Comparison

Spectre Camera vs Hipstamatic® Analog Camera

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

Head to head
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!

About

Hipstamatic® Analog Camera

This app simulates shooting with a vintage analog film camera, applying effects like lenses and films before you take the photo. Explore over a thousand unique analog combinations and connect with a community of photographers without algorithms or ads.

Highlights
  • Analog film camera simulation
  • Pre-shoot effect application
  • 1000+ lens and film combinations
  • Chronological community feed
  • No ads or algorithms
  • Photo challenges and stamps
Features
Read full description

Your iPhone takes perfect photos. Hipstamatic® doesn't. That's the point. Hipstamatic is not a photo editor. It's a camera... the original analog film camera for iPhone, made since 2009. —— SHOOT FIRST. EDIT NEVER. Pick a lens. Pick a film. Shoot. Hipstamatic® applies the analog look before you press the shutter — exactly the way a real film camera works. No editing. No tweaking. No second-guessing. The photo is finished the moment you take it. —— 200+ LENSES. 200+ FILMS. EVERY ONE A REAL CAMERA. Over 1,000 analog combinations across TinType, Instant, Classic Toy and more. Each one gives you grain, color shifts, light leaks and vignettes you can't fake and can't replicate anywhere else. None of them perfect. All of them honest. Don't want to choose? Shuffle, and let the camera surprise you. —— NO ADS. NO TRACKING. NO ALGORITHM. EVER. Hipstamatic® runs on members, not advertisers. No VC funding. No data harvesting. No feed deciding what you should look at. When you join, you're keeping an independent camera alive… One that's been here since before Instagram existed. —— A SMALL, QUIET ROOM. If you want it, there's a community of people who shoot the way you do. Chronological. No algorithm. No brand accounts. No promoted posts. No follower math. Just photographs people actually meant to make. And it's opt-in — if you only ever want a private camera, that's the whole app too. —— FREE TO START. MORE LOOKS WITH MEMBERSHIP. The camera is free. Join the Hipstamatic® Camera Club to open the whole shelf. Every lens, every film, every camera we've made in 15+ years and go as deep as you want to go. Your first month is on us. —— P.S. Hipstamatic was Apple's very first App of the Year (2010). We just never stopped pointing the camera at something.

Screenshots

Spectre Camera4 screens
Hipstamatic® Analog Camera4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Hipstamatic® Analog Camera at 4.6 against Spectre Camera's 4.3. Hipstamatic® Analog Camera also leads on update cadence (monthly vs every 3 months) and monetization model (free with in-app purchases vs paid). Spectre Camera's advantage is iOS requirement (16.0 vs 18.6). On price, review sentiment, ratings volume and ads 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

Both are free to download. Spectre Camera sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Hipstamatic® Analog Camera sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $7.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Hipstamatic® Analog Camera holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 4.3. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 2.4K and 2.8K respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 46% of Spectre Camera's written reviews are positive against 39% of Hipstamatic® Analog Camera's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Spectre Camera ships an update every 3 months, Hipstamatic® Analog Camera monthly. Both last shipped on October 29, 2026.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Spectre Camera versus Hipstamatic® Analog Camera: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSpectre CameraHipstamatic® Analog Camera
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.3 (2.4K ratings)4.6 (2.8K ratings) — better
Positive reviews45.6% of reviews — better39.5% of reviews
Number of ratings2.4K2.8K — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsMonthly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationPaidFree with in-app purchases — better
DevicesiPhoneiPhone
Requires iOS16.0 — better18.6
Further details — not scored
Size12 MB184 MB
Age rating4+12+
DeveloperLux Optics IncorporatedHipstamatic, LLC

Customer experience

Spectre Camera

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

Hipstamatic® Analog Camera

All ratings2,798 ratings
Positive90.1%
Neutral3.1%
Negative6.8%
Written reviews380 reviews
Positive39.5%
Neutral12.1%
Negative48.4%

User reviews

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

Hipstamatic® Analog Camera

From 2.8K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Simple and intuitive interface
  • 👍 Variety of creative filters and effects
  • 💡 Ability to create custom camera presets
  • 🤩 Fun and engaging community features

Room to improve

  • 🔒 Locked features behind paywall
  • 😞 Loss of previous purchases and customizations
  • 🐛 Frequent crashes and stability issues
  • 💸 Expensive subscription model

Bugs and 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

Hipstamatic® Analog Camera

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Inability to save custom camera presets
  • Inconsistent behavior when editing photos
  • Syncing issues with photo library and cloud storage

Requested features

4 requests
  • Ability to import photos from camera roll
  • Option to change aspect ratio beyond square format
  • Restore previous purchases and customizations
  • Improved search and organization for lenses/films

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Spectre Camera

One-time1
  • Spectre Pro$4.99
3 purchases

Hipstamatic® Analog Camera

Subscriptions3
  • Hipstamatic Camera Club$7.991 Month
  • Hipstamatic Camera Club3 Months trial$19.996 Months
  • Hipstamatic Camera Club1 Month trial$29.991 Year

Questions

Is Spectre Camera free?
Spectre Camera is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Hipstamatic® Analog Camera free?
Hipstamatic® Analog Camera is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Spectre Camera or Hipstamatic® Analog Camera?
Hipstamatic® Analog Camera is rated higher. Spectre Camera averages 4.3 out of 5 from 2.4K ratings, while Hipstamatic® Analog Camera averages 4.6 from 2.8K ratings.
Do Spectre Camera or Hipstamatic® Analog Camera have ads?
Neither Spectre Camera nor Hipstamatic® Analog Camera shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Spectre Camera or Hipstamatic® Analog Camera?
Spectre Camera ships an update every 3 months, and Hipstamatic® Analog Camera monthly. Most recently, Spectre Camera was updated on October 29, 2026 and Hipstamatic® Analog Camera on October 29, 2026.

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