Comparison

Spectre Camera vs Chromahora

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

Chromahora

Visualize your day's light conditions on a color-coded timeline. Plan shoots with golden hour, blue hour, and twilight predictions, integrated with weather forecasts and moon phases. Scout locations and dates with precision for optimal photography and filmmaking.

Highlights
  • Daily light timeline
  • Golden hour and blue hour prediction
  • Weather forecasting integration
  • Moon phase and moonrise/moonset
  • Location-based planning
  • Astrophotography dark-sky windows
Features
Read full description

Great light doesn't wait. Chromahora shows the light for your whole day on one timeline, painted in the colors of the sky, so you know when to be in place and when to shoot. THE LIGHT, HOUR BY HOUR - Golden hour and blue hour, morning and evening, clearly marked - Sunrise, sunset and every twilight in between - A "now" marker, so you always know how long you have left - Tap any phase to jump straight to it PLAN AROUND THE WEATHER - Rain, snow and cloudy spells laid over the timeline - The sky at sunrise and sunset, so you'll know whether clouds will light up or blot out the sun - Hourly UV index and visibility, including fog that cuts how far you can see AFTER DARK - Moonrise, moonset and moon phase - Dark-sky windows for astrophotography, and a clear note when the moon is up or the sky never gets fully dark ANY PLACE, ANY DAY - Use where you are, or search any town, park or landmark - Pick any date to scout a shoot weeks ahead - Times stay in the place's own time zone, so planning a trip abroad just works - Handles the edge cases: midnight sun, polar night and all-day golden hour MADE FOR APPLE DEVICES - Built with Liquid Glass - On iPad and in landscape, the day's details sit right beside the timeline - Supports VoiceOver and Dynamic Type Chromahora is made for landscape, portrait and street photographers, filmmakers, and anyone who chases the light. It's also open source! https://github.com/afollestad/Chromahora Sun and moon data from sunrise-sunset.org. Weather from Apple Weather.

Screenshots

Spectre Camera4 screens
Chromahora4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Chromahora at 5.0 against Spectre Camera's 4.3. Chromahora also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 1) and update cadence (weekly vs every 3 months). Spectre Camera's advantage is ratings volume (2.4K vs 2) and iOS requirement (16.0 vs 26.0). On price 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. Chromahora asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Chromahora holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Spectre Camera has 2.4K ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Spectre Camera ships an update every 3 months, Chromahora weekly. The most recent releases landed on November 2, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Spectre Camera versus Chromahora: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSpectre CameraChromahora
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.3 (2.4K ratings)5.0 (2 ratings) — better
Positive reviews45.6% of reviews—
Number of ratings2.4K — better2
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsWeekly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationPaidFree — better
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — better
Requires iOS16.0 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size12 MB13 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperLux Optics IncorporatedAidan Follestad

Customer experience

Spectre Camera

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

Chromahora

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

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

Chromahora

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Spectre Camera

One-time1
  • Spectre Pro$4.99
None

Chromahora

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Spectre Camera free?
Spectre Camera is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Chromahora free?
Chromahora is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Spectre Camera or Chromahora?
Chromahora is rated higher. Spectre Camera averages 4.3 out of 5 from 2.4K ratings, while Chromahora averages 5.0 from 2 ratings.
Do Spectre Camera or Chromahora have ads?
Neither Spectre Camera nor Chromahora shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Spectre Camera or Chromahora?
Spectre Camera ships an update every 3 months, and Chromahora weekly. Most recently, Spectre Camera was updated on November 2, 2026 and Chromahora on October 31, 2026.

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