Press kit

One-line description

Zone Light Meter is a free, precise analogue light meter app for Android, built around the Zone System for film photographers and cinematographers.

Longer description

Zone Light Meter turns an Android phone into a calibrated handheld light meter for film photography. It reads light through the phone's camera, calculates aperture and shutter settings, and accounts for the specific quirks of analogue film: reciprocity failure on long exposures, bellows extension on large format, IR filter factors, expired film age compensation, and push and pull processing.

Unlike most light meter apps, Zone Light Meter is designed around the Zone System. The viewfinder shows a live 0-10 zone overlay where any tone can be placed and the consequent fall of every other tone is visible in real time. Multi-spot biasing lets photographers take several spot readings, weight them by importance, and arrive at the exposure their actual subject deserves.

The app ships with 693 film stocks across 70+ brands, complete with reciprocity curves, push and pull development times, and notes. Each shot is logged with gear, film, metering choices, and timestamp, then exported to CSV with a Lightroom-compatible preset for matching scans back to frames.

Zone Light Meter is free, works offline, has no advertising, no account system, and no third-party trackers. An iOS port is in early development. The website at zonelightmeter.com documents every feature in plain language.

Key facts

• Platform: Android 8.0 (API 26) or later. iOS port in early development.
• Pricing: Free. No ads, no subscription, no account.
• Current version: 1.1.1 (build 114)
• Features shipped: 110 across 20 sections
• Film stocks catalogued: 693 across 70+ brands
• Privacy: Local-first; no telemetry, no analytics SDKs in the app
• Offline: All core features work without a network
• License: Proprietary, free distribution
• Developer: One person, working in their spare time
• Domain: zonelightmeter.com
• Contact: hello@zonelightmeter.com

Ready-to-use quotes

"Zone Light Meter is designed around a specific belief: that the meter should teach you. Every modal explains what it is doing and why. The zone system, sunny 16, reciprocity, hyperfocal, multi-spot biasing: all of it is spelled out in plain language, with the math available if you want to see it."

"Most light meter apps stop at the reading. This one is built for the scenes that break basic meters: snow, backlit portraits, mixed light, very long exposures, contrasty slide film."

"Free, no ads, no account, works offline. The app keeps your rolls, gear, and settings on your phone. Nothing is sent anywhere unless you explicitly ask it to."

Brand assets

• Logo (SVG): download icon.svg
• Favicon (SVG): download favicon.svg
• Apple touch icon (PNG): download apple-touch-icon.png
• Open Graph image (PNG, 1200x630): download og-default.png

Brand colours: warm gradient from #FCD34C (yellow) through #FF7A3D (orange) to #E0456B (red). Background neutrals are warm off-whites in light mode and deep warm browns in dark mode.

The name is "Zone Light Meter" (three words, all capitalised in titles). Lowercase prose use ("zone light meter") is fine in body text once the name has been introduced.

Screenshots

Per-feature screenshots are on every documentation page. The documentation index is the fastest way to find a relevant screenshot. Each one is licensed for editorial use in reviews and articles about the app; please credit Zone Light Meter and link to zonelightmeter.com.

What's worth covering

• The Zone System workflow with a live viewfinder overlay (rare among phone meters)
• Multi-spot biasing for portraits and studio work
• The 693-stock film catalogue with per-stock reciprocity curves
• First-class corrections for bellows extension, IR filters, and expired film
• No ads, no analytics, no account, no cloud sync. Nothing leaves the phone.
• Every modal has a help icon; tap it and the app explains what the reading means and why the correction matters.

Contact

Reviews, interviews, advance access to in-development features, or anything else: hello@zonelightmeter.com. The developer reads every email personally and replies within a few days.