Comparison

Apollo 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

Apollo

Enhance your Portrait Mode photos by adding and manipulating light sources after the shot. This app reconstructs a 3D map of your image, allowing real-time adjustments to color, intensity, and distance of lights for professional-looking results.

Highlights
  • Add light sources to Portrait Mode photos
  • Adjust light color, intensity, and distance
  • Real-time 3D light and shadow rendering
  • Create invisible light sources
  • Edit photos after they are taken
Features
Read full description

*** Apollo operates on Portrait Mode photos (requires iPhone 7 Plus, 8 Plus, X or NEWER). *** Apollo is the FIRST application that enables you to add light sources to your **Portrait Mode** photos, after the photo was taken! Apollo reconstructs a 3D map of your photo which you can augment with new light sources in real time. Take your portrait mode photographs from awesome to unforgettable by selecting the color, intensity, distance of a light and illuminate your photos and selfies to your heart's content. *** WARNING: Taking portrait mode photos requires iPhone 7 Plus, 8 Plus, X or NEWER. *** Apollo is the first app to use the depth data of your portrait mode photos to calculate photorealistic light and shadow. Using a proprietary processing algorithm running on your iPhone's graphics card, Apollo is able to render light sources on a portrait scene or selfie in real time. Apollo allows professional photographers and amateurs alike to try things that are not possible in the physical world. You can shape scene lighting by adding or even removing light. Since lights are computationally rendered in the scene, it is possible to put a light source within the frame: say hello to invisible lamps! The UI is optimised for use with one thumb, allowing you to always view the entire photo. One price, no in-app purchases and no subscriptions. We hope that Apollo is part of the computational photography revolution. We are doing our best but your support is crucial. Send us your feedback, ideas or bug reports on our support email. Show off your lighting chops on our social media outlets. --- Instagram: @apollo_illumination_app and share with tag: #apollo_illumination --- Facebook page: apollo.illumination --- Follow us on twitter: @Apollo_illum or share with tag: #apollo_illumination

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

Apollo4 screens
Spectre Camera4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Spectre Camera at Free against Apollo's $2.99. Spectre Camera also leads on ratings volume (2.4K vs 447). Apollo's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and update cadence (monthly vs every 3 months). On rating, review sentiment, 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; Apollo costs $2.99 up front. Spectre Camera sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Apollo asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.2 for Apollo against 4.3 for Spectre Camera. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Spectre Camera has 2.4K ratings behind it against 447, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 47% of Apollo's written reviews are positive against 46% of Spectre Camera's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Apollo ships an update monthly, Spectre Camera every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and November 2, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Apollo versus Spectre Camera: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterApolloSpectre Camera
Price$2.99Free — better
Rating4.2 (447 ratings)4.3 (2.4K ratings) — better
Positive reviews46.6% of reviews — better45.6% of reviews
Number of ratings4472.4K — better
Update frequencyMonthly — betterEvery 3 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaidPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS12.0 — better16.0
Further details — not scored
Size21 MB12 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperINDICE S.A.Lux Optics Incorporated

Customer experience

Apollo

All ratings447 ratings
Positive79.2%
Neutral5.4%
Negative15.4%
Written reviews380 reviews
Positive46.6%
Neutral9.7%
Negative43.7%

Spectre Camera

All ratings2,408 ratings
Positive83.5%
Neutral3.7%
Negative12.7%
Written reviews439 reviews
Positive45.6%
Neutral10.7%
Negative43.7%

User reviews

Apollo

From 447 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 💡 Unique lighting effects
  • 🚀 Impressive depth-based editing
  • 👍 Intuitive user interface
  • 🎨 Ability to create dramatic photos

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Compatibility issues with older iPhones
  • 🔒 Limited to portrait mode photos only
  • ⚠️ Crashes and freezes reported
  • 🤔 Confusing tutorial prompts

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

Apollo

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Unable to access full photo library
  • Crashes when trying to edit certain photos
  • Inconsistent performance across devices

Requested features

4 requests
  • Support for all photo types, not just portrait mode
  • Option to save and load custom lighting presets
  • Ability to control light direction and intensity
  • Integration with other photo editing apps

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

Apollo

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

Spectre Camera

One-time1
  • Spectre Pro$4.99

Questions

Is Apollo free?
Apollo 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, Apollo or Spectre Camera?
Spectre Camera is rated higher. Apollo averages 4.2 out of 5 from 447 ratings, while Spectre Camera averages 4.3 from 2.4K ratings.
Do Apollo or Spectre Camera have ads?
Neither Apollo nor Spectre Camera shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Apollo or Spectre Camera?
Apollo ships an update monthly, and Spectre Camera every 3 months. Most recently, Apollo was updated on November 6, 2026 and Spectre Camera on November 2, 2026.

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