You need to convert lux into footcandle -if your gizmo has such option - great. If your is mostly about f/stops and other photo terminology - here is an article about it.

There is more on internet - so keep googling.

Irina

Here is a link that might be useful: luxmeter...exposimeter...

Hmm. No footcandle option. And no f/stop anything, either. I'm wondering if this thing came from my dad's stuff (former science teacher).

Optimara suggests 10,000 to 12,000 lux, I've learned. Also 1 lux is .093 footcandles. For whatever that's worth.

I had no idea a camera could be used to measure light levels. I'd like to play around with that sometime, as I do have cameras with in-camera metering. Might be approximate, but I'm curious to try it and compare with the mystery meter.

Too much.

1 lux = .093 footcandle
1 footcandle = 10.76 lux

for your violets you need lets say 600 footcandles on a surface of the leaves - 6458 lux - approximately 6500 lux. If you double the amount of light - many of your violets will experience the leaf burn, or hug the pot. I would say - 5000 lux - for pale green leaf violets - 8000 lux for very dark. You can regulate by moving the pale ones to the edges - and dark ones straight to the center of your light shelf. The tubes are different too - high K - you can probably live with less than if you have a low K tube. One low K - one high K tube combination is an equivalent of warm and cool white tubes of earlier days.

Use it!

I.