibility but it's good to see that they're making improvements to the app to make this device more usable.***Original Review***Many of us shoot photos nowadays with continuous lighting. I thought this device would come in handy for video as well as product photography. Device itself is pretty small, about the size of a palm. I thought it'd come with rechargeable battery built-in but it takes single AAA battery and the package includes 2 AAA alkalines.Where the device fails is the app. When you download the Vsensor app, it asks you to connect to the device, you're then given a choice to enter incident or reflective mode and select the ISO. Once you're in the mode, you cannot change the ISO setting without exiting the mode. Also, the instruction sheet give you all the shutter speed combinations this device will give you except device itself won't give you that range. When you're in 1/2 stop EV mode, fastest shutter speed it'll give you is 1/75 sec and in 1/3 stop EV mode, fastest shutter speeds is 0.3 seconds. This give you crazy aperture values. I tried reconnecting the device and reinstalling the app but it doesn't fix the issue. Hopefully new revision of the app will address this. When you use the 1 stop EV mode, it'll go as fast as 1/8000 sec. It's a bummer as this severely limits the use case for this device.While it's a bummer that the app isn't quite mature or bug-free, at least the readings it gives seem to be spot on. If the app is updated, this would become very useful photo/video tool. Until then, it's limited to full stop use only.

This is an interesting piece of kit; it doesn't give metering in raw lux, but just gives shutter/fstop/aperature settings based on shutter or aperture priority. I remember back when I used to do analog photography on a film SLR I had something like this that worked with some dials and gauges; pretty useful for back then. Not sure what making it bluetooth and app reliant has over that old thing, but it works well for what it does. The packaging is minimal (yay!) and it comes with not only the battery needed but an extra, which I find encouraging; in my experience a good sign for support.

68/100Let me say up front that this meter DOES what it claims to do. My negatives are all based more on HOW they do it.For the price, they could have included the circuitry and display. THIS is an unnecessary APP that unnecessarily REQUIRES a phone. Too many failure points for real world photo and video work where everything that can go wrong will.ALSO . . . the “optics” or sensing unit is another issue. It’s a pretty cheaply constructed plastic box. For this price point, they could have painted on a racing strip or something. I also don’t like that you apparently can't turn it off if it has a battery in it. Removing the battery every time you stop shooting and reset is a pain in the posterior.So . . . It’s OK. It does what it claims in a clumsy manner. AND . . for the price, you can do better. I’ll never use it.Ultimately, is it worth the price? No. But that’s personal. If you live with a phone in your hand, maybe you’ll like it.

これを被写体に置いてもスマホで　手元で計測ができるのが便利です電池は　1っ本しか使いませんが　2本はいっていました。まぁ　カメラのセンサーも優秀なので殆ど　測光は入りませんが　劇場など　明暗の激しい場所で　ISOを　どれくらいにするかなどを　勘でなく　実測で決めるには　必需品本体に液晶はないですが　小さくて邪魔いならないのがいいところ

以前はセコニックの露出計を使ってましたが、安価なのでこちらを購入。筐体単体では機能せずにスマホと連動して使う露出系。このためスマホは必須品となります。相関色温度を数値で判断してくれるので人間の感覚に頼らず数値化。最適なシャッタースピードを判断できるのがうれしいところ。ただ他の計測器と比べて使ったことがないため表示されたCCT数値の妥当性は不明でした。