# Spectre Camera — Brilliant Long Exposures

> AI-powered long exposure camera app for professional photography. (iPhone/iPad app by Lux Optics Incorporated.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/spectre-camera/id1450074595 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [Lux Optics Incorporated](https://appshunter.io/developer/885697371)
- Category: Photo & Video, Utilities
- Price: Free with in-app purchases
- Rating: 4.30/5 from 2,400 App Store ratings · 426 written reviews indexed
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 15.6 · 12 MB
- Languages: American English, Dutch, French (France), German (Germany), Italian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese (Simplified, China), European Spanish, Chinese (Traditional, Taiwan)
- Released: 2019-03-03
- Data updated: 2026-08-29
- Monetization: paid
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/spectre-camera/id1450074595/reviews.md

## What is Spectre Camera?

Apple iPhone App of the Year, 2019

Introducing Spectre, from the makers of Halide, one of the top camera apps in the App Store.

Spectre uses AI to help you make amazing long exposure photographs. Spectre can remove crowds, turn city streets into rivers of light, make waterfalls look like paintings, and much more. Until now, it was difficult to take long exposures: from keeping the camera steady to guessing the amount of light you need. Spectre takes care of all of that!

WHAT YOU CAN DO

• MAKE CROWDS DISAPPEAR: Spectre helps take photos of crowded, touristy places. Simply set a medium or long duration and take a shot to erase the crowd from a location. Capture the those special moments like you remember them.

• RIVERS OF LIGHT: At night, AI scene detection automatically switches modes to draw beautiful light trails, for stunning nighttime city photography or light painting.

• GORGEOUS WATER: Capture waterfalls, ocean waves, fountains and more with beautiful ghostly water. 

LIVE PHOTOS AND VIDEO

Spectre’s intelligent computational shutter takes hundreds of shots over the span of a few seconds, and saves them in an accompanying live photo. That means you can pick a different frame as your photo, apply live-photo effects, and even use the long exposure as a live-wallpaper!

ENDLESS SMARTS

Spectre is a packed with powerful technology from by the team that brought you Halide.

From machine learning-based scene detection to computer vision aided image stabilization, Spectre is jammed full of impressive technologies to get the best possible image.

DESIGNED FOR HUMANS

Spectre is meticulously designed. Its dark UI is gentle on the eyes when you shoot at night. Gorgeous glowing highlights infuse it with a unique style. Custom typefaces and iconography combined with unique, smooth controls make it as tactile and delightful as an actual physical camera. Like its sister app Halide, the app is easily usable with one hand, even on the largest iPhones.

HIGH-TECH SHOWCASE 

Build with the latest tech, Spectre isn't just a long exposure camera — it’s the cutting edge technology showcase of one of the App Store’s foremost camera apps, Halide. Here’s just a few of the latest technologies that we use in Spectre:

- DCI-P3 Wide Color Pipeline
- Live Photos
- Metal Graphics Acceleration
- Tripod Detection
- Siri & Shortcuts
- AI Stabilization
- Machine Learning & CoreML
- Computer Vision

COMPATIBILITY:

Spectre’s smart Automatic Scene Detection requires iOS 12. AI-based stabilization features are available on iPhone 6S and later.* For the best experience, we recommend iPhone 8 or later.

On iPhone 6, Spectre captures in lower resolution. 


ABOUT US 

We’re Ben and Sebastiaan, two friends living in the San Francisco Bay Area that love building fantastic apps for photography. 

We hope you love Spectre! We’d love your feedback to make it even better or any reports of bugs you run into. You can always contact us directly via email: support@halide.cam, on our Twitter: @halidecamera or Instagram: @halideapp

Don’t forget to share your amazing results by tagging them with #SpectreShot so we can share them on our growing social media accounts!

## Key features

- AI-powered long exposures
- Crowd removal
- Light trail creation
- Silky water effects
- Live Photos and video support
- Automatic scene detection

## Pricing and in-app purchases

Base price: Free.

