pCAM Pro vs .Cast
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
Read full descriptionHide full description
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."
.Cast
Read full descriptionHide full description
.Cast sends your iPhone's screen and audio to .Capture, a video capture app for Mac, over your local network. It is a sender only. When an iPhone is used as a camera on a film, commercial or TV set, .Cast lets you put the camera app's monitoring screen — waveform, focus assist, frame lines and all — on the director's and client monitors. ONE TAP TO START Open .Cast, tap the red REC button and start the broadcast from the iOS menu. Then open the camera app you shoot with. Whatever is on the iPhone's screen appears in .Capture. A REAL INPUT IN .CAPTURE In .Capture the phone shows up as an input ("iPhone · name", set in .Cast) and can be previewed, recorded and sent to SDI like any other camera. With several phones, "iPhone Multi" shows up to four side by side. BUILT FOR THE SET - Hardware H.264 encoding on the device (1920 px long edge, about 10 Mbps), tuned for low latency - Orientation: Auto / Port Right / Port Left / Portrait. Fixing it is more reliable on a rig, and it can be changed while broadcasting - Audio: the microphone when it is on, otherwise the app audio - Lists the .Capture Macs nearby, and tells you what to check when none is found NOTHING LEAVES YOUR NETWORK Video and audio go straight to the Mac on your local network. No internet, servers or cloud. No account, login, purchases, ads, analytics or tracking. HOW TO USE 1. Update .Capture on your Mac to the latest version and launch it 2. Join the iPhone and the Mac to the same Wi‑Fi 3. In .Cast, tap REC, choose .Cast and start the broadcast 4. In .Capture, choose the iPhone under INPUT Requires .Capture for Mac as the receiver (https://capture.kotetsu.work). The whole screen is sent, including notifications — turn on a Focus mode while broadcasting. .Cast is not for mirroring to TVs or external displays.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: .Cast at Free against pCAM Pro's $34.99. .Cast also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 3). On ads, device support and iOS requirement 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
.Cast is free to download; pCAM Pro costs $34.99 up front. pCAM Pro sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. .Cast asks for nothing beyond the download.
| Parameter | pCAM Pro | .Cast |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $34.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 4.9 (222 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 97.4% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 222 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Weekly | — |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Paid | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 42 MB | 1 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | David Eubank | KOTETSU, Corp. |
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
.Cast
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
.Cast
No in-app purchases









