Are any of the free lux meter apps any good ?

[Barney86]

As the title suggests folks,
I'd very much like to know if any of you fine people have found any of the light measuring apps to be of any use?
I'm in the UK so .... Just laugh at me for the state my country is in lol.
Seriously though, any thoughts (on the app) would be greatly appreciated

 

[TheFertilizer]

Yeah they're useful for getting a general mapping of light distribution in an area you're trying to light.

So for example, if you have your light hung at a certain height, some areas may be less lit around the perimeter, and you can use a sensor to find the sweet-spot between the most intensity in the middle and around the perimeter. The actual number measurements that the meter gives you won't be accurate without calibration, but the offset from the real figure will be consistent enough to allow you to map light intensity compared from Point A to Point B and so on.

As far as measuring the strength of a light, or comparing two light sources, it gets less useful because some lights may have low lumen output but higher PAR output. Meaning they may appear brighter to our human eyes, but less of the light spectrum they're emitting is useful to a plant for photosynthesis. But if you had the same light, and were trying to compare how it performed in one reflector versus another, then measuring the LUX ( lumen per square meter ) would be a good way to determine which was brighter better than your own eye.