Comparison

Pear vs Filmic Firstlight

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

Head to head
About

Pear

Effortlessly share photos and videos from your gallery with friends and family. Simply tap to share and tap again to unshare. View a time-based collage of all shared content, blending your memories with those of your loved ones.

Highlights
  • Instant photo and video sharing
  • One-tap unsharing
  • Time-based collage stream
  • Private and secure sharing
  • User control over content
Features
Read full description

Pear is a private, intuitive, and elegant app that lets you share photos and videos in your gallery with your friends and family. Simply tap + on a photo or video from your camera roll and it’s instantly shared with your friends. Tap again to unshare. It’s that easy. Shared photos and videos simply appear in your stream. No select buttons, progress bars, or loading graphics; it just works. The stream displays all photos and videos shared by you and everyone you’re sharing with in a time-based collage. Let's say you were on a trip, at a party, or hanging out with some friends - their photos will merge with yours and be sorted by the time they were taken. You get to experience it all from various perspectives blended together. Our users’ privacy, ownership and control of their content is at the core of the Pear philosophy. On Pear, your photos and videos will always be yours, and only you control who gets to view them. Enjoy.

About

Filmic Firstlight

This camera app offers a creative and fun photography experience with custom film simulations and adaptive film grain. It provides advanced yet approachable controls for focus, exposure, and image aesthetics, allowing users to capture and share stunning photos with a vintage analog vibe without extensive post-editing.

Highlights
  • Custom film simulations
  • Adaptive film grain
  • Live analytics
  • Manual focus and exposure controls
  • Vintage film looks
  • Burst mode
  • DNG, TIFF, JPG, HEIC export
Features
Read full description

Filmic Firstlight is a revolutionary photo camera from the makers of the class leading Filmic Pro cinema video camera that makes live photography fun and creative. -- -- -- -- -- -- Rediscover the joy of capturing life’s moments in photographs you will immediately treasure and want to share. Firstlight combines custom film simulations, adaptive film grain and FiLMiC Pro’s famous live analytics to offer an advanced but approachable front end camera experience like no other. Fast, easy and intuitive, Firstlight lets you envision and capture your best moments in camera, without having to spend hours editing your photos later. Shoot and share, it’s that easy. -- -- -- -- -- -- ADVANCED IMAGE CONTROLS - Fast, intuitive focus and exposure controls: Tap the screen to set focus/exposure, tap again to lock. - Shutter and ISO Priority Modes: In addition to auto exposure, you can set specific Shutter Speed or ISO values to adhere to and let the app automatically adjust exposure for the unlocked value. - Cross-swipe manual controls: The most intuitive way to manually adjust focus and exposure. Swipe across the image to dial in your perfect shot. Swipe up and down to adjust exposure. Swipe left and right to adjust focus. - Reactive analytics: A foundation feature of Filmic Pro and now in a photo app. Manually adjusting your focus and exposure will automatically apply focus peaking or zebra stripes to make sure you get your shot just right. - RGB Histogram: Dynamically shows the exposure profile of the image across all color channels. GET THE LOOK YOU WANT - Vintage film simulations: The magic of Firstlight is in our realistic tributes to authentic film stocks. - Film grain: Apply natural-looking, dynamically-generated film grain effects to give your photos that ‘film look’. - Vignette: Apply a subtle dark vignette to your image. - Lens selector: Quickly switch between all available lenses on your device. Go from tele to ultrawide with the tap of a finger. (Note: camera/lens support is device specific). PROFESSIONAL CAMERA TOOLS - Burst mode - Timer - Flash - Grid overlays - Aspect ratios: 4:3, 16:9, 3:2, 1:1, 5:4 - Expanded shadow detail - DNG, TIFF, JPG or HEIC Selection - HDR control (This feature is supported by iPhone Xs Max, Xs, Xr and newer) - Volume button shutter and support for most bluetooth camera shutter remotes - Configurable burst mode - Anamorphic adapter support - Custom Function button - Custom live analytics - Configurable Focus and Exposure controls - Embedded copyright - Filmic Pro quick launch button (for owners of Filmic Pro) If you have any questions for the Filmic team either before or after you purchase Firstlight or one of our other apps please feel free to reach out to us at: support@filmicpro.com Terms of Service: https://support.bendingspoons.com/tos.html?app=1482338564

