Cine Meter II : Support

First Things First:

Cine Meter II not installing / not starting / misbehaving / crashing?

Try restarting your iDevice. After your iDevice comes back up, try Cine Meter II again.
Try deleting Cine Meter II, restarting your iDevice, and reinstalling Cine Meter II.
In some cases, you may need to restore your iDevice’s firmware or iOS version. It’s rare, but sometimes an iOS update will cause problems with camera applications. Restoring the device essentially “wipes it clean” and reinstalls iOS, fixing the problem. Only do this as a last resort, and make sure you have done a full backup beforehand.

No picture? No waveform? Readings don’t change?

Starting with iOS 8, apps need permission to use the cameras, and sometimes iOS doesn't ask you. Exit Cine Meter II and open the Settings app. Navigate to Privacy > Camera, and make sure Cine Meter II is given permission.

Lumu not working?

Only Lumu Lite (headphone jack model) is supported, not Lumu Power (Lightning port version). Only Lumu’s own Light Meter app can talk to Lumu Power.
Lumu needs permission to use your iDevice's microphone. Exit Cine Meter II and open the Settings app. Navigate to Privacy > Microphone, and make sure Cine Meter II is given permission.

Bad exposure values on iOS 8.4, 9.0 or 9.1?

Please update iOS to the latest version available on your iDevice. iOS versions 8.4, 9.0, and 9.1 break the brightness metadata reported by some iDevice cameras, resulting in incorrect exposure readings. Cine Meter II 1.9 and newer versions have a workaround (“Use Computed Brightness”) which you should turn off after updating either iOS or Cine Meter to current versions. More details here. At present, all iDevices running iOS 9.3 or later versions work properly with “Use Computed Brightness” off.

Aperture stuck at f/64+ or f/inf on older iDevices, iOS 8?

Please update iOS and/or Cine Meter II to the latest versions available for your iDevice. Exposure readings should work properly after you do so.

If these don’t solve your problem, please contact me!

Quick Start:

Cine Meter II provides front and back spotmeters by default. You can also turn on incident exposure & color meters, and reflected luminance & color readings.

Turn on meters and readings

Incident meters: In Help & Settings > METERS, turn on Use Front Incident Meter and/or Use Back Incident Meter. Incident meters show both exposure and color.

Incident meters require diffusion over the camera. For iPhone or iPod touch, make a Lenny Hat. For iPad, you can make something similar for the back camera, covering the corner of the iPad; for the front it's easier to hold or tape diffusion over the camera.

Reflected luminance: Help & Settings > EXTRA INFO > Show Luminance turns on cd/m² or foot-lambert readings for the spotmeters.

Reflected color: Help & Settings > EXTRA INFO > Show Reflected Color turns on color readings for the spotmeters.

Self-calibrate: using the back spotmeter as a reference, calibrate the other meters.

Self-calibrate exposure

Set up your test target

Use an 18% gray card or a 90% white card as your test target. If you don't have a card, you can use a sheet of white paper, but it may be slightly less accurate. Set it up on a light stand, tripod, or tabletop so you can get behind it.

Aim a light at the test target from at least six feet / two meters away.

Set up Cine Meter II

In Help & Settings > DISPLAY & CONTROLS, make sure Show Exposure Controls is on, and set Aperture Increments to Fractional Tenth Stops.

In Help & Settings > METERS, turn on all the meters you want to calibrate.

In Help & Settings > SETUP > Exposure Calibration, set Back Spotmeter to 0.

If you’re calibrating incident meters, have your diffusion handy.

On the main screen, make sure Aperture is floating (has gray background).

Tap the camera button until the back spotmeter is in use.

Measure the test target and note the reading

Aim the spotmeter at the test target. Zoom in as needed until it fills the frame.

If you're using a white card or white paper, adjust ISO or Shutter to give an Aperture value of 4.0 or higher, and try to get a fractional third stop; that makes the math easier (for example, 8.0 ⅓).

Take a reading and remember the Aperture value: it's your calibration reference.

Calibrate the incident meters (if you're using them)

Put your diffusion over the cameras.

Tap the camera button to choose the next incident meter.

Aim the meter at the light source. For the front incident meter, hold your iDevice directly in front of or just beside the target; for the back incident meter you'll need to stand behind the target and hold your iDevice just beside the target. You want Cine Meter II to be as far from the light as the target is.

Tap Compensation and adjust the control until your Aperture reading matches your reference value (if you used a gray card), or 2 & ⅓ stops less if you used a white card or paper (for example, 4.0 if your reference was 8.0 ⅓). Tap Cal... to save the calibration.

Calibrate the front spotmeter (if you're using it)

Remove the diffusion if you've put it on the camera.

Tap the camera button to choose the front spotmeter (selfie cam).

