Comparison

Spectre Camera vs (Not Boring) 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

(Not Boring) Camera

Capture unique, honest, and inspiring photos with a playful camera interface. Offers professional-level controls, natural image processing, and customizable color grading with LUTs. Enjoy a tactile, 3D interface and one-second capture from lock screen.

Highlights
  • SUPER RAW™ capture
  • 3D LUT color grading
  • Customizable camera interface
  • HDR support
  • 3D camera interface with haptics
  • Manual pro controls
  • One-tap fast capture
Features
Read full description

"The most fun camera app I've used in forever." — The Verge "My go-to for iPhone photography" — Washington Post "It’s so fun to use." —MKBHD Capture unique, honest, inspiring photos like the Pros in a fun, playful camera. SUPER RAW™ No AI or over-processed photos. Just natural grain, sharper images, & film-like exposures. Save Raw digital negative files (DNG) for processing in other tools like Darkroom, Lightroom, or Photoshop. Or capture using Apple's professional-level ProRaw. SKIP THE EDITS From snap to share. !Camera is the first camera app to enable professional color grading with 3D LUTs (”lookup tables”) used in high-end workflows by professional photographers to achieve realistic film simulations and unique cinematic looks. Use !Camera’s presets, add LUTs from your favorite creators, or make & import your own! New Styles and pro collaborations released every season. MAKE IT YOURS Customize every part of your camera to fit your vibe. Share colorways with others. HDR Extend your photo’s dynamic range with HDR to save additional highlight detail and color depth. LOVE THE FEEL Click. Tick. Snap. First fully-3D camera interface with dynamic lighting, sounds, & custom haptics that evokes the feel of holding a real camera. PRO CONTROL Use Auto mode for easy captures or switch to Manual for full control over exposure, shutter speed, ISO, white balance, and focus with pro-level tools like focus peaking, histogram, and zebra stripes. ONE-TAP FAST From lock screen to first snap in under 1 second. Add shortcuts to your lock screen, home screen, widgets, camera control, control settings, wherever. 100% PRIVATE We collect nothing. We store nothing. We share nothing. Plans: https://notbor.ing/plans Support: https://notbor.ing/support Terms: https://notbor.ing/terms Privacy: https://notbor.ing/privacy

Screenshots

Spectre Camera4 screens
(Not Boring) Camera4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: (Not Boring) Camera at every 10 days against Spectre Camera's every 3 months. (Not Boring) Camera also leads on review sentiment (70% vs 46%) and rating (4.6 vs 4.3). Spectre Camera's advantage is iOS requirement (16.0 vs 18.2). On price, ratings volume, ads and in-app purchases 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 (Not Boring) Camera sells 5 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

(Not Boring) Camera holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 4.3. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 2.4K and 5K respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 46% of Spectre Camera's written reviews are positive against 70% of (Not Boring) Camera's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Spectre Camera ships an update every 3 months, (Not Boring) Camera every 10 days. The most recent releases landed on September 22, 2026 and September 23, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Spectre Camera versus (Not Boring) Camera: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSpectre Camera(Not Boring) Camera
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.3 (2.4K ratings)4.6 (5K ratings) — better
Positive reviews45.6% of reviews70.4% of reviews — better
Number of ratings2.4K5K — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsEvery 10 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationPaidFreemium — better
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad — better
Requires iOS16.0 — better18.2
Further details — not scored
Size12 MB191 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperLux Optics IncorporatedNot Boring Software LLC

Customer experience

Spectre Camera

All ratings2,408 ratings
Positive83.5%
Neutral3.7%
Negative12.7%
Written reviews436 reviews
Positive45.6%
Neutral10.8%
Negative43.6%

(Not Boring) Camera

All ratings4,950 ratings
Positive88.4%
Neutral4.5%
Negative7.1%
Written reviews422 reviews
Positive70.4%
Neutral10.2%
Negative19.4%

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

(Not Boring) Camera

From 5K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Customizable camera experience
  • 🎨 In-camera processing with LUTs
  • 🎥 Satisfying and natural film-like photos
  • 🔍 Excellent manual controls
  • 🎨 Aesthetically pleasing UI

Room to improve

  • 🔍 No digital zoom
  • 🎥 No video or slow-motion mode
  • 🔥 Phone gets too hot during use

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

(Not Boring) Camera

Reported bugs

1 issue
  • Inability to focus on nearby subjects

Requested features

2 requests
  • Video and slow-motion mode
  • Brightness matching between viewfinder and final image

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Spectre Camera

One-time1
  • Spectre Pro$4.99
5 purchases

(Not Boring) Camera

Subscriptions4
  • Super !Boring Monthly$7.991 Month
  • !Camera Plus Yearly$14.991 Year
  • !Camera Plus Yearly7 Days trial$14.991 Year
Show 1 more
  • Super !Boring Yearly$29.991 Year
One-time1
  • !Camera Plus Lifetime$59.99

Questions

Is Spectre Camera free?
Spectre Camera is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is (Not Boring) Camera free?
(Not Boring) Camera is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Spectre Camera or (Not Boring) Camera?
(Not Boring) Camera is rated higher. Spectre Camera averages 4.3 out of 5 from 2.4K ratings, while (Not Boring) Camera averages 4.6 from 5K ratings.
Do Spectre Camera or (Not Boring) Camera have ads?
Neither Spectre Camera nor (Not Boring) Camera shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Spectre Camera or (Not Boring) Camera?
Spectre Camera ships an update every 3 months, and (Not Boring) Camera every 10 days. Most recently, Spectre Camera was updated on September 22, 2026 and (Not Boring) Camera on September 23, 2026.

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