KEKS KM-Q – A Sugar Cube-Sized Light Meter Review

By AndreArma

As I began shooting film, my first lesson was in mastering the Sunny 16 rule — a technique for getting proper exposure without relying on a light meter. Over the years, I applied this rule when using my Leica M4 camera. I was able to consistently get good results, even if maybe this can be attributed more to the forgiving nature of negative film than to my skill in guesstimating exposure accurately.

I actually LOVE that the M4 is a meterless camera. This provides me with a clean viewfinder, devoid of any distracting information. I only see the framelines, the rangefinder patch, and the world in front of me. It allows me to focus entirely on composition and capturing the right moment. At the same time, I admit that in challenging light, I often second-guess my own judgment. When this happens, I reach for my phone, open a light meter app (which, at least in my experience, is accurate enough for film), and double-check that I haven’t mixed up numbers in my head. This lingering sense of insecurity can be very distracting, and taking my hands off the camera to look at the phone messes with the flow.

This is why I decided to get an external light meter — meeting my criteria of accuracy, compactness, and being shoe-mounted. And that is when I found the KEKS KM-Q light meter.

Externally, it’s a very small and light cube of aluminum (KEKS aptly describes it as being “sugar cube-sized”). I bought the chrome version with the OLED display on the back; it’s also available in black, with the option of having the display on top for those who prefer waist-level metering. Internally, it houses a light meter equipped with a VEML7700 high accuracy ambient light 16-bit digital resolution sensor. The metering angle (30°) approximately covers the view of a 50mm lens.

I find the backside display perfect for my shooting style. I typically keep the camera ready to shoot at any moment, with the correct aperture and shutter speed already set. When the light changes or when I want to double-check the exposure, I quickly take a reading, adjust the settings if necessary, and continue shooting. My hands remain on the camera at all times, and my phone stays in my pocket.

The display is crisp and legible even under direct sunlight. It is uncluttered and shows only the selected ISO, aperture, and shutter speed. An arrow indicates which of the two available settings the meter is in (i.e., shutter priority or aperture priority). Once turned on, the meter takes continuous readings, but you can “freeze” a specific reading by pressing the on/off button (a small “pause” symbol then appears on the display).

The controls are minimalistic and simple to use: two buttons on the left, two buttons on the right. On the left side, there’s the power button and the mode selection button. The two buttons on the right side allow you to move up and down in the shutter speed or aperture values. The controls are very well explained in the sugar cube-sized instruction leaflet provided by KEKS with the light meter.

Unlike the KEKS KM-02 model, you cannot select the range of aperture and shutter speeds to match exactly your camera and lens. However, in practical use, I did not find this to be a problem: whenever the exact setting proposed by the KM-Q was not available on the Leica M4 (for example, a shutter speed of 1/320 seconds), I simply approximated to the closest one (1/250 seconds, since I always prefer to err on the side of overexposure).

Now, onto the aesthetics. This light meter is beautiful. The chrome color is very similar (but not identical) to that of the Leica M4. It comes with three different shoe mounts, allowing you to choose the one that fits best. The middle one fits my Leica M4, although there is a slight amount of play which can be somewhat annoying when pressing the buttons and causing the light meter to shift slightly. The shoe mounts are made of plastic, but they appear solid enough.

KEKS states that the KM-Q battery lasts for up to 20 hours of operation, and this sounds accurate. I purchased it two weeks ago and have not needed to recharge it yet. Additionally, the light meter is charged via USB Type C, eliminating the need to purchase button batteries (yay!). Charging the KM-Q takes about 40 minutes, after which you should have enough juice to last through several rolls.

Lastly, let’s talk about accuracy. Based on my experience so far, the meter is precise and almost always aligns with the readings from my metering app and my Sunny 16 calculations. I haven’t had the chance to test the KM-Q in low light conditions yet, but I have no reason to doubt its performance in such situations.

In conclusion, there isn’t much more to say about the KEKS KM-Q. It’s compact, accurate, aesthetically pleasing, and relatively inexpensive. I love how it looks when mounted on top of a Leica M body. I am very satisfied with my purchase and highly recommend it if you’re in need of a small yet dependable external meter.

Thank you for reading. Please visit and follow me on Instagram (@brickwahl_photo).
Stay safe and keep shooting!

