Adaptalux vs Phocus Mobile
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Adaptalux
Control a patented adaptable miniature lighting studio for photography and videography. This app offers precise LIVE brightness and flash power adjustments through an intuitive interface, all via Bluetooth. Customize your lighting for any subject and preference.
- Bluetooth control
- Live brightness control
- Flash power control
- Intuitive interface
- Customizable lighting
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The Adaptalux Macro Lighting System is a patented adaptable miniature lighting studio that allows for unrivalled lighting customisation for macro photography and videography. Adaptalux Lighting is completely unique and adaptable for each user and subject based on their lighting preferences, with 1000s of configurations available. The Adaptalux App enables you to control Adaptalux products in the palm of your hand via bluetooth. Experience total control with the Adaptalux App with powerful and accurate LED brightness and Flash power control, built into a easy and intuitive app interface. Connect to and Control multiple Pods at once, for full control over your macro photography lighting environment.
Phocus Mobile
Edit and manage high-resolution RAW images from Hasselblad cameras on your mobile device. Experience natural color reproduction and advanced noise reduction with HDR capabilities for stunning detail and light.
- HNCS HDR image display, editing, and export
- Full quality RAW editing
- Multi-format RAW/JPG/HEIF download
- TIFF generation for lossless editing
- Camera control of capture parameters
- Download/delete images from camera
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“Hasselblad Natural Noise Reduction” is the first noise reduction model that can run locally on mobile, perfectly preserving Hasselblad's natural tones and image details, and noise reduction of 100 million pixel RAW images can be completed in about 15 seconds, further unlocking the potential of Hasselblad's images. When viewed on an HDR-capable iPhone or iPad, photos shot with the Hasselblad cameras truly come to life in Phocus Mobile — revealing the stunning light and shadow details and rich color gradations enabled by HNCS HDR. Expanding the possibilities of the Hasselblad workflow, Phocus Mobile takes the image editing process to a new, portable level. Enabling the traveling or studio photographer to have a quicker, more seamless workflow. Phocus Mobile can render natural and true colors to the greatest extent, taking full advantage of the Hasselblad Natural Color Solution (HNCS). The following functionality is supported: - Brand-new HNCS HDR image display, editing, and export experience - Full quality raw editing powered by HNCS engine - Support multi-format download (RAW/JPG/HEIF) - Supports generating TIFF for cross-platform quality lossless editing - Download or delete images from camera - Camera control of capture parameters - Supports generating full or medium size JPEG Compatible Camera Models [USB or Wi-Fi]: -X2D II 100C* -CFV 100C* -X2D 100C* -X1D II 50C -CFV II 50C *Only Chinese and English are supported within the app This app is only compatible with iOS and iPadOS. To use it on Mac devices, please download Phocus for Mac from the official Hasselblad website. For X1D/H system cameras, please download Phocus for X1D/H system from the App Store.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Phocus Mobile at 4.6 against Adaptalux's 2.7. Phocus Mobile also leads on update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 7 months) and ratings volume (522 vs 3). Adaptalux's advantage is iOS requirement (13.0 vs 16.2). On price, review sentiment, ads and in-app purchases 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Phocus Mobile holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 2.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Phocus Mobile has 522 ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 50% of Adaptalux's written reviews are positive against 46% of Phocus Mobile's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Adaptalux ships an update every 7 months, Phocus Mobile every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 22, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Adaptalux | Phocus Mobile |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 2.7 (3 ratings) | 4.6 (522 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 50.0% of reviews — better | 46.4% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 3 | 522 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 7 months | Every 2 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 — better | 16.2 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 18 MB | 435 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Adaptalux | Hasselblad |
Customer experience
Adaptalux
Phocus Mobile
Bugs and requests
Adaptalux
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Phocus Mobile
Reported bugs
18 issues- App crashes when opening high ISO files
- Photos disappear after update or when selecting for processing
- Export fails for multiple images, erasing original capture date/time
- Images not available in library despite camera connection
- App crashes on iPad Pro with M1/M2 chips
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- USB-C connection not recognized after updates
- Noise reduction adjustments not updating properly
- Moire and pattern noise appearing on JPEG export
- App fails to connect to X2D despite camera being recognized
- Exposure simulation locked on regardless of camera settings
- EV correction not working in all modes on X2D
- Live view picture cropped on long sides of frame
- Error when saving multiple photos to Photos app (PHPhotosErrorDomain error 3301)
- App crashes when resizing window with Stage Manager on iPad
- Wired connection not supported in recent versions
- TIFF export producing 8-bit files instead of 16-bit
- Drive mode settings overwritten when using remote shutter
- App not recognizing HEIF format files from camera firmware 3.0
Requested features
25 requests- Import photos from external SSD or USB storage
- Manual color control for watermarks
- Support for multiple camera connections
- Layer masking and adjustment layers
- Delayed shutter release/self-timer functionality
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- Erase/content removal tool
- Dodge and burn tools
- Export in HEIF/HEIC format
- 16-bit TIFF export capability
- Perspective/keystone correction
- Batch import retry functionality
- Custom watermark options with date/name
- Geo-tagging support
- Fine art frame auto-application
- Live view support for X2D
- Ability to import RAW files directly from app
- Compressed DNG export option
- Android version of the app
- Black point adjustment
- Portrait orientation support for live view
- Ability to stop interval drive mode remotely
- Precise value input for edits (not just sliders)
- HEIF10 or TIFF16 export for better dynamic range
- Files API integration between mobile and desktop
- Exposure simulation toggle for flash photography
In-app purchases
Adaptalux
No in-app purchases
Phocus Mobile
No in-app purchases
