pCAM Pro vs CreativeGrading
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
pCAM Pro
This app provides 27 essential tools for cinematography and photography professionals and students. It offers instant calculations for depth of field, field of view, exposure, and more, with a user-friendly interface designed for on-the-go use.
- Depth of Field calculations
- Field of View preview
- Focal Length matching
- Exposure calculations
- HMI Flicker-free settings
- Speed Booster adapter calculations
- VFX tracking markers
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Plan shots, choose lenses, calculate exposure, and pre-visualize the frame in seconds. 27 pro tools. Every result illustrated. 2,000+ camera formats plus unlimited user-defined formats. I've deliberately kept pCAM Pro a one-time purchase, with none of the subscriptions that have crept into so many apps. • Universal app for iPhone, iPad, Apple Silicon Mac, and Apple Vision Pro • Depth of Field (hyperfocal, total depth, near and far, image circle) • Field of View (and angle of view) • Field of View Preview in both Portrait & Landscape camera positions (8 images to pre-visualize & size shots by distance & focal length) • Focal Length (lens) Matching — match to horizontal, vertical, or diagonal dimensions • Relative Size (compares sensors) • Exposure calculations • HMI Flicker-free (safe shutters & safe camera speeds) • Reference (technical charts, lists & tables. Cine film stocks with film can labels, cine lens specs, false color/exposure change, diopter distance table, miniature shooting, safe panning speeds, zone system) • Insert Slate (4 font colors plus white or black backgrounds) • Splits — Aperture Finder calculation • Speed Booster® Adapter — calculate reduced Focal Length & Boosted Aperture with various adapters. Also create camera format profiles with attached adapters for use in other tools • Eye Light (soft-edged light shapes — Full Screen, Oval, Ring, and Strip) • Chroma Key & VFX Tracking (green and blue screen and VFX tracking markers) • Light Effects for handheld light or via Apple AirPlay to HDTV. Includes templates for: fire, television, siren, neon, strobe, flashbulb, lightning. Create unlimited custom animations • Mired Shift — Gel Selector • Conversion calculator • 4 Test Charts (incl. Siemens Star) • Triangulate calculation (calculate distances, image circle, etc.) • Film Running Time to Length • Shooting to Screen Time • Color Correction (chooses color correction filters) • Time Lapse (shooting interval, event duration, screen time) • Scene Illumination (beam intensity) • Light Coverage (width/distance) • Underwater Distance • Diopter (lens focus, diopter power) • Macro (object distance, magnification, corrected stop, DoF, object size, image size, fill percentage) • Built-in user guides on each screen • Calculates instantly & automatically as each entry is entered • 2,000+ camera formats plus unlimited customizable, user-defined camera formats, CoC & filters • Designed by a working camera technician who understands that calculations must be done simply and on-the-run AND ONE THING THAT ISN'T A CALCULATOR Crew Wheel — spin to settle who's buying the coffee. Not a tool, just a small gift for the standing-around time. Every long day needs one. TRUSTED WORLDWIDE BY DPs, Photographers, Camera Assistants, Camera Operators, Production Designers, VFX, Videographers, Gaffers, plus Film, Television, and Digital Media students. INDUSTRY RECOGNITION • Membership in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Production and Technology Branch). • 75th Primetime Emmy Awards — Emmy® for "Outstanding Achievement in Engineering, Science & Technology" from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. • 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards — Engineering Plaque for "Outstanding Achievement in Engineering Development" from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. • Technical Achievement Award from Society of Camera Operators — "For outstanding contributions to cinematography through the design and development of the pCAM Film+Digital Calculator."
CreativeGrading
This application provides a revolutionary camera shading control panel for professional camera series. It offers a holistic view of organic curves and color shaping, simplifying artistic decision-making with a graphical representation of parameter changes for enhanced control.
- Revolutionary camera shading control
- Tablet and control panel interface
- Holistic view of organic curves
- Graphical representation of parameter changes
- System-wide view of image modification
- Enhanced artistic decision-making
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With Grass Valley's new Creative Grading, the Focus and LDX camera series just unleashed their full potential. Creative Grading is a new camera shading control panel and tablet application that redefines the human interface and puts the user in full control of the creative power that lives inside Grass Valley cameras. Using either or both a tablet and an intensively-tested new control panel, Creative Grading transforms camera shading from what was numeric on/off thinking to a holistic view of organic curves and color shaping. For ease in visualization, the larger UI of the tablet application provides a graphical representation of the impact of parameter changes. Artistic decision-making is much simpler and faster as shaders can see how a single change affects related sets of parameters in a system-wide view of how the on-screen image will be modified. This keeps shaders in full control, regardless of the situation and provides the camera operator with the most optimal working conditions for the task.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: CreativeGrading at Free against pCAM Pro's $34.99. CreativeGrading also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 3) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 17.0). pCAM Pro's advantage is update cadence (every 9 days vs every 57 months) and ratings volume (221 vs 2). On rating, ads and device support 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
CreativeGrading is free to download; pCAM Pro costs $34.99 up front. pCAM Pro sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. CreativeGrading asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.9 for pCAM Pro against 5.0 for CreativeGrading. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: pCAM Pro has 221 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two.
pCAM Pro ships an update every 9 days, CreativeGrading every 57 months. The most recent releases landed on September 25, 2026 and June 11, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | pCAM Pro | CreativeGrading |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $34.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 4.9 (221 ratings) | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 97.4% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 221 — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Every 9 days — better | Every 57 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Paid | Free — better |
| Best chart rank | #185 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad — better | iPad |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 12.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 42 MB | 1 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | David Eubank | Grass Valley USA, LLC |
Customer experience
pCAM Pro
CreativeGrading
Bugs and requests
pCAM Pro
Reported bugs
1 issue- None explicitly mentioned, but feature requests imply areas for improvement.
Requested features
3 requests- Access iPhone camera for exact POV simulation
- Implement a night mode
- Relocate hyperfocal 'apply' button in Depth-of-Field calculator
CreativeGrading
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
pCAM Pro
- Small Tip$1.99
- Medium Tip$4.99
- Large Tip$7.99
CreativeGrading
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is pCAM Pro free?
Is CreativeGrading free?
Which has better reviews, pCAM Pro or CreativeGrading?
Do pCAM Pro or CreativeGrading have ads?
Which is updated more often, pCAM Pro or CreativeGrading?
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