Screenshots

Pear2 screens
Filmic Firstlight4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Pear at 93% against Filmic Firstlight's 37%. Pear also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 10) and rating (4.8 vs 4.5). Filmic Firstlight's advantage is ratings volume (919 vs 8). 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. Filmic Firstlight sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per 7 days. Pear asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Pear holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Filmic Firstlight has 919 ratings behind it against 8, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 93% of Pear's written reviews are positive against 37% of Filmic Firstlight's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Pear ships an update every 3 weeks, Filmic Firstlight every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Pear versus Filmic Firstlight: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPearFilmic Firstlight
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (8 ratings) — better4.5 (919 ratings)
Positive reviews92.5% of reviews — better37.0% of reviews
Number of ratings8919 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeks — betterEvery 2 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPod, Apple Watch — better
Requires iOS9.0 — better14.1
Further details — not scored
Size7 MB126 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperDayworks.BENDING SPOONS OPERATIONS SPA

Customer experience

Pear

All ratings8 ratings
Positive87.5%
Neutral12.5%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews67 reviews
Positive92.5%
Neutral4.5%
Negative3.0%

Filmic Firstlight

All ratings910 ratings
Positive86.4%
Neutral3.8%
Negative9.8%
Written reviews243 reviews
Positive37.0%
Neutral14.0%
Negative49.0%

User reviews

Pear

From 8 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Simple and easy to use
  • 🖼️ Clean and beautiful design
  • 🤝 Great for private photo sharing with friends/family
  • ☁️ Unlimited storage
  • 🚀 Quick and fast sharing

Room to improve

  • ❌ Cannot remove uploaded pictures
  • 🔒 No passcode lock
  • 📂 Limited photo album access (camera roll only)
  • 💻 No web support
  • 📱 Not iPad optimized

Filmic Firstlight

From 919 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Smooth interface
  • 🎨 Excellent film emulations and grain
  • 👍 Intuitive controls
  • 📷 Good image quality
  • 💡 Anamorphic de-squeeze feature

Room to improve

  • 🐛 App crashes and freezes
  • 🔋 High battery consumption
  • 📂 Inconvenient file management
  • 💰 Subscription model
  • 🔍 Limited manual controls

Bugs and requests

Pear

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • 🐛 Cannot remove uploaded pictures
  • 🐛 Black screen when taking photos
  • 🐛 App crashes when taking photos

Requested features

11 requests
  • Ability to comment on pictures
  • Passcode lock for photos
  • Access to photo albums (not just camera roll)
  • Web support for viewing/downloading images
  • Ability to create folders/organize streams
Show 6 more
  • iPad optimization
  • Ability to select groups to share with
  • Access to photo stream to pick pictures from
  • Ability to create albums
  • Dark mode option
  • Advanced analytics dashboard

Filmic Firstlight

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • RAW files appear blurry
  • Incompatibility with iPhone 14 Pro
  • Inconsistent behavior with lens switching
  • Inability to export DNG files
  • HDR setting resets on app launch

Requested features

7 requests
  • Ability to save preferred filters
  • White balance control
  • Longer shutter speed
  • Digital zoom
  • Horizontal shooting
Show 2 more
  • Focus stacking
  • Wireless tethering

In-app purchases

None

Pear

No in-app purchases

10 purchases

Filmic Firstlight

Subscriptions10
  • FirstLight Weekly With FT7 Days trial$0.997 Days
  • FirstLight Weekly7 Days trial$1.997 Days
  • Weekly Subscription$1.997 Days
Show 7 more
  • Weekly Bundle with Free Trial7 Days trial$4.997 Days
  • Weekly Bundle Subscription$4.997 Days
  • FirstLight Yearly With FT7 Days trial$9.991 Year
  • Weekly Bundle with Free Trial7 Days trial$9.997 Days
  • FirstLight Weekly7 Days trial$19.991 Year
  • Yearly Subscription$19.991 Year
  • Yearly Super Bundle with FT7 Days trial$99.991 Year

Questions

Is Pear free?
Pear is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Filmic Firstlight free?
Filmic Firstlight is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Pear or Filmic Firstlight?
Pear is rated higher. Pear averages 4.8 out of 5 from 8 ratings, while Filmic Firstlight averages 4.5 from 919 ratings.
Do Pear or Filmic Firstlight have ads?
Neither Pear nor Filmic Firstlight shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Pear or Filmic Firstlight?
Pear ships an update every 3 weeks, and Filmic Firstlight every 2 months. Most recently, Pear was updated on November 1, 2026 and Filmic Firstlight on November 3, 2026.

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