The forthcoming LIT DUO 1 promises to reinvent the light meter by combing six essential tools into one sleek, pocket-sized aluminium device.
We don’t usually write about Kickstarter projects until they’re funded, but seeing as how this one has been up only a day and is over three quarters of the way there already (and it’s a serious, six figure target it’s trying to reach) we’ll make an exception.
The LIT DUO 1 light meter, designed and developed in Sweden, is a light meter combining all the essential tools such as colour, exposure, illuminance, spectrum, and flicker metering into one pocket-sized device inside a durable aluminium body.
Pre-orders are open now and pricing starts at €514 (up to 40% off from retail price €849).
Lit Systems AB states that the funds will be used directly to streamline the design for industrial production and enable mass manufacturing.
I own an Illuminati IM150 and a Lumu Power. Both are very accurate light meters, but both depend on an iOS or, in my case, iPadOS app in order to work. In the case of the Illuminati meter that's not a problem as it communicates with the app via Bluetooth and is meant to be used in a multi-meter setup anyway. The Lumu Power, though, is a different matter. I need a Lightning plug for that one and as the device no longer seems to be upgraded it will become unusable once my old iPad gives up.
The LIT DUO is a "real" light meter. In other words, it has its own body with the electronics inside and a proper readout screen. It's going to be very accurate — perhaps even more accurate than the Lumu and IM150, and the top-of-the-range Sekonic — and as it's been designed for ease of use and a fast workflow, the LIT DUO 1 also introduces an entirely new user interface based on pioneering software and tactile physical controls.
It will have all the features you expect from a top-notch light meter, including the ability to measure or match lights in different colour units (CIE 1931 or HSI) and colour temperature by showing the correction filters, set correct exposure for any camera with every parameter for you to set at any value you want and/or apply an ND filter or exposure compensation. You'll also be able to measure the difference or ratio between two points and easily re-measure both, as well as input camera parameters manually and measure the difference to that specific target.
In addition, the LIT DUO 1 will allow you to measure illuminance in either lux of foot-candles and see the average between measurements, as well as the spectral quality of your lights in CRI, SSI, TLCI, etc. Finally, it will allow you to measure the flickering of lights up to 7kHz and see which shutter speeds to avoid.
In tandem with the LIT DUO 1 device, an iOS companion LIT App will introduce an entirely new way to remotely measure light. With it, you will also be capable of storing and keeping track of your measurements, as well as keeping your LIT light meter always running the latest software. And just as with the Illuminati light meter, the app will enable you to track multiple light meters simultaneously.
The only thing a LIT DUO won't do in its current stage of development, as far as I can see, is speedlight and on-camera flash metering.