**One-time purchases**

| Purchase | Price | Type |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Spectre Pro | $4.99 | one-time |


## What do users think of Spectre Camera?

Overall sentiment: neutral

**Pros**

- 🚀 Easy to use
- 🔍 Captures great long exposure shots
- 👍 Convenient and intuitive
- 🎨 Allows for creative photography
- 💡 Innovative features

**Cons**

- 🐛 Blurry images even with stabilization
- 🔋 Battery draining issue
- 🤔 Limited exposure time options
- 🤷‍♀️ Inconsistent performance
- 💰 Paid features not worth the cost

**Commonly reported bugs**

- Crashes and freezes on some devices
- Compatibility issues with older iPhones
- Focusing and stabilization problems

**Most requested features**

- Longer exposure time options
- More manual control over settings
- Raw image format support
- Apple Watch remote support
- Improved low-light performance

## Recent user reviews (10 of 426)

All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/spectre-camera/id1450074595/reviews.md

### 1/5 — watch out

*2026-06-24, version 1.5.5*

if you’re anywhere with a poor or no connection & purchased long exposures, you won’t have access to them. it’s really frustrating, since you aren’t always in a perfect signal location to be shooting. additionally contacting for support can be tough since the in app flow crashes 100% of the time, so you’ll have to find their contact through other means

### 3/5 — Keeps crashing

*2026-06-14, version 1.5.5*

Every time I try and take a picture the entire app crashes

### 3/5 — Sounded good, but disappointed once installed

*2026-06-04, version 1.5.5*

I have tried a few cameras over the years trying to make my iPhone be a decent substitute for my Nikon DSLR, so I gave Spectre a try. (I did not pay for the Pro feature(s) which may help, but I was severely underwhelmed! In its base form it appears it does not offer any features that the included camera does not. The only thing I saw that was slightly interesting is the included "AI", on a long shutter, slowly begins to make moving objects in the field of view disappear, but since (without paying) it will only give a 3 second exposure, the objects just become blurred blobs if color. 
I tried to set the shutter time up to 5 seconds, but this just pops their ad wanting you to buy the Pro version.  
Overall there is nothing "wrong" with Spectre, but it doesn't offer anything more than the built-in camera and actually has less options. 
I'm sorry but I'll just have to pass and continue my search for the perfect camera app.

### 5/5 — Love it

*2026-05-26, version 1.5.5*

Great so that I use for slow shutter emulations. It really does a great job.

### 2/5 — Requires internet

*2026-05-19, version 1.5.5*

For no reason, this app requires internet to use, even after paying. Makes this app useless for a lot of cases.

### 5/5 — Raw support?

*2026-02-20, version 1.5.5*

Love the app. I wanted to know if the paid version supports Raw or PNG so I can upgrade

### 2/5 — Very limited

*2026-01-21, version 1.5.5*

Free app only allows 3 sec exposure, same as my iPhone.  Longer exposures require monthly subscription.

### 5/5 — This is so good I haven’t yet

*2026-01-08, version 1.5.5*

You know I just like it a lot a lot a lot a lot some pies and again it just the hide you know I didn’t download this yet. I don’t have it on my iPhone and I do over exact.

### 1/5 — Does not work out of cell coverage

*2026-01-01, version 1.5.5*

Although this app charges for full access, you cannot use the features you have paid for if you are outside of cellphone coverage.

### 5/5 — Unglaublich kreative Möglichkeiten

*2025-11-16*

Ich liebe diese App mit ihren kreativen Möglichkeiten der Langzeitbelichtung. 9 Sekunden Aufnahmen sind möglich. Es ist auch möglich, während der Aufnahme die Belichtung zu ändern. Weiterhin ist es wirklich sehr kreativ, die Light Trail Funktion zu aktivieren oder zu deaktivieren. Ich habe auf jeden Fall fantastische Kunstwerke mit dieser Foto App erstellen können.

## Frequently asked questions about Spectre Camera

### What does Spectre Camera do?

Spectre Camera is an AI-powered application that simplifies the creation of long exposure photographs. It helps users capture professional-quality images by automatically handling camera stability and light exposure, allowing for effects like crowd removal, light trails, and silky smooth water.

### What are the key features of Spectre Camera?

Key features include AI-powered crowd removal, automatic light trail creation for nighttime cityscapes, and the ability to capture waterfalls and ocean waves with a ghostly water effect. It also supports Live Photos and video, and utilizes intelligent computational shutter technology.

### How much does Spectre Camera cost?

Spectre Camera is a paid application. The provided data indicates it has in-app purchases but no ads, suggesting a one-time purchase model for the core app.

### What devices is Spectre Camera compatible with?

Spectre Camera requires iOS 12 or later for its smart Automatic Scene Detection. AI-based stabilization features are available on iPhone 6S and later. For the best experience, an iPhone 8 or later is recommended. On iPhone 6, the app captures in lower resolution.