Aim the meter at the target, zooming in as needed until it fills the frame. (You'll need to stand beside the target and hold your iDevice as if shooting a selfie.)

Tap Compensation and adjust the control until your Aperture reading matches your reference value. Tap Cal... to save the calibration.

Self-calibrate color

Set up your test target

Use the dull side of a sheet of aluminum foil, crinkled up and then flattened. Wrap it around a gray card, a test chart, or a piece of cardboard, and set it up on a light stand, tripod, or tabletop.

Aim a high-color-quality light at the test target from at least six feet / two meters away. Use a tungsten lamp, or an LED light with CRI > 97 / TLCI > 98. Lights of lower color quality will give less accurate calibrations.

Turn off any other lights and darken any windows. Color calibrations are very sensitive.

Set up Cine Meter II

In Help & Settings > SETUP, turn off Legacy Color Calibration.

In Help & Settings > EXTRA INFO, make sure Show reflected Color is on.

If you’re calibrating incident meters, have your diffusion handy.

Tap the camera button until the back spotmeter is in use.

Tap and hold the color info in the top right corner until the COLOR CALIBRATION panel appears (if not all color meters are selected, a pop-up will ask if you want to turn them on).

Measure the test target and grab the calibration

Aim the spotmeter at the test target. Zoom in as needed until it fills the frame.

While aiming at the target, tap GRAB. After a second, the calibration target values will be updated. (GRAB is only enabled for the back spotmeter; if you're on another meter, switch to the back spotmeter.)

Set the other meters to the grabbed values

Tap the camera button to select the next meter.

For incident meters, put on your diffusion; for the front spotmeter, take it off!

Aim incident meter at the light source from directly in front of the test target (for the back incident meter, hold your iDevice just far enough from the target that you can see its screen). For the front spotmeter, aim at the target, zooming in as necessary (you'll need to stand beside the target and hold your iDevice as if shooting a selfie).

Tap the SET button to save the calibration for that meter.

Repeat until all selected meters are calibrated. When finished, tap the color info to close the COLOR CALIBRATION panel.

Self-calibration typically gets you within ±0.1 stop and ±8% CCT. For higher accuracy, use a trusted exposure meter to calibrate exposure and/or a trusted color meter to calibrate color.

Next Steps:

Controls shows you Cine Meter II’s buttons, gestures, and settings, and explains how they work.
How To... describes how to use Cine Meter II and shows some examples.
FAQ lists some frequently asked questions and their answers.
Details & Info talks about how Cine Meter II works and what its limitations are, gives tips and tricks for using it, and has some observations about iDevice cameras and how they make their pictures.
Color Metering discusses how Cine Meter II measures color and compares it to other color meters.

Important Info:

Cine Meter II gives you absolute light meter readings, but only relative picture and waveform monitor levels:

Cine Meter II’s picture and waveform meter don't use the exact exposure shown by the light meter: the camera’s exposure will usually be within a stop of the light meter's reading, but there is no direct comparison between the two, for reasons described here. You can use the light meter to get an absolute exposure reading, but the picture and waveform monitor only show you relative levels within a scene, not absolute levels based on the meter reading.

You can’t preset your iDevice's exposure in Cine Meter II. To visually compare exposure levels, you need to lock Cine Meter II’s auto-exposure setting while looking at a reference scene or a gray card. The picture and waveform monitor show you levels and colors relative to those locked settings, not to any pre-determined value.

Cine Meter II Privacy Policy:

Cine Meter II doesn’t run any tracking code and doesn’t collect any information from you or about you. No third-party analytics tools or advertising networks are used.

If you’ve enabled data logging on your iDevice (Settings app > Privacy > Analytics > Share With App Developers, or Settings app > Privacy > Diagnostics & Usage > Share With App Developers, depending on iOS version), Apple collects information about your usage of the app (see Apple's privacy policy). Apple makes the following anonymized information available to developers:

How many times the app ran.
What kind of iDevice was used, and with what version of iOS.
What country it was used in.
How many times the app crashed.
What lines of code did the app crash on.
What the error codes were for the crashes.

I only see information aggregated across all devices with diagnostics enabled; I can’t see any info specifically about your use of the app.

If you use the links in the app or on the contact page to send me email, I get your email address, but that’s the only way I’ll ever find out who you are. For email and for website browsing, this Privacy Policy applies. Short version: I'll see your email address, source IP address, and any other information you supply in email you send, and the IP address you visit my website from. Web-browsing IP address info is not retained beyond 24 hours. Any retained email communications and email addresses will be deleted upon request, except when needed to resolve technical issues, commercial or legal disputes, or when required by US law. I take reasonable precautions to guard this information, and it is never given or sold to third parties for any purposes whatsoever unless required by US law.