LightMeter35 vs Ancient Light
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
LightMeter35
This app provides film photographers with a digital light meter, featuring a simple interface and precise lux calculations. It has been redesigned with skeuomorphic elements to enhance the analog photography experience.
- Light meter for film photographers
- Simple UI
- Statistic-based lux calculation
- Skeuomorphic design
- On-the-go usability
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I once bought a second-hand film camera, but the built-in light meter was broken. Then I started to build this lightweight light meter for all film photographers. A simple UI with a very hard-core, statistic-based, lux calculation inside. The only light meter you will need on the go. After a dozen months of absence, I am back and redesigned the whole UI from scratch, bringing back great skeuomorphism time. Don't miss out on this amazing opportunity to enhance your film photography journey with LightMeter35 2.0! Download the app now and join our growing community of analog lovers. Experience the magic of capturing moments on film with the most reliable and intuitive light meter app on the market.
Ancient Light
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Ancient Light transforms your iPhone into a camera of the nineteenth century. Twelve authentic historic photographic processes - each faithfully simulated through the physics of tone, silver chemistry, grain, paper, emulsion, and light. Not filters. Processes. -- THE TWELVE PROCESSES -- Daguerreotype (1839) - The first successful photograph. A mirror-like silver surface with luminous shadow detail and seven scanned frame choices, plus No Frame. Tintype (1853) - The photograph of the working class. Robust, immediate, metallic, with regular or square format options and optional worn plate borders. Albumen (1850s) - Warm egg-white paper prints mounted as cabinet cards, with soft sepia-brown toning, aged cream stock, rounded corners, and a ruled inner border. Sepia - The warm brown tone of silver sulphide that preserved Victorian portraits through a century and a half. Cyanotype (1842) - Sir John Herschel's iron-based process. Deep Prussian blue. The print that gave photography the word "blueprint." Anthotype (1839) - Made from crushed plant pigments. Delicate, fugitive, botanical. The most poetic photographic process ever devised. Platinum (1873) - The process of fine art portraiture. Cool, shadow-rich, with a tonal range silver could never match. Autochrome (1907) - The Lumiere brothers' starch-grain colour process. Dreamy, pointillist, the first practical colour photography. Emulsion - A damaged instant-emulsion look with faded color, warm highlights, scorched edges, amber leaks, scratches, and oxidized surface wear. Bromoil (1907) - Oil-based ink on bleached gelatin. Painterly and stippled, with inky shadows and pale milky highlights. Lippmann (1891) - Gabriel Lippmann's Nobel Prize-winning interferential process. Warm amber ageing, long-exposure softness, and glass plate scratches from a century of handling. Infrared (1930s) - Light beyond the visible spectrum. Luminous white foliage, darkened skies, ethereal skin tones. The spectral world captured on heat-sensitive emulsion. -- WHAT ANCIENT LIGHT CAN DO -- * All four optical lenses - ultrawide (0.5x), wide (1x), 2x, and telephoto (5x) - selectable from the viewfinder * Shoot once, save many - save multiple historic versions from a single capture * On iPhone Pro: saves both a filtered JPEG and the original 48MP ProRAW DNG as a paired asset * Emulsion process with faded instant-film color, warmer highlights, lighter grain, and scanned edge damage * Albumen cabinet-card output with warm paper tone, aged stock texture, rounded card corners, and ruled border * Infrared process with glowing foliage, dark skies, and spectral black-and-white tonality * Tintype options - choose regular or square format, with period borders or no borders * Seven Daguerreotype frame styles plus No Frame, selectable directly from the viewfinder * Higher-resolution Daguerreotype frame output, scaled to the photo instead of the source frame artwork * Adjustments apply to the photograph while preserving Daguerreotype frame artwork * Full adjustment suite - exposure, contrast, highlights, shadows, black point, saturation, vibrance, warmth, sharpness, and vignette * Auto enhancement with one tap * Precision crop tool with inset handles and rule-of-thirds grid * Landscape side-panel layout keeps the image large while all controls stay accessible * Photographer credit field - your name travels with every saved file in the IPTC metadata * Process, frame, and Tintype options stored between sessions * iPhone and iPad, all orientations * No subscription. No ads. No account required. Ancient Light is a single purchase. Everything in it is yours.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Ancient Light at every 5 days against LightMeter35's every 6 weeks. Ancient Light also leads on price ($0.99 vs $3.99) and chart position (#195 vs unranked). On ads, in-app purchases, device support 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
LightMeter35 costs $3.99 and Ancient Light $0.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
LightMeter35 ships an update every 6 weeks, Ancient Light every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on September 22, 2026 and September 19, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | LightMeter35 | Ancient Light |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $3.99 | $0.99 — better |
| Rating | 5.0 (6 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 88.9% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 6 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 6 weeks | Every 5 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | — |
| Best chart rank | — | #195 — better |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPad — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 | 16.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 3 MB | 6 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | 徐阳 王 | Greg Anderson |
In-app purchases
LightMeter35
No in-app purchases
Ancient Light
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is LightMeter35 free?
Is Ancient Light free?
Do LightMeter35 or Ancient Light have ads?
Which is updated more often, LightMeter35 or Ancient Light?
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