### What are some common use cases for Spectre Camera?

Common use cases include capturing bustling tourist locations without crowds, creating dramatic light trails in urban environments at night, and achieving artistic effects with moving water like waterfalls or ocean waves. It's also great for creating unique Live Wallpapers from captured long exposures.

## Version history (last 5 releases)

### 1.5.5 — 2025-09-22

This small update improves compatibility with iOS 26, and refreshes the icon. If you have any issues or feedback, let us know at support@lux.camera!

### 1.5.4 — 2023-10-10

Welcome to Spectre 1.5.4! This update brings support to all of the latest and greatest iPhones — full 5× tetraprism support, extra tweaks and fixes and more. Spectre is still the best app for long exposures on iPhone, and we'll keep on making it better and great on the latest hardware.

We hope you love this update — if you love our app, consider leaving us a review or rating in the App Store. It helps us a lot! 

- Ben & Sebastiaan from Lux

### 1.5.3 — 2023-07-26

This update improves the experience if you only grant limited photo library access. It also fixes some issues with the interface on very small phones. Of course it also contains all the awesome stuff from our big 1.5 release!

---

We're excited to launch this major update to Spectre, allowing you to capture long exposures up to 30 seconds! We've also improved support for the latest Apple devices. This upgrade is FREE to anyone who has already purchased Spectre.

We're also adding a "Pro" unlock within the app that adds a few more goodies, such as a custom icon. Again, if you've already purchased Spectre, this doesn't unlock any new capture features. If you already paid for Spectre, upgrading to Pro just unlocks a few perks as a small thank you for supporting Spectre's continued development.

We're excited to get this update out there, and we'd love to hear your feedback. Please let us know what you think by emailing support@lux.camera, or message us on BlueSky, Mastodon, Threads, Instagram, Twitter, or aldis lamp. And don't forget to tag your photos #SpectreShot for a chance to be featured!

— Team Lux

### 1.5.2 — 2023-07-20

This update improves the experience if you only grant limited photo library access. It also fixes some issues with the interface on very small phones. Of course it also contains all the awesome stuff from our big 1.5 release!

---

We're excited to launch this major update to Spectre, allowing you to capture long exposures up to 30 seconds! We've also improved support for the latest Apple devices. This upgrade is FREE to anyone who has already purchased Spectre.

We're also adding a "Pro" unlock within the app that adds a few more goodies, such as a custom icon. Again, if you've already purchased Spectre, this doesn't unlock any new capture features. If you already paid for Spectre, upgrading to Pro just unlocks a few perks as a small thank you for supporting Spectre's continued development.

We're excited to get this update out there, and we'd love to hear your feedback. Please let us know what you think by emailing support@lux.camera, or message us on BlueSky, Mastodon, Threads, Instagram, Twitter, or aldis lamp. And don't forget to tag your photos #SpectreShot for a chance to be featured!

— Team Lux

### 1.5.1 — 2023-07-18

We're excited to launch this major update to Spectre, allowing you to capture long exposures up to 30 seconds! We've also improved support for the latest Apple devices. This upgrade is FREE to anyone who has already purchased Spectre.

We're also adding a "Pro" unlock within the app that adds a few more goodies, such as a custom icon. Again, if you've already purchased Spectre, this doesn't unlock any new capture features. If you already paid for Spectre, upgrading to Pro just unlocks a few perks as a small thank you for supporting Spectre's continued development.

We're excited to get this update out there, and we'd love to hear your feedback. Please let us know what you think by emailing support@lux.camera, or message us on BlueSky, Mastodon, Threads, Instagram, Twitter, or aldis lamp. And don't forget to tag your photos #SpectreShot for a chance to be featured!

— Team Lux

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## More apps by Lux Optics Incorporated

- [Halide Mark III - Pro Camera](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/halide-mark-iii-pro-camera/id885697368)
- [Skylight Forecast](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/skylight-forecast/id1571209409)
- [HDMI Monitor - Orion](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/hdmi-monitor-orion/id6459355072)
- [Kino - Pro Video Camera](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/kino-pro-video-camera/id6472380172)

All apps by Lux Optics Incorporated: https://appshunter.io/developer/885697371

## Related topics

[spectre](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/spectre) · [dxo](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/dxo) · [easy long exposure camera](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/easy-long-exposure-camera) · [light trail](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/light-trail) · [long exposure camera](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/long-exposure-camera) · [long exposure](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/long-exposure) · [nd filter long exposure photo](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/nd-filter-long-exposure-photo) · [slow shutter](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/slow-shutter) · [reeheld](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/reeheld)

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-29.*