Share this post:

Find more similar content on 35mmc

Use the tags below to search for more posts on related topics:

Contribute to 35mmc for an ad-free experience.

There are two ways to contribute to 35mmc and experience it without the adverts:

Paid Subscription – £2.99 per month and you’ll never see an advert again! (Free 3-day trial).

Subscribe here.

Content contributor – become a part of the world’s biggest film and alternative photography community blog. All our Contributors have an ad-free experience for life.

Sign up here.

About The Author

Comments

Gary Smith on KEKS KM-Q – A Sugar Cube-Sized Light Meter Review

Comment posted: 25/03/2024

Thanks for your review. While I'm tempted, I have yet to run a roll of anything using the Crown+Flint phone app. I've shot using another phone app and gotten good results but I'm intrigued by the fact that the C+F app provides a file containing the results of your roll (that can be exported using exiftool and subsequently inserted into the scans from that roll).
Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Erik Brammer replied:

Comment posted: 25/03/2024

Hi Gary, I can wholeheartedly encourage you to complete that roll using Crown+Flint. It’s so easy. Andrearma, you don’t want to fiddle around with your phone while photographing, and I agree that it would be nice to do without. But if you want to capture the information for each frame, the phone is the way to go in my view. I have read comments in a German forum where people claimed that using a phone for that purpose is so complicated - and they would stick to their pen + notebook method. I wonder whether these people then manually transfer the information to their scanned images using an EXIF editor. Now that would be a lean workflow! Maybe they are fully analog in their photography. Whatever, to each their own. I personally find it very useful to equip my scanned files with the shot parameters, and I haven’t come across an easier solution than Crown+Flint.

Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

AndreArma replied:

Comment posted: 25/03/2024

Thanks both! I'll make sure to try this app next time!

Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Ibraar Hussain on KEKS KM-Q – A Sugar Cube-Sized Light Meter Review

Comment posted: 25/03/2024

Thanks for this review
I could do with one of these - it’s very small and discreet !
Thanks
Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

AndreArma replied:

Comment posted: 25/03/2024

Cheers mate!

Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Stewart on KEKS KM-Q – A Sugar Cube-Sized Light Meter Review

Comment posted: 25/03/2024

It looks like a copy of the Reveni Labs light meter that has been out for a few years now.
Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

AndreArma replied:

Comment posted: 25/03/2024

Maybe, but if it works, should we care?

Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Marco Andrés on KEKS KM-Q – A Sugar Cube-Sized Light Meter Review

Comment posted: 27/03/2024

Yes, small light meters that attach to the cold/hot flash shoe are very useful. Keeps your hands free to photograph. And it's always there. Hedeco makes the Lime One light meter. For cameras without hot/cold shoes, there are 3d printed parts for mounting elsewhere – for example an attachment to fit a TLR onto a Bay I taking lens.
Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Giuseppe Papale on KEKS KM-Q – A Sugar Cube-Sized Light Meter Review

Comment posted: 22/06/2024

Great review; I purchased the review light meter. However, lacking a minimum level of education, I ask you if you can help me:
1) Is it correct that the light meter turns off automatically after 35 seconds? Can the automatic switch-off be eliminated?
2) from the site we read that the device is equipped with 'compensation' in my case it is not possible to do anything, there is some menu or key combination to activate this (even if it doesn't seem important to me).
I thank you in advance
Giuseppe Papale
Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

AndreArma replied:

Comment posted: 22/06/2024

Hi there! Yes, the light meter goes to sleep after a while, I don't think you can prevent that. Also, this model does not offer compensation, only the newer (and more expensive) model does. However as you say I don't find this a limitation! Happy shooting and hope this helps!

Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Giuseppe Papale replied:

Comment posted: 22/06/2024

Thank you for replying. Yes, this removes my doubts. I still have a question that I forgot before, namely: to charge the battery it says 5V 500 ma; I hope this is the absorption during the charging phase and not an impediment to using 5 V 1000 Ma chargers (iphone). I don't know what you use.

Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

AndreArma replied:

Comment posted: 22/06/2024

Whoops I actually use a 30V charger (with no issues so far)...but maybe now that you mention it I'll use a smaller charger!

Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Giuseppe Papale replied:

Comment posted: 22/06/2024

:)

Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Giuseppe Papale on KEKS KM-Q – A Sugar Cube-Sized Light Meter Review

Comment posted: 23/06/2024

Thank you very much
Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Leave a Comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *