Comparison

Effects Expert vs ZPTH

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

Head to head
About

Effects Expert

Features
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Effects Expert provides a simple and efficient way to produce visual effects for your movie project. Major Features are: - a simple user interface that mimics a light-box for lining up and editing the elements that make up your effects shot - use of Visual Programming that allows effects to be configured by dragging and dropping processing nodes into an ImageFlow - automated compositing means you don't need to manual process each frame - an extensive library of processing nodes to handle common image processing and compositing functions - integrated audio mixing - configurable resolution (480, 720, 1080, 4k...) Effects Expert has 2 modes of operation: 1) Basic mode The Basic mode of Effects Expert is suited to simple projects but also allows users to get a feel for the app's workflow before committing to the purchase of the PRO upgrade 2) PRO mode The PRO mode has an expanded ImageFlow node library and expanded capability for sharing work between users. An In App Purchase enables this functionality for users of the Basic mode. Pre-existing MiniCine users are provided with a PRO mode upgrade. New additions in this release, include: - a MEMORY node that provides access to previous frame results from within an ImageFlow

About

ZPTH

Transform your device's depth camera into a dynamic visual instrument. Explore 20 unique modes to render depth as light, contours, or abstract art. Capture photos and videos directly to your library, with advanced customization options for Pro users.

Highlights
  • Depth camera to visual instrument
  • 20 unique depth rendering modes
  • Real-time photo and video capture
  • On-device processing, no network needed
  • Creator Mode for custom effects (Pro)
  • Saves directly to Photos library
Features
Read full description

ZPTH reads the depth in front of you and paints it in real time. Point it at a face, a room, or your hand and watch it become light, contour lines, plasma, chrome, cut paper, or a drifting cloud of dust. Capture a photo or record video straight to Photos — or stream the live preview to your computer over NDI. Fifteen of the modes need no depth sensor at all: a Core ML model running on your device infers depth from a single camera, so they run on both the front and rear camera of any iPhone ZPTH installs on. The other thirty read the front TrueDepth camera, or the rear LiDAR scanner on Pro models. FIFTEEN MODES, NO DEPTH SENSOR NEEDED • Parallax — the camera orbits the scene from one still viewpoint. • Anaglyph — real red/cyan 3D from one lens, plus a glasses-free wiggle. • Aperture — a cinema lens: shaped bokeh, iris blades, a focus puller. • Vertigo — Hitchcock's dolly zoom, live. • Nebula — a cloud that wraps behind people rather than over them. • Motes — dust, snow and embers drifting in the air in front of the scene. • Godlight — sun shafts your hand casts a real shadow through. • Aerial — true atmospheric perspective: haze, distance, a warm sun glow. • Woodblock — an engraving whose hatch lines curve around every surface. • Stipple — ink dots sized by curvature and spaced like a Seurat. • Papercut — the scene as up to 20 torn paper plates, each shadowing the next. • Riso — a risograph print in misregistered spot-colour plates. • Lattice — a scan plane leaves a glowing wireframe mesh in its wake. • Hologram — scanlines, chromatic fringing, a projection cone from below. • Datamosh — codec smear, with depth deciding what tears and what holds. THIRTY DEPTH-CAMERA MODES Environment, Face, Raw, Plasma, Organic, Data, Contour, Hillshade, Chrome, Oil Slick, Pulsar, Sonar, Pin Screen, Voxel, Facets, Light Trails, Miniature, Iron Filings, Dither, Juicy, Aerochrome, Heat Ghost, Solarise, Cymatic, Aquarelle, Tessera, Chemigram, Ripplefield, Ferrofluid and Lichtenberg — from topographic isolines and liquid chrome to false-colour infrared, wet watercolour, Roman mosaic, a vibrating Chladni sand plate, and forking lightning. Pulsar and Cymatic can move to live sound. CREATOR MODE (Pro) Build your own mode. Start from an empty depth field and stack effect layers grouped by function — texture, lighting, lines, edge, colour, bloom. Each layer has its own controls, opacity and blend mode. Shape how they fall through near and far depth, import a photo as a depth-projected tileset, then save it as a named mode. CAPTURE • Tap the shutter for a photo; hold and swipe up to record video. • Everything saves straight to your Photos library. • Double-tap to toggle 3:4 and full-screen 9:16. • Cut to the plain camera and back, even mid-recording. NDI STREAMING (Pro) Broadcast the live preview to OBS, TouchDesigner, vMix and other NDI receivers on your local network, turning your iPhone into a depth-camera source for your desktop. A second optional stream carries the raw camera alongside the effect. Off by default; Wired mode over USB-C lowers latency. PRO ZPTH Pro is a one-time $2 purchase — no subscription. It unlocks the fifteen monocular modes, every other mode's settings, the colour maps, all presets, Creator Mode and NDI streaming. The thirty depth-camera modes are free to explore on their first preset; the monocular modes need Pro. PRIVATE BY DESIGN No accounts, no servers, no analytics, no tracking. Camera frames are processed on the device and never leave it — unless you save a photo or video, or turn on NDI to reach your own computer on your own network. The microphone is used only by Pulsar and Cymatic, is off by default, and is never recorded or transmitted. REQUIREMENTS iPhone only. The monocular modes run on any supported iPhone. The rest need a front TrueDepth camera (iPhone X or later) or a rear LiDAR scanner (Pro models).

Screenshots

Effects Expert4 screens
ZPTH4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: ZPTH at weekly against Effects Expert's every 3 months. Effects Expert's advantage is device support (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 26.5). On price, 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. Effects Expert sells 2 one-off in-app purchases and ZPTH sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Effects Expert ships an update every 3 months, ZPTH weekly. The most recent releases landed on September 3, 2026 and September 22, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Effects Expert versus ZPTH: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterEffects ExpertZPTH
PriceFreeFree
Rating—3.5 (2 ratings) — better
Positive reviews—50.0% of reviews
Number of ratings—2 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsWeekly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
Monetization—Free with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS12.0 — better26.5
Further details — not scored
Size30 MB31 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperLindsay Arnoldari lintzeris

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Effects Expert

One-time2
  • Pro Upgrade for MiniCine usersFree
  • Effects Expert Pro Upgrade$2.99
1 purchases

ZPTH

One-time1
  • ZPTH Pro Lifetime$9.99

Questions

Is Effects Expert free?
Effects Expert is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is ZPTH free?
ZPTH is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Effects Expert or ZPTH have ads?
Neither Effects Expert nor ZPTH shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Effects Expert or ZPTH?
Effects Expert ships an update every 3 months, and ZPTH weekly. Most recently, Effects Expert was updated on September 3, 2026 and ZPTH on September 22, 2026.

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