Comparison

Flashback vs 4S Camera

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

Head to head
About

Flashback

Record and track changes over time with video. Capture personal transformations, healing progress, growth, or everyday moments. Enhance your recordings with visual aids like grids and translucent overlays.

Highlights
  • Record changes over time
  • Track personal transformations
  • Monitor healing progress
  • Record growth of plants/children
  • Visual aids for recording
  • Capture everyday moments
Read full description

Flashback can be used to record change of a variety of things. Here are some examples below. - Take a selfie and enjoy the changes in your face and hairstyle - Check the healing of a wound every day and see how it is progressing on video - Check your daily motivation for dieting, muscle training, etc. - Record the growth of fast-growing children, houseplants, etc. - Just record something (my friend seems to use it to record fishing catches!) Also, you can take beautiful pictures with the grid and the translucent previous picture. Enjoy your own Flashback!

About

4S Camera

Features
Read full description

4S Camera is an app designed to individually disable the "7 automatic corrections" applied by modern iPhone cameras. It is not an app for taking "prettier" photos, nor does it add retro-style filters. Blown-out highlights and grain are left exactly as they are. To bypass processes like Smart HDR—which cannot be disabled in standard camera settings—it captures Bayer RAW directly from the sensor, removes the corrections, and then develops the image. ■ How It Differs (From the Native Camera & Editing Apps) This is not a photo editing app that reduces processing on photos you have already taken. It also does not use Apple ProRAW. Instead, it changes the pipeline at the very beginning of the capture stage, developing single-frame Bayer RAW into a JPEG through a custom route. ■ 7 Corrections You Can Turn Off (Values set to 0 during development) - HDR-style local tone mapping (local brightness adjustments) - Edge enhancement (sharpness) - Luminance and color noise reduction - Lens distortion correction - Image rendering elements like detail enhancement, moiré reduction, and highlight recovery - Extended Dynamic Range (EDR) - Delegation to the new RAW decoder (when auto-correction is off) Note: The saved JPEG is developed without passing through these corrections. DNGs are saved purely as Bayer RAW. ■ What Cannot Be Turned Off (The following processes still occur) - The device's bare minimum preprocessing from the sensor to the RAW data - Demosaicing (color interpolation), color space conversion, and the basic contrast curve necessary to generate a JPEG ■ Note on Specifications The appearance of the live viewfinder and the actually saved JPEG may differ in brightness or color. This is not a bug; it happens because the viewfinder processing and the final development processing are separate. The final captured photo is the correct output. Note: Simulators are not supported. A physical iPhone capable of Bayer RAW capture is required. ■ Operation Modes In "Simple" mode, you choose one generation preset (4S / 8 / XS). In "Detailed" mode, you can use the era slider and independently toggle the 7 settings. ■ Pricing (No Subscriptions) - First 7 Days: Try all features completely free. - Free Tier: After the trial, the basic "4S (No Correction) Capture" remains completely free to use. - One-Time Purchase (¥500): Unlocks the Detailed settings (7 toggles), 8/XS modes, DNG saving, cropping, and shooting grid/assist tools.

Screenshots

Flashback3 screens
4S Camera3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Flashback at none against 4S Camera's 1. 4S Camera's advantage is update cadence (every 3 days vs every 6 weeks) and iOS requirement (18.0 vs 26.0). On price, 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

Both are free to download. 4S Camera sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Flashback asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Flashback ships an update every 6 weeks, 4S Camera every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on September 30, 2026 and September 29, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Flashback versus 4S Camera: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterFlashback4S Camera
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.0 (1 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings1 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 6 weeksEvery 3 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhoneiPhone
Requires iOS26.018.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size6 MB2 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperNao EnomotoTAKEHITO AWASHIMA

In-app purchases

None

Flashback

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

4S Camera

One-time1
  • Full Unlock$2.99

Questions

Is Flashback free?
Flashback is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is 4S Camera free?
4S Camera is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Flashback or 4S Camera have ads?
Neither Flashback nor 4S Camera shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Flashback or 4S Camera?
Flashback ships an update every 6 weeks, and 4S Camera every 3 days. Most recently, Flashback was updated on September 30, 2026 and 4S Camera on September 29, 2026.

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