Comparison

Exacto vs Spectre Camera

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Exacto

Easily create precise photo cutouts and remove backgrounds with a powerful pen selection tool. This app brings advanced desktop editing capabilities to your mobile device, allowing for pixel-perfect selections and unlimited layers for complex edits.

Highlights
  • Pen Selection Tool for precise cutouts
  • Unlimited layers for multiple selections
  • Delete and insert points in selections
  • Reset control points
  • Unlimited undo/redo
  • Autosave projects
  • Instant preview
Features
Read full description

Quickly remove unwanted backgrounds or create razor-sharp photo cutouts with the Pen Selection Tool. Previously found only in advanced desktop programs, now available for the very first time on iPhone and iPad with a streamlined and much simplified implementation optimized for touch. This incredibly versatile tool offers unique capabilities unmatched by anything else on the App Store. It’s an integral part of the professional toolbox and artists and photographers have relied on it for decades. Now you can too! You no longer have to waste hours working on a single photo only to achieve less than satisfactory results. With Exacto you can make pixel-perfect selections that precisely trace the contours of any subject, no matter how intricate or complex. But that’s not all! Exacto even goes beyond the standard functionality of the Pen Selection Tool by introducing features that provide greater flexibility and control such as the ability to delete and insert points anywhere in the selection, the ability to reset control points, and most importantly, unlimited layers for making multiple selections. In addition, Exacto offers other advanced features that greatly enhance the user experience including unlimited undo / redo, projects autosave, instant preview, and much more! Here’s how it works: 1 - Place points around an area of interest then drag them into position to make a selection. 2 - Add layers to make selections of multiple subjects and areas in your photo. 3 - Keep track of your progress with the full-size instant preview option. 4 - Made a mistake? With unlimited undo / redo your entire editing history is preserved, from start to finish. So you can go backward or forward as many steps as you need. 5 - Must leave in a hurry? With autosave your work is never lost and you can pick up right where you left off at any time. 6 - All done? Save your photo cutout to the Camera Roll or open it in other apps. There’s no limit to the fun and exciting ways you could use your photo cutouts. For example, you could: 1 - Superimpose them on different backgrounds. 2 - Insert them in work or school presentations. 3 - Use them as stickers in chats. 4 - Use them in creating decorative art. 5 - Print them out and make actual cardboard cutouts for special occasions. and on and on! Experiencing issues? Have comments or suggestions for future updates? Please contact us at support@exactoapp.com.

About

Spectre Camera

This app uses AI to create stunning long exposure photographs, making it easy to capture professional-quality shots. Remove crowds, create light trails, and achieve silky smooth water effects effortlessly.

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

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!

Screenshots

Exacto4 screens
Spectre Camera4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Spectre Camera at Free against Exacto's $2.99. Spectre Camera also leads on ratings volume (2.4K vs 615). Exacto's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and rating (4.5 vs 4.3). On update cadence, ads and monetization model 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Spectre Camera is free to download; Exacto costs $2.99 up front. Spectre Camera sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Exacto asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Exacto holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 4.3. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 615 and 2.4K respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 55% of Exacto's written reviews are positive against 46% of Spectre Camera's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Exacto ships an update every 2 months, Spectre Camera every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on October 15, 2026 and October 16, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Exacto versus Spectre Camera: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterExactoSpectre Camera
Price$2.99Free — better
Rating4.5 (615 ratings) — better4.3 (2.4K ratings)
Positive reviews55.4% of reviews — better45.8% of reviews
Number of ratings6152.4K — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 months — betterEvery 3 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaidPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS12.0 — better16.0
Further details — not scored
Size30 MB12 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperTinkerworks AppsLux Optics Incorporated

Customer experience

Exacto

All ratings615 ratings
Positive86.5%
Neutral4.1%
Negative9.4%
Written reviews233 reviews
Positive55.4%
Neutral5.2%
Negative39.5%

Spectre Camera

All ratings2,408 ratings
Positive83.5%
Neutral3.7%
Negative12.7%
Written reviews437 reviews
Positive45.8%
Neutral10.8%
Negative43.5%

User reviews

Exacto

From 615 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Excellent manual image cut-out app
  • 🚀 Fast and easy to use
  • 💡 Intuitive method for generating cut-outs
  • 👍 Precise and detailed cut-outs
  • 👍 Feathering feature for high-quality results

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Crashes when handling complicated motifs
  • 🐛 Inability to save edited images
  • 🐛 White background when saving cut-outs
  • 👎 Lack of automation and inconvenient cut-out points
  • 👎 Complicated and not user-friendly

Spectre Camera

From 2.4K App Store ratings

What we love

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

Room to improve

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

Bugs and requests

Exacto

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Crashes on newer iOS versions
  • Saving issues, unable to save with transparent background

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add a refine selection brush
  • Ability to add a background layer
  • Magnetic lasso tool
  • Change the color of the selection outline
  • Combine with creative composition tools

Spectre Camera

Reported bugs

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

Requested features

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

In-app purchases

None

Exacto

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

Spectre Camera

One-time1
  • Spectre Pro$4.99

Questions

Is Exacto free?
Exacto costs $2.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Spectre Camera free?
Spectre Camera is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Exacto or Spectre Camera?
Exacto is rated higher. Exacto averages 4.5 out of 5 from 615 ratings, while Spectre Camera averages 4.3 from 2.4K ratings.
Do Exacto or Spectre Camera have ads?
Neither Exacto nor Spectre Camera shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Exacto or Spectre Camera?
Exacto ships an update every 2 months, and Spectre Camera every 3 months. Most recently, Exacto was updated on October 15, 2026 and Spectre Camera on October 16, 2026.

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