Massive Dev Chart Timer vs Film Development Assistant
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Massive Dev Chart Timer
This app provides an offline film development chart and a multi-step timer for photographers. It includes customizable agitation, darkroom themes, and support for various developing and fixing steps. It also offers automated compensation for development time and temperature.
- Offline film development chart
- Multi-step timer with sound notifications
- Customizable agitation schemes
- Darkroom themes
- Dilution mixer
- Automated time/temperature compensation
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The Massive Dev Chart is the world's largest film development chart with easy to use multi step timer and darkroom support for iPhone and iPad. Watch the instructional video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P915z6THiY8. *** Features *** • Offline copy of The Massive Dev Chart in your pocket • Multi Step Timer with sound notifications • Customizable agitation scheme • Darkroom themes • Dilution Mixer • Support for two-step development and two-step fixing • Support for optional hypoclear and photo flo steps • Automated development time/temperature compensation
Film Development Assistant
This app helps amateur photographers track their film development chemicals and sessions. It monitors chemical batch expiration, usage, and provides multi-stage timers for development processes. Users can also record notes on session quality for future reference.
- Chemical batch tracking
- Expiration date monitoring
- Session tracking
- Multi-stage development timers
- Chemical usage calculation
- Session notes and quality tracking
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Film Development Assistant provides advanced features for every at-home photographic film developer! Reduce your risk of development issues by keeping track of your chemical batches and development sessions in the app. Our ever-evolving database of home development chemicals makes it easy to track the expiration dates of your mixed chemical batches based on the suggested shelf life from the manufacturer. Once you have your chemicals mixed, you can create sessions to track how many rolls/sheets of film you are developing, and the app will track the chemical usage for you so that you don't forget how much chemical capacity you have remaining! The visual progress indicators for your chemical batch freshness are a very useful tool for keeping track of your chemicals and making sure you either use them before expiration, or prevent yourself from using already expired or depleted chemicals. With each session, you can open a multi-stage timer to track the time for each stage of development. No more creating different timers by hand with the default timer app on your phone! And if you associate an existing chemical batch with each stage, the app will automatically adjust the development times of those stages based on the previous usage of your chemicals (or you can adjust the times manually). When you finish your sessions, you can take notes about how your session went so that you can learn from your home development process over time. You can keep track of the quality of the session and add your own notes to reference later.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Film Development Assistant at Free against Massive Dev Chart Timer's $9.99. Film Development Assistant also leads on rating (5.0 vs 3.7). Massive Dev Chart Timer's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 2) and ratings volume (54 vs 3). On 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
Film Development Assistant is free to download; Massive Dev Chart Timer costs $9.99 up front. Film Development Assistant sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. Massive Dev Chart Timer asks for nothing beyond the download.
Film Development Assistant holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 3.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Massive Dev Chart Timer has 54 ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Massive Dev Chart Timer ships an update every 5 months, Film Development Assistant every 10 months. The most recent releases landed on October 14, 2026 and September 26, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Massive Dev Chart Timer | Film Development Assistant |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $9.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 3.7 (54 ratings) | 5.0 (3 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 70.8% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 54 — better | 3 |
| Update frequency | Every 5 months — better | Every 10 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Paid | Free with in-app purchases — better |
| Best chart rank | #49 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 14 MB | 6 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Freestyle Photo & Imaging | Zachary Burns |
Customer experience
Massive Dev Chart Timer
Film Development Assistant
Bugs and requests
Massive Dev Chart Timer
Reported bugs
12 issues- HC110 dilution section displays only letters, not ratios
- Dilution ratios not calculating when solution amount adjusted
- App crashes after selecting film speed
- Crashes on iPad with new update
- Timer display shows three dots instead of seconds
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- UI elements overlap on older iPhone models
- Safelight mode white banner blocks display on iPad
- Crashes during development process
- Home screen line emits bright light in darkroom mode
- App incompatible with newer iOS versions on older devices
- Notes don't word wrap properly
- Inconsistent film/developer availability between iPhone and iPad
Requested features
15 requests- Color film support (C-41, E-6, ECN-2 processes)
- Search functionality by film brand/name
- Ability to add custom process steps (presoak, toning)
- Individual agitation control per development stage
- Continuous agitation option
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- Volume calculator for stop bath and fixer
- Background timer functionality
- Custom step name editing
- Pull/push development times
- Stand development support with hour-based timing
- Apple Watch app
- Syncing between iPhone and iPad
- Fahrenheit temperature option
- Additional common film stocks (Portra, Fuji 400H, Ektar)
- Ability to add films not in database to custom times
Film Development Assistant
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Massive Dev Chart Timer
No in-app purchases
Film Development Assistant
- 7 Day Free TrialFree
- Film Development Assistant Pro$4.99
Questions
Is Massive Dev Chart Timer free?
Is Film Development Assistant free?
Which has better reviews, Massive Dev Chart Timer or Film Development Assistant?
Do Massive Dev Chart Timer or Film Development Assistant have ads?
Which is updated more often, Massive Dev Chart Timer or Film Development Assistant?
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