Comparison

Spectre Camera vs Start Here by Tinrocket

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

Start Here by Tinrocket

Easily set a specific starting point for your videos to capture attention instantly. The app preserves video quality and allows for precise trimming, ensuring your content looks its best when shared on social platforms.

Highlights
  • Set custom video start points
  • Preserves video quality
  • Built-in trim control
  • Seamless looping
  • Preview starting point
Features
Read full description

Grab your audience before they scroll away. Start Here lets you cut to the chase by making it easy to “time-shift” your video posts: Simply load your movie, mark the action, and share. Your video will begin at the best spot when it appears on Instagram or Twitter, and the full video will seamlessly loop when playback repeats. FEATURES: • Video data is preserved when saving for no loss of quality or recompression • Quickly set and preview a new starting point for your video • Built-in trim control for fine-tuning • From Tinrocket, creator of Waterlogue (App Store Best of 2014), This by Tinrocket (App Store Best of 2016), Olli (App Store Best of 2017) KEEP UP WITH TINROCKET: • Follow @Tinrocket on Instagram and Twitter for the latest! • We’re here to help: If you have a question or need assistance, you can always email us at support@tinrocket.com • If you like Start Here, please consider leaving an App Store review or rating. Every review counts and helps indie developers like ourselves. “Grab your audience” and “Grab your audience before they scroll away” are trademarks of Tinrocket, LLC.

Screenshots

Spectre Camera4 screens
Start Here by Tinrocket3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Spectre Camera at Free against Start Here by Tinrocket's $0.99. Spectre Camera also leads on ratings volume (2.4K vs 35). Start Here by Tinrocket's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and update cadence (every 3 days vs every 3 months). On rating, ads, monetization model 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Spectre Camera is free to download; Start Here by Tinrocket costs $0.99 up front. Spectre Camera sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Start Here by Tinrocket asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.3 for Spectre Camera against 4.3 for Start Here by Tinrocket. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Spectre Camera has 2.4K ratings behind it against 35, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 46% of Spectre Camera's written reviews are positive against 70% of Start Here by Tinrocket's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Spectre Camera ships an update every 3 months, Start Here by Tinrocket every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on October 19, 2026 and October 9, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Spectre Camera versus Start Here by Tinrocket: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSpectre CameraStart Here by Tinrocket
PriceFree — better$0.99
Rating4.3 (2.4K ratings)4.3 (35 ratings)
Positive reviews45.8% of reviews70.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings2.4K — better35
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsEvery 3 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationPaidPaid
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS16.015.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size12 MB21 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperLux Optics IncorporatedTinrocket, LLC

Customer experience

Spectre Camera

All ratings2,408 ratings
Positive83.5%
Neutral3.7%
Negative12.7%
Written reviews437 reviews
Positive45.8%
Neutral10.8%
Negative43.5%

Start Here by Tinrocket

All ratings35 ratings
Positive80.0%
Neutral5.7%
Negative14.3%
Written reviews10 reviews
Positive70.0%
Neutral20.0%
Negative10.0%

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

Start Here by Tinrocket

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Spectre Camera

One-time1
  • Spectre Pro$4.99
None

Start Here by Tinrocket

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Spectre Camera free?
Spectre Camera is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Start Here by Tinrocket free?
Start Here by Tinrocket costs $0.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Spectre Camera or Start Here by Tinrocket?
Spectre Camera and Start Here by Tinrocket are both rated 4.3 out of 5 on the App Store, from 2.4K and 35 ratings respectively.
Do Spectre Camera or Start Here by Tinrocket have ads?
Neither Spectre Camera nor Start Here by Tinrocket shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Spectre Camera or Start Here by Tinrocket?
Spectre Camera ships an update every 3 months, and Start Here by Tinrocket every 3 days. Most recently, Spectre Camera was updated on October 19, 2026 and Start Here by Tinrocket on October 9, 2026.

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