Carousel Camera vs Spectre Camera
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Carousel Camera
This app offers a unique circular video recording format that adapts to any screen orientation. Capture footage in high resolution and easily switch between full frame views with a simple double tap.
- Circular video recording
- Adapts to any screen orientation
- High-resolution capture (4K compatible)
- Double-tap for full frame view
- Ratioless video format
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Designed by wearedot.agency, Carousel Camera is a beautifully designed, innovative camera solution that gets rid of an old problem: aspect ratio. By using a circular video (ratioless), it can be adapted to any screen! Using a 4K-compatible phone is yields a better than HD image*, that is vertical, horizontal, any angle you want... Double tap to see a complete view of the frame, both horizontal and vertical! *Final image is "1215p" (2160x1215) in 4K phones. 607.5p in 1080p phones.
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.
- AI-powered long exposures
- Crowd removal
- Light trail creation
- Silky water effects
- Live Photos and video support
- Automatic scene detection
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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
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Spectre Camera at 4.3 against Carousel Camera's 2.7. Spectre Camera also leads on ratings volume (2.4K vs 3). Carousel Camera's advantage is update cadence (every 10 days vs every 3 months) and monetization model (free with in-app purchases vs paid). 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. Carousel Camera sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Spectre Camera sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Spectre Camera holds the better App Store score, 4.3 against 2.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Spectre Camera has 2.4K ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 50% of Carousel Camera's written reviews are positive against 46% of Spectre Camera's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Carousel Camera ships an update every 10 days, Spectre Camera every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on June 1, 2026 and September 30, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Carousel Camera | Spectre Camera |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 2.7 (3 ratings) | 4.3 (2.4K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 50.0% of reviews — better | 45.6% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 3 | 2.4K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 10 days — better | Every 3 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases — better | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 10.0 — better | 16.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 30 MB | 12 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Rafael Costa | Lux Optics Incorporated |
Customer experience
Carousel Camera
Spectre Camera
Bugs and requests
Carousel Camera
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
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
Carousel Camera
- Carousel Camera Pro$0.99
Spectre Camera
- Spectre Pro$4.99
Questions
Is Carousel Camera free?
Is Spectre Camera free?
Which has better reviews, Carousel Camera or Spectre Camera?
Do Carousel Camera or Spectre Camera have ads?
Which is updated more often, Carousel Camera or Spectre Camera?
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