Comparison

Photo Editor² vs Ancient Light

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Photo Editor²

Transform your photos into stunning works of art with a wide range of high-quality effects and filters. Elevate your images to a professional, gallery-worthy standard with ease. Discover endless creative possibilities for your pictures.

Highlights
  • High-quality art effects
  • Mesmerizing filters
  • Louvre-ready picture enhancement
  • Exclusive content access
  • Continuous updates
Features
Read full description

Photo Editor² lets you turn photos into mesmerizing art via an assortment of high quality effects. Our filters will make you feel like your pictures are Louvre-ready. Can't wait to see what you create! A Premium subscription provides you the premier photo editing experience and is the recommended way to enjoy our app: - Subscribing to Premium entitles you to continuous use of all filters, features, effects, styles, and exclusive content. - You'll be able to access all available effects and receive updates for the duration of your subscription - Subscriptions are priced at $6.99 monthly and $29.99 USD annually, or the equivalent price tier in other currencies – Payment will be charged to your Apple ID account at the confirmation of purchase. – The subscription automatically renews unless it is canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. – Your account will be charged for renewal within 24 hours prior to the end of the current period. – You can manage and cancel your subscriptions by going to your App Store account settings after purchase. – Any unused portion of a free trial period, if offered, will be forfeited when the user purchases a Premium Subscription – Privacy Policy: https://appmagic.co/apps/privacypolicy.html – Terms of Use: https://appmagic.co/apps/terms.html

About

Ancient Light

This app transforms your iPhone into a 19th-century camera, simulating twelve authentic historic photographic processes. Apply these unique effects to new photos or import existing ones from your library.

Highlights
  • Simulates 12 historic photographic processes
  • Apply effects to new or imported photos
  • Supports ultrawide, wide, 2x, and telephoto lenses
  • Save multiple historic versions of a photo
  • ProRAW DNG output on iPhone Pro
  • Customizable effects for Daguerreotype and Tintype
Features
Read full description

Ancient Light transforms your iPhone into a camera of the nineteenth century. Take a new photograph or import a favourite from your photo library. 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 -- * Import your own photos - apply historic processes to images from your photo library, even with camera access disabled * All four optical lenses - ultrawide (0.5x), wide (1x), 2x, and telephoto (5x) - selectable from the viewfinder * One photo, many processes - explore and save multiple historic versions of a captured or imported photo * 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 * 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

Photo Editor²3 screens
Ancient Light4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Photo Editor² at 100% against Ancient Light's 50%. Photo Editor² also leads on price (Free vs $0.99) and rating (4.0 vs 2.5). Ancient Light's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 2). On update cadence, ads 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

Photo Editor² is free to download; Ancient Light costs $0.99 up front. Photo Editor² sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $6.99 per month. Ancient Light asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Photo Editor² holds the better App Store score, 4.0 against 2.5. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 9 and 2 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 100% of Photo Editor²'s written reviews are positive against 50% of Ancient Light's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Photo Editor² ships an update every 9 days, Ancient Light weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 10, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Photo Editor² versus Ancient Light: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPhoto Editor²Ancient Light
PriceFree — better$0.99
Rating4.0 (9 ratings) — better2.5 (2 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews — better50.0% of reviews
Number of ratings9 — better2
Update frequencyEvery 9 daysWeekly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases — betterPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS13.0 — better16.0
Further details — not scored
Size64 MB6 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperHenry Heisenberg Apps, LLCGreg Anderson

Customer experience

Photo Editor²

All ratings9 ratings
Positive77.8%
Neutral0.0%
Negative22.2%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Ancient Light

All ratings2 ratings
Positive50.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative50.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive50.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative50.0%

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Photo Editor²

Subscriptions2
  • Premium Monthly$6.991 Month
  • Premium Annual3 Days trial$29.991 Year
None

Ancient Light

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Photo Editor² free?
Photo Editor² is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Ancient Light free?
Ancient Light costs $0.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Photo Editor² or Ancient Light?
Photo Editor² is rated higher. Photo Editor² averages 4.0 out of 5 from 9 ratings, while Ancient Light averages 2.5 from 2 ratings.
Do Photo Editor² or Ancient Light have ads?
Neither Photo Editor² nor Ancient Light shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Photo Editor² or Ancient Light?
Photo Editor² ships an update every 9 days, and Ancient Light weekly. Most recently, Photo Editor² was updated on October 10, 2026 and Ancient Light on October 25, 2026.

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