The Illuminati is the world’s first Bluetooth light and color meter that works wirelessly with smartphones. It’s a battery-powered device that connects to your iOS device, Android or smartwatch over Bluetooth, allowing you to take live readings without stepping away from your camera.
Exposure is calculated like a regular light meter. Inside the mobile app, set any two of the ISO, F-number and shutter speed, and it will calculate the third parameter for you, based on the incident light in your scene. You can also measure the color of both strobes and ambient lighting.
A good light meter can improve your photography by helping you to create faithful captures of scenes with difficult lighting. You’ll spend far less time correcting exposure and white balance in post if you can nail them while you’re in the field.
There are a few major advantages of the Illuminati when compared to traditional meters. Because it is small and wireless, it can be placed on a tripod using the ¼-20 tripod mount, attached to metal surfaces using the inbuilt magnet, or even clipped to clothing using the included accessory clip.
Readings can be triggered remotely and viewed on your mobile device or smart watch in real-time, or the Illuminati can monitor ambient light and color, sending you alerts when they shift.
It’s also possible to use an array of the little devices to provide readings from multiple points of your scene. You could use this to get uniform lighting over a large scene, to measure strobe ratios or to evaluate the color of different light sources.
The guys behind the Illuminati know how to make light meters –– their sister company, Peripheral Vision, creates “scientific-grade light and color meters for camera image quality testing”. Their Kickstarter project reached its goal of $75,000 in 17 days. It is estimated to ship in September 2017, with an MSRP of $300.
