Comparison

Spectre Camera vs Afterlight

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

Afterlight

Create film-inspired aesthetics for your videos with one-tap presets, authentic overlays, and a range of creative editing tools. Enhance your clips with filters, transitions, and detailed adjustments for a cinematic look.

Highlights
  • One-tap vintage presets
  • Authentic film overlays
  • Seamless clip transitions
  • 32 creative filters
  • Precise clip editing tools
  • Advanced adjustment tools
Read full description

Meet AFTERLIGHT VIDEO: your mobile video editing companion. Tell your story with film-inspired aesthetics: one-tap Presets, authentic film overlays, and a full set of creative tools built to feel like your camera, not a timeline. { VINTAGE PRESETS IN ONE TAP } An ever-growing library of one-tap Presets for any mood. Apply, preview, and fully customize for an original, film-inspired look. - 29+ full-edit Presets, applied in a single tap - Inspired by a range of camera and film types, built with old film videography in mind - Each Preset combines filters, overlays, frames, and unique effects - Tap to preview, tap again to edit - Like most of a Preset but not all of it? Pull out what you don't want, you're in control { AUTHENTIC FILM OVERLAYS } Real film scans, not simulations. Choose from Dust, Light Leak, and Glitch overlays to add texture and imperfection to your videos. { SEAMLESS CLIP TRANSITIONS } Upload multiple clips and use the transition button in your timeline to move between them with a range of creative transition styles. { CLIP EDITING & ADJUSTMENTS } 32 Filters to play with, plus a precision clip selector: trim, flip/rotate, speed up. Finish with a full adjustment kit: Brightness, Contrast, Vibrance, Chroma, our newly updated Grain, Clarify, Glow, Exposure, Highlights, Shadows, Temp, Tint, or lower FPS for a more cinematic feel. Privacy & Terms — https://afterlight.co/privacy Have a question? — https://afterlight.co/support Follow us Instagram @afterlight TikTok @afterlightapp

Screenshots

Spectre Camera4 screens
Afterlight4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Afterlight at 90% against Spectre Camera's 46%. Afterlight also leads on update cadence (fortnightly vs every 3 months) and rating (4.6 vs 4.3). Spectre Camera's advantage is monetization model (paid vs subscription) and ratings volume (2.4K vs 171). On price, ads, in-app purchases 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Spectre Camera sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Afterlight sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Afterlight holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 4.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Spectre Camera has 2.4K ratings behind it against 171, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 46% of Spectre Camera's written reviews are positive against 90% of Afterlight's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Spectre Camera ships an update every 3 months, Afterlight fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 29, 2026 and October 22, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Spectre Camera versus Afterlight: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSpectre CameraAfterlight
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.3 (2.4K ratings)4.6 (171 ratings) — better
Positive reviews45.6% of reviews90.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings2.4K — better171
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsFortnightly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationPaid — betterSubscription
DevicesiPhoneiPhone
Requires iOS16.0 — better16.6
Further details — not scored
Size12 MB251 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperLux Optics IncorporatedAfterlight Collective, Inc

Customer experience

Spectre Camera

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

Afterlight

All ratings167 ratings
Positive87.4%
Neutral6.0%
Negative6.6%
Written reviews50 reviews
Positive90.0%
Neutral6.0%
Negative4.0%

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

Afterlight

From 171 App Store ratings

What we love

  • ✨ Great vintage effects
  • 👍 Easy to use interface
  • 🌟 Good for quick edits
  • 🎬 Film effects and presets
  • 🎨 Interesting and fun colors

Room to improve

  • 📉 Videos darken on export
  • ⏳ App not updated in years
  • 🎦 Lacks many features

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

Afterlight

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Exporting darkens videos
  • Videos darken when uploaded to Instagram Stories

Requested features

6 requests
  • Add more filters & presets
  • Add more vintage effect variations
  • Add text adding features
  • Add 4K export at 60fps
  • Revamp the whole system
Show 1 more
  • Add more transition options

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Spectre Camera

One-time1
  • Spectre Pro$4.99
3 purchases

Afterlight

Subscriptions2
  • PRO Monthly$2.991 Month
  • PRO Yearly7 Days trial$17.991 Year
One-time1
  • PRO Lifetime$35.99

Questions

Is Spectre Camera free?
Spectre Camera is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Afterlight free?
Afterlight is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Spectre Camera or Afterlight?
Afterlight is rated higher. Spectre Camera averages 4.3 out of 5 from 2.4K ratings, while Afterlight averages 4.6 from 171 ratings.
Do Spectre Camera or Afterlight have ads?
Neither Spectre Camera nor Afterlight shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Spectre Camera or Afterlight?
Spectre Camera ships an update every 3 months, and Afterlight fortnightly. Most recently, Spectre Camera was updated on October 29, 2026 and Afterlight on October 22, 2026.

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