The performance of the TLM measurement instrument plays important roles in the measurement results and uncertainties. To characterize a TLM measurement instrument, some indices and relevant measurement procedures can be learned from current CIE publications for photometers measuring time-averaged luminous quantities. However, as the fast and time resolved photometric data is captured, other more characteristics of TLM measurement instrument need to be addressed. In this paper, the characterization linearity, frequency response and noise properties and their of the TLM measurement instrument was studied. Considering the actual application, quality indices were proposed based on traditional appraising metrics, and the measurement procedures were developed correspondingly. Furthermore, several TLM measurement instruments were measured, and the results showed fine applicability of these quality indices.