Darkroom Lab Timer vs Film Development Assistant
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Darkroom Lab Timer
This advanced timer app is designed for photographic processes like C-41, E-6, and B&W. It offers customizable steps, separate agitation sequences, and helpful tools like a volume mixer and safelight simulation.
- Customizable steps
- Separate agitation sequences
- Process templates
- Volume and dilution mixer
- Safelight simulation
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The Darkroom Lab Timer App is an advanced multi-phase timer designed for use with C-41, E-6, ECN-2, RA-4 and B&W photographic processes. Key Features: Up to 25 customizable steps Separate agitation sequences for each step Templates for easy configuration Volume and Dilution Mixer Safelight simulation modes
Film Development Assistant
This app helps amateur photographers track their film development chemicals and sessions. It monitors chemical batch expiration, usage, and provides multi-stage timers for development processes. Users can also record notes on session quality for future reference.
- Chemical batch tracking
- Expiration date monitoring
- Session tracking
- Multi-stage development timers
- Chemical usage calculation
- Session notes and quality tracking
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Film Development Assistant provides advanced features for every at-home photographic film developer! Reduce your risk of development issues by keeping track of your chemical batches and development sessions in the app. Our ever-evolving database of home development chemicals makes it easy to track the expiration dates of your mixed chemical batches based on the suggested shelf life from the manufacturer. Once you have your chemicals mixed, you can create sessions to track how many rolls/sheets of film you are developing, and the app will track the chemical usage for you so that you don't forget how much chemical capacity you have remaining! The visual progress indicators for your chemical batch freshness are a very useful tool for keeping track of your chemicals and making sure you either use them before expiration, or prevent yourself from using already expired or depleted chemicals. With each session, you can open a multi-stage timer to track the time for each stage of development. No more creating different timers by hand with the default timer app on your phone! And if you associate an existing chemical batch with each stage, the app will automatically adjust the development times of those stages based on the previous usage of your chemicals (or you can adjust the times manually). When you finish your sessions, you can take notes about how your session went so that you can learn from your home development process over time. You can keep track of the quality of the session and add your own notes to reference later.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Film Development Assistant at Free against Darkroom Lab Timer's $8.99. Film Development Assistant also leads on rating (5.0 vs 3.0). Darkroom Lab Timer's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 2) and chart position (#176 vs unranked). On ratings volume, update cadence and ads there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Film Development Assistant is free to download; Darkroom Lab Timer costs $8.99 up front. Film Development Assistant sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. Darkroom Lab Timer asks for nothing beyond the download.
Film Development Assistant holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 3.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 4 and 3 respectively.
Darkroom Lab Timer ships an update every 11 months, Film Development Assistant every 10 months. The most recent releases landed on October 29, 2026 and October 12, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Darkroom Lab Timer | Film Development Assistant |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $8.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 3.0 (4 ratings) | 5.0 (3 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 70.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 4 — better | 3 |
| Update frequency | Every 11 months | Every 10 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Paid | Free with in-app purchases — better |
| Best chart rank | #176 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 3 MB | 6 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Freestyle Photo & Imaging | Zachary Burns |
Customer experience
Darkroom Lab Timer
Film Development Assistant
In-app purchases
Darkroom Lab Timer
No in-app purchases
Film Development Assistant
- 7 Day Free TrialFree
- Film Development Assistant Pro$4.99
Questions
Is Darkroom Lab Timer free?
Is Film Development Assistant free?
Which has better reviews, Darkroom Lab Timer or Film Development Assistant?
Do Darkroom Lab Timer or Film Development Assistant have ads?
Which is updated more often, Darkroom Lab Timer or Film Development Assistant